A look at 3d Game Making Software

Side scrolling video games are great and you can learn a lot about game making with them but you probably want to make some 3d games where you can actually walk around in a world and interact. There is some great free software to help you do this. In this lesson we take a look at some of this software.

Reality Factory 3d Game making Software

3d games are really where it is at. They can be very exciting to play and also very exciting to make. If you have done some work with the side scrolling games you have learned a lot of concepts that will apply well to 3d game making. Lets take a look at the Reality Factory software and see what it is all about.

Here is the official website for Reality factory - This is where you can download the free software and learn more about it. Reality Factory

Just like in The Games Factory software this software starts you out with a workspace. This workspace is where you create your games.

But you can see that this workspace is quite different than that of games factory. This one is actually more complex, more robust and more detailed. You are, of course, now working in three dimensions!

The Workspace has many different menus, tools and areas but for now take a look at the four large squares in the center. In three of these squares you see a light purple square. This square is your actual game, and right now it is just a hollow cube. Picture this hollow cube as a room in your game world. In the workspace you can change the shape of this room, change its size, add textures and colors to it then put all sorts of things in it like monsters, players, furniture, paintings or whatever your mind can imagine. Of course you can make more rooms, make outdoor spaces underground lairs, caves and then stitch them all together and have a complete world! Some of this takes time and work and some of this is nicely automated to make your job easy. And one of the most important parts of this game making is development and use of textures. Reality Factory has a very robust set of tools that will enable you to make and use lots of textures in your game.

If you need a refresher about what textures are be sure to read the texture lesson in this Module: Textures

Here is the basic process for making a game with Reality Factory:

1. You build a wire frame of your world including all the rooms and open spaces. It would look something like this:

This is a small room with a pedestal and several columns along each side.

2. Then you would apply textures to all the surfaces. It would look something like this:

Textures applied to a room. You can see the walls, floor, doorway, and in the other room are more textures. The black space in the floor is going to be a swimming pool.

Yes, you can add water, make it ripple, make it transparent, you can have your character sink or walk in it or walk right on top of it.

Another important aspect of making a game like this is lighting. You have complete control over the lighting too. You can make areas dark, light, or add torches, spotlights or fluorescents. Here is a sample dungeon with some ominous red lighting and cool looking columns.

After you have built your world, and worked with the textures and the lighting you then have to insert your monsters, animated objects and your player.

This is easy enough with the software and is almost a matter of just clicking. The software comes with lots of pre-made characters you can use. And you can find lots more on the internet. As you get better at game making you will want to create your own textures, graphics, models and players into the game. In the next lesson we take a look at this.

FPS Creator - This is very similiar to Reality Factory except more powerful. FPS Creator is a great alternative to reality factory and it is much more powerful. It will take a lot of the basic work - especially the framing, right out of the task. But it doesn cost money so you have to consider that. It has a 30 day free trial which gives you the ability to try it before you buy it. If you are serious about game making I would recommend you download the FPS Creator software and start using it.

Continue on and learn about making textures for your game