Creating games using the Alawar Engine. Part one

Hey. Today we begin a series of articles that will introduce you to the process of developing games on the Alawar Engine. The first article is introductory, in it we will tell in general about the creation of game content, the block scripting system, with the help of which the game is assembled from separate parts, as well as a little about other business processes in the Alawar Stargaze studio. To date, the engine is licensed by external studios collaborating with Alawar, there are about 20 projects in development. Some projects created by licensees have already been released, for example, Weird Park.Broken Tune .

Game development begins with a person who has an idea for a future game. Yes, as usual without a big and contagious idea anywhere. It should include a general idea of ​​the game being created, a description of the game world and characters. From the idea, a script is born in which the main plot lines and turns are written. Game designers create project documentation, which, in fact, is a technical task for 3D modelers, 2D artists, animators, effect specialists, scripters, composers and other team members.

HOPA game development process:


')
The engine allows you to create games of various genres, we in the article will look at the whole process on the example of games of the HOPA genre (Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure, in Russian it is called shorter - the search for objects). Such games are quests with a certain plot, filled with puzzles and logic puzzles. Game content includes:

1. Images;
2. sounds and music;
3. video, animation and effects;
4. mini games written in C ++;
5. lines with dialogs, explanatory texts, etc.

For example, an image of a scene goes through several stages before it enters the game. First, a sketch of the scene is drawn, then the 3D modeler creates a textured render and, finally, the 2D artist finishes the work, creating the final look of the game scene.

Game scene:


Today in the article we will consider only briefly some of the individual stages of creating a HOPA game: the creation of the gameplay logic, the localization system, and the final build of the project.

In order to put together disparate resources and turn them into a game, we use our own developed tool - Quest Editor. With its help, all objects, clips, videos and mini-games are added to the game scene in one click. By the way, in order to quickly add a scene with all the objects, we use a script that imports images from Photoshop, and with the help of mini-games, any gameplay needed in the game can be implemented. After all the necessary objects are added, the script is accepted for work. With the help of scripting blocks, he sets the game logic on all parts of the game.

Interface Quest Editor:



This scripting system allows you to visually build a chain of actions in the game without writing a single line of code. In the role of actions occurring in the game, are the blocks of action. Execution of one block means that the player has made some progress in the passing game. Since, according to the concept, you need to build a chain of actions, all the blocks are equipped with inputs and outputs. By connecting blocks or groups of blocks in series, you can clearly build a game walkthrough. The introduction of this approach allowed us to solve several issues at once:

1. Scripting can and not a programmer. All blocks are easy to use and intuitive.
2. The creation of the gameplay is unified both in the company Alawar Stargaze and in the partner studios using our engine.
3. Gameplay is always in front of the eyes and there are no problems with finding places responsible for a particular event in the game.

Information about many game resources (sounds, clips, dialogs) is stored in xml files, the Quest Editor indicates the object ID for its initialization in the game. In the next article we will focus on the description of the Quest Editor and the principles of working with it.

The next item in the process of creating the game, which we consider, is the stage of localization. In order to make the process of translation into other languages ​​simple and convenient, we have developed a special tool called String Resource Editor. The rows in this tool are in a tree structure. An image (usually a screenshot) can be attached to each branch of the structure to demonstrate where the text will be displayed in the game. The program supports export / import to Excel. An Excel file can be sent immediately to the localization department.


It is worth noting that the String Resource Editor is so versatile that it is implemented as a standard for all studios working with Alawar.

After all the content is ready and the gameplay is scripted, the game project is assembled. The collector is a set of scripts and utilities for optimizing the development version of the game in an optimized release version. So in the process of assembling a game, the collector goes through several stages:

• exporting the transparency of all textures into one file, clamped by RLE compression. This is done to speed up the definition of falling into alpha textures;
• conversion of images and textures in the format specified for them (png, jpg, argb4, dxt1, dxt3, dxt5);
• conversion of xml-ek with the description of textures, clips, particles, sounds into a binary format;
• export the required localization to the game;
• packaging of all project files into one, except for fonts and logo.

When the PC version of the game is ready, it is placed on the Alawar website , as well as on the websites of partners, and it becomes available to players. But this work on the game does not end there, many games are translated into dozens of languages ​​and posted on the websites of foreign partners. In addition, the capabilities of the engine allow you to quickly port the game to Mac OS X, Android, iOS, PlayStation 3.

In our next article, we will dwell on those tools that are used when creating games on the Alawar Engine. See you!