Blender

[KnightsFan]

Yeah, you can do tons of stuff. I load weapon stats (ammo, tags, mods) and even animation frames for various actions from text files. I also load mission scripts, including AI objectives, from map profiles. It should be pretty simple to do deaths and kills.

A stat screen shouldn't be too hard, once you have the variables for kills and deaths and such set up. My menu script could do it without any modifications, except an added function for placing the text. You could even make the stat screen pop up when you press a button, and pause the game while it's up.

By the way, I'd be happy to make the scripts for you, if you want. It's either that or I work on my own, which are pretty similar anyway

[Magical Girl Mimi]

Hmm, that sounds pretty cool, then. I didn't actually realize you could do all that. =O Specifically the animation frames stuff. =P

Hmm, you have a menu screen? I was actually going to work on having something like that next; both for a 'main menu', and for a 'selecting weapons'/inventory type of thing.

That might be a cool idea. =) The beginning stuff may be just basic, like figuring out how to get a pattern working right(And technically a health system, but I think the script I found for that may work well), but I may just keep that in mind if I do even more complex stuff, if only to compare notes and such...

[KnightsFan]

There are several ways to set the start and end frames of animations. I use the armature.playAction() method for all my animations.

Yeah, you can see it in the video I made. This is pretty old, but my menu is still the same.

[Magical Girl Mimi]

Ah, I see; that's pretty cool, then. I'll have to look into that.

Very nice; that seems pretty complete. Is it possible to have the menus differ in ways, or have a hover effect, or the like? I'd assume so, but again, haven't messed around with menus much at all. =P

Also, very nice game; seems to work very well, especially considering that was an older build. =D

[KnightsFan]

Hover effect? *Leaves*
*Comes back* Done. I used the mouse over sensor to scale the button object up a bit
My menu scene is basically a background, and then a ton of button objects. When a button is clicked, it moves other buttons into place. The placement is based on a property of the button.

Thanks!

[Magical Girl Mimi]

Hmm; that definitely sounds like it's very cool. *Is impressed* Can this be done with a text key object thing? If so, I'll definitely have to look into this more when I go to work on the menus. =)

[KnightsFan]

It's not too difficult, I just hadn't thought of it 'till you mentioned hovering.
Yes, I am using the Text objects, the ones where you can type in Edit mode. In game, you just set the object's ['Text'] property to make it change.
Unfortunately scaling doesn't work very well with Text objects.

[Magical Girl Mimi]

I figured it would show the selection you're choosing easier to see.

Ah, I see, thought so. Just wasn't entirely certain. Seems like a cool idea, and it could get a lot of usage. Now, would a similar thing be done for text boxes and such for story stuff in-game?

Oh yeah? Does it cut it off or something?

[KnightsFan]

Yeah, you could use Texts to write anything, I think. I doubt they automatically wrap, but that's not a big issue.

Instead of scaling, it cuts the Text down smaller, so if it's scaled small enough it'll look like a bit of smudge. It's pretty annoying.

[Magical Girl Mimi]

Yeah, that's true. I was more meaning a scrollable box that you could advance, like in an RPG, but that probably is relatively easy to pull off.

Hmm. Wouldn't that technically be how it's supposed to work? I haven't really messed with text scaling much before, to be honest. Unless you mean it's like if you shrink an HD image to fit a smaller screen...

[KnightsFan]

My new menu has scrolling, though I do it with the keyboard instead of a scroll bar.

No, if you scale the Text object to 10%, it'll have 10% of the resolution. So it tries to pack your letters into 10 pixels instead of 100, no matter how close to the camera the Text is. Basically, you can't read it.

[Magical Girl Mimi]

No, no, I don't mean that kinda of scrolling, so much as the 'press A to advance the story' type of textbox scrolling.

Ah, I see. That makes sense, and isn't a good thing. =/

[KnightsFan]

I recently downloaded Unity, and am using that for games. It's actually a ton easier, and it can directly import Blender models, materials and animations.

[Magical Girl Mimi]

Hmm, that's interesting. What's Unity like, in terms of new programmer friendliness? I might try that when I get back to my main computer and remember to re-download Blender again finally. >>'

[KnightsFan]

Unity is more user friendly than Blender, imo. It comes with some great, pre-built assets to get you started, like first or third person controller, tree creator and it has a terrain editor. Building maps is MUCH easier than in Blender, although you do have to build models in other software and import them. It's about 1000x easier to make a HUD also

It's quite different from Blender for handling variables and scripts (which can be in JavaScript, C# or Boo). It took me maybe a week to get used to. I haven't tackled AI yet, but I believe that Blender may have a slight edge since it comes with NavMesh functions--but I'm not sure.

Also, it's supposed to have more efficient physics and graphics, but my games aren't complex enough to notice

[Magical Girl Mimi]

Ooh; that sounds rather awesome. =D So you basically have a MouseLook script built into the game engine itself? What type of controls are there for the third person perspective; can you basically assign the camera to the mouse?

Oh, so no Python? Darn. Javascript, though? That's... surprising. I might have to look into that...

Hmm, I might have to experiment with that eventually. =P If it allows easier double jumping, that'd be perfect. =P

[KnightsFan]

No, it just comes with a MouseLook script already written. You can edit it just like any script that you write yourself. It basically just rotates whatever object you assign it to--you can put the MouseLook on any object and it'll rotate with the mouse.

Yeah, getting used to putting semicolons in was a pain. I was lucky because I've used js before.

[Magical Girl Mimi]

Ah; I see. *Nods* That makes sense, and could be rather cool.

Yeah, that'll probably be one good thing for me; though I'll probably need to refresh my knowledge on it. >>'

[Magical Girl Mimi]

So, I'm jumping into Unity now that I'm back at my awesome desktop; Only problem is, it's totally different from Blender, so I'm having a little trouble figuring everything out. =P I'm sure that'll pass in a few days, and it sounds like it'll be amazing for making games. ^_^

[KnightsFan]

Unity's learning curve was shallower than Blender's for me. But yes, it's pretty different. Anything specific I can help with?