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I was wondering, its been a long time since the coldstone engine came out, is anyone making a game for profit like ambrosia intended or just modding coldstone or what? I predicted to my friend a few games under the coldstone engine would have eben out by now by I was wrong by a long shot. So is coldstone more of a toy for having fun with or is anyone getting serious with it? I for one am thinking bout getting serious with it. Just curious if I would be joining a line or leading a line.
There are a few shareware games that are being worked on, such as Epitheisterra, but I doubt that many of those will ever be released, and most other projects are one-man freeware games and the like. I've inexplicably decided to blame this fact on a couple of reasons:
The engine. Coldstone is a great tool, but it has its limitations. Unfortunately, unless someone can come up with a really original, well-thought-out idea, the average Coldstone game is basically going to be a PoG clone. Coldstone has some great features, but unfortunately most of them are buried inaccessably under a few layers of code and are lying dormant, and Beenox has so far been unwilling to dig these features up (though that might change sometime). Add to that the bugs, some of which can destroy projects and others which make some of CGE's cooler features impractical to implement, and you have a fixer-upper. But fixer-upper engines don't make games. Coldstone just isn't ready just yet; as long as it took to develop, it could have been delayed a little longer.
Marketing. Coldstone is geared toward beginner programmers. There's nothing wrong with that, but the typical beginning programmer is usually under the impression that he/she can, by himself, create a complex game. Frustrating disillusionment is saved for the first failed project.
When making a game, especially a complex one, working solo is about five times as hard as working with one other person. When you make a game completely by yourself, you have to do everything ย artwork, sounds, etc. It's easy to lose motivation because of the incredible workload. More likely than not, you'll lose interest and quit. But at this point (depending on how far you got before giving up), you've learned how to organize yourself and you've learned more about the engine, which enables you to plan more realistically.
Once that stage is over, there are two choices. The most common one is to come up with a more realistic game and again do it yourself. This generates the same problems that the first project had, but generally you've learned more about avoiding the common snags. The biggest problem is that you still have to do everything yourself, and that kind of workload would intimidate even someone who didn't have a job to go to, or school to be jailed in, every day. So work on these games progresses slowly, if they are ever finished at all.
(Okay, you're probably bored reading this and I'm bored writing it. It wasn't supposed to be an article on game design anyway, so I'm wrapping it up.)
The less common choice by far is to come up with a good game idea and get a team together to make it. This choice is generally better than working solo, as the workload lightens and horizons open up, but it's subject to its own problems, such as effective management issues. Also, being part of a team is a pretty big commitment and going to school/job doesn't help. These kinds of projects are the ones that look the best and are most likely to be released, but no one can really say.
So, that's my opinion. Coldstone can be much more than a toy, but that's generally being used as, partially because of the engine limitations, and partially because it's marketed toward beginners.
------------------ "When angry, count ten. When very angry, swear!" ยMark Twain (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/wolvenstudios/projects/tfm.html")The Four Mages(/url), an unfinished quest-oriented plug-in for Pillars of Garendall. | (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/wolvenstudios/projects/tfm_faq.html")TFM FAQ(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/wolvenstudios/projects/tfm_log.html")TFM Progress Log(/url) ย Cafalll, the only permanent employee of (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/wolvenstudios/")Wolven Studios(/url).
you're prediction is not incorrect, 3 games have been released, in descending chronological order; Kit's ABC adventure Taken By Darkness StarField 2
2 you do not mod coldstone, coldstone is not a game, it generates tex/dataFiles which coupled with your art is compiled into a data file,also included is an executable a separat C++ application which reads and interprets the instruction bundled into your data File. in a sense there are 2 engines.
You can complete definite work with CGE, this board is full of warnings and pitfalls to avoid. Some are credible, some based on frustration, others misinformative. Basically if you find the manual lacking you can always search the board for more indepth discussion.
There are many serious projects under development, a serious ammount of time and effort is being spent on polish because, really there's no reason why the game's should look unfinished when you have the luxury to focus solely on art.
------------------
(url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/ellrx/index.html")eLL' softWare: "There's Really No escaping it." :Last updated 01.28.03(/url)
(url="http://"http://ellrx.vze.com")eLL comm.Pound : eLL' softWare webBoard..."the quickest way to catch an eLL'."(/url)
(This message has been edited by ellrx (edited 01-30-2003).)
not bad. i enjoyed your read. i will push on and damn to high hell make a sellable game i think. well see. thx again for your in depth read. quite nice and knowledgeable.
I'm answering this mainly to remind Ambrosia that some of us are looking to get serious with Coldstone. I encourage everyone else who is looking to sell a game to reply for the same reason.
We have a small team working on a game. We had to work with CGE for a while (all last year) to figure out what we could and could not do, so the story and concept were not settled on until November. I don't think it's unfair to say this experimentation time could have been cut by a couple months if we'd had more support and better manuals.
Anyway, expect the website and progress logs to go up in March, as that is the month we are all setting aside to get as much done as we can. We are putting a lot into it, and would like to be able to make enough to help fund film project.
So, yeah, we're serious. Good luck, all.
myshkyn
------------------ "I'll give the fans just what they want, and nothing else at all."
Yeah. I'm working on a game to sell. Do to my job and illness over the summer I have yet to finish the script, but am making good head way. I'm also taking a creative writing course that will probably help me in finishing and polishing the script. I'm looking for a tentative May 2004 release.
I would like to resume development of my game witch is intended for sale. (url="http://"http://www.digitalrain.org/call_of_shadows/")http://www.digitalra...all_of_shadows/(/url)
I have been left high and dry until a fix is released that will allow a working build of my game.
I think Coldstone could be cool if they ever get it to work correctly.
If you are building a game by yourself, keep the concept very simple and very good. Don't make it to big of an idea that you will never finish it.
I want to play it.
Cheers, CG
I too am working on a game that I will most likely sell as a shareware title... it's a long way off though - I have other games in progress that have programmers and fans awaiting, so I can't let them down!
------------------ Here's my site! There is art, music, movies, and games are on there way! (url="http://"http://www.sinthesisent.com")http://www.sinthesisent.com(/url)
I am making a game also called Fall of Abodon, but I think it will be very similar to PoG. This is also my first game, so it probably is going to suck. If anybody has any good story ideas, I would be glad to hear them.
------------------ Whose cruel idea was it to put an 'S' in lisp?
Yes, I'm working on a marketable (I hope) game. And I'm doing it alone, but that's how I prefer it to be for now. I'm aware just how much effort I'm putting into it and how much effort I will need to put into it. I have a full-time job. But I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't want to be doing it. People are asking when it will come out, but I don't know. It'll be finished when it's finished. Meantime, I'm having fun doing it. But just because I'm enjoying myself doesn't mean I'm not serious about it, and just because I'm doing it alone doesn't mean that it won't be finished, and just because it's not out yet doesn't mean anything at all. If you want to do it, go for it!!! Have some fun!! I still think that the developers will develop Coldstone. It's too brilliant to trash, I think.
------------------ -- Debra Danillitphil Productions
It's very possible to create a 2D based game using the Coldstone.
Myself and a friend have been working on a re-worked version of Taken by Darkness. It's taking a long time to complete because I'm learning Maya PLE and I'm preparing classes for this year.
I have learnt what is possible with Coldstone and what isn't. I think a game like Baldur's Gate is very possible, but it would take a very long time to complete because of the way Coldstone handles Alpha Channels.
There are some features I would like implemented such as cursors (there's an example on the CS CD, but I can't get it to work), and cursor roll-overs. Rendezvous networking would be great, but I know that well never happen..
If you're really serious about creating a game, then make a build in Coldstone and use that as a show reel and approach a game company.
I'm surprised that several of you guys haven't pulled in together to create a top notch game. It's very time consuming when there's only one person creating a game.
-Gray
------------------ .Mac Member | mac.com
I think it might be wise to make a game before trying to sell it. I hope my game will be sellable.
------------------ Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool. "Logic is futile"-Scott Adams
wow, cool to know any on working on projetcs. hopefully a bunch of fun creative games will go through amrbosia selling well and beating POG intot he ground. I finally decided to dedicate my time to making a game and trying to follow my dreams instead of doing secretary work the rest of my life. should be fun. thanx all for your input.
Cafalll certainly has a point.
Personally, I hope that Coldstone will be further developed. It has much potential.
Look at Lightwave 3D. A few years ago, studios would not use it. Now, it rivals Maya. The same thing with Steinberg's Cubase music program. A few years ago only the expensive Protools was used. Now Cubase is a major contender and is being used in many studios. It is also one of the most progressive groups. It developed the VST plugin software which is being used across the board for music and sound plugins and plugin virtual synthesizers.
I also hope that they continue to develop Coldstone for people like me. I use Freeway for website development for I have no desire to learn to program Html and Java. I want to program as much as I want to learn the depths of English grammar.
However, I do know Lightwave, Photoshop, Premier, After Effects, Digital Fusion, Speed Razor, Pagemaker and other graphic software and music software. I also use Cubase, Sound Forge and other music and sound software.
One reason (among others) I moved out of full time special effects work was because I was spending 12 hours a day, six or seven days a week on someone else's story when I have been writing stories for years in the hopes of having them made into full length movies or full length 3D animations. Movies and 3D animations are a massive amount of work and extremely expensive (in the millions).
Even successful people like Steve Oedekerk (Producer, writer, director of Patch Adams with Robin Williams; Ace Ventura, When Nature Calls with Jim Carrey; and Kung Pow) have a hard time selling their stories and making them into movies. I did the special effects for him on Thumb Wars and Thumbtanic. see (url="http://"http://thumb.com/thumbwars/")http://thumb.com/thumbwars/(/url) (url="http://"http://thumb.com/thumbtanic/")http://thumb.com/thumbtanic/(/url)
Coldstone makes it possible for a guy like me to be able to do my stories and make a cool game out of it. I am also a music composer and have 2 albums of my music out. I'm pumped to be able to write and record the scores for my stories/games. see (url="http://"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000JIAN/qid%3D1027920674/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr_11_1/102-8221992-9234525")http://www.amazon.co...8221992-9234525(/url)
I'm personally thrilled that it is here and very learnable and will be very disappointed if the Coldstone people drop the ball and do not further develop this software. What if the Lightwave or Cubase people gave up?
I've got 5 games now on the board that I plan on releasing for profit. I will take them as far as the Coldstone software will allow me to go.
- JoeB Lunar Visions
Quote
Originally posted by Cafalll: **There are a few shareware games that are being worked on, such as Epitheisterra, but I doubt that many of those will ever be released, and most other projects are one-man freeware games and the like. I've inexplicably decided to blame this fact on a couple of reasons:
The engine. Coldstone is a great tool, but it has its limitations. . . Coldstone has some great features, but unfortunately most of them are buried inaccessably under a few layers of code and are lying dormant, and Beenox has so far been unwilling to dig these features up (though that might change sometime).
Marketing. Coldstone is geared toward beginner programmers. There's nothing wrong with that, but the typical beginning programmer is usually under the impression that he/she can, by himself, create a complex game.
When making a game, especially a complex one, working solo is about five times as hard as working with one other person. When you make a game completely by yourself, you have to do everything ย artwork, sounds, etc. **
Yeah! DJ, follow your dreams! What a wonderful testiment!
I am making a game for profit. I should be saying that I am done but, alas, I ran into what is known as the 'unregistered bug'. I now have to redo the game, but since I have done it before, it's not hard to redo. For more info on my game, Killings of Rigelia, see my sig.
------------------ [HardKOR Games](http://www.evula.org/<br /> hardkor_games), my Coldstone Game Site!
Hi, I'm from Venezuela, and my team (3 Persons), are making a Adventure game, is a kind Zelda and Saga Frontier 2, with some unique locations many puzzles and quest, we have 20 years experience in video post-production, we make TVspots and 2d animations, the main plot is complete, the world structure is complete, quest and items are established, and now we putting all the graphics stuffs, and later on the sound and the music, so soon we are make the Web page, the only problem is, we are in discutions with some houses and we're gonna talk with Ambosia too, for arreagment, so don't think you gonna see this babe till end of the year (2 years in making), see ya.
Sorry, for my bad english