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In the late 90s Macromedia Dreamweaver popularized a concept that had long been experimented with - a software application that wrote the programming code for you. Effectively this evoked a paradigm where a user could work visually as a designer and have the software generate the required code based on that visual construction. It is in this mode that we get FPSCreator, a software system designed to allow for a visual and accessible approach to creating 3D First Person Shooter games without ever punching a line of code.
FPSC borrows much of its operating concept from traditional 3D modeling and design tools with a CAD-like approach to laying out rooms, spaces, corridors and environments from a top-down viewpoint. But while most 3D and CAD programs can be very complex, the creators of FPSC have done well to simplify that process of building from a design layout perspective. Every component of a game in FPSC is drawn from essentially two modes - Segments and Entities.
Segments constitute the bulk of your mapping and layout elements. Drawn from a library of construction pieces, much like a digital Lego set, segments in the form walls, floors, doors, stairs, landings and hallways can be freely laid out and arranged on the construction grid to build up the level design of the game.
Initial libraries that ship with FPSC include segments in themes of World War II and SciFi but a range of extra 'model packs' can be purchased and models can also be built from scratch to use in FPSC in just about any 3D app using the DirectX 3D format.
The process of laying out segments is rather straight forward - select your segment from the library, move into position, rotate to suit and with a click of mouse it's dropped into position as a perfectly tessellating building block.
Of course FPSC is not restricted to one level; multi-level buildings can easily be created with segments of stairs, ramps or lifts interconnecting them or even just single large rooms with very high ceilings that take up the space of multiple levels.
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| FPSCreator layout, bird's eye view. |
The navigation of these levels in your design, and effectively knowing what level you are currently working on, is always displayed numerically at the bottom of the interface. Likewise, a shading and shadowing of the buildings themselves serves as visual aid. But I did find myself longing for some sort of horizontal cross-section view as counter point to my bird's-eye top-down perspective to make the whole process crystal clear. It would seem an obvious feature and thus a surprising omission. None the less, the construction process of FPSC is highly effective, easy to learn and remarkably flexible.
The second phase, once segments and layout are in place, is to populate your game with entities. This broad category of elements encompasses anything that has a more directed purpose and specific, automated action in the game. At an obvious level this enables Enemies and various AI opponents to lob bullets and bombs at. But the category of entities also includes doors, switches, exploding barrels and all manner of objects that have specific actions to perform or tasks to serve.
Underlying the FPSC engine is a powerful and flexible scripting language and while the mantra of FPSC is 'Game Making Without Code', the scripting options do open powerful doors of customization.
Each entity placed into your game, such as an enemy character, has a broad set of parameters that can be adjusted and selected. Many of these relate to practical elements such as the character leaving their weapon behind for the player to take when they die. But at a deeper level, a character entity's AI behavior can also be controlled by scripts which can be simply selected from a library. These behavior scripts dictate how the enemy character will engage with the player - will they run away, shoot from a distance, charge in close and so on. This system is a very accessible way to engage a deeper level of ownership over your game and with just a smattering of scripting knowledge, this control can be taken to a very complex level.
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| FPSC Entity Editing |
FPSCreator is not the first 'drag and drop' game making system; there are numerous game creation tools on the market, but it does achieve what so many other game tools have not - the games actually look good.
Game players, the obvious target market for FPSC, have hundreds if not thousands of hours invested in complex and visually expansive games and as a result their visual expectations and aesthetic sensibilities are extremely high. A game making system that required many hours of creative investment but which at the end produced a game that simply paled next to the commercial game benchmark ingrained into our sensibilities, would simply not have a great deal of appeal.
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| FPSC Entity Properties |
FPSC strikes that rare balance between accessibility and attainable complexity. The range of possibilities, from detailed textures and environments to dynamic lighting is really very impressive. And by proxy of that accessible complexity FPSC presents itself as not only a game building application but also a very powerful Machinima system for virtual real-time filmmaking.
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