Thomas Takes It Line Upon Line

Remember Thomas? He works with instructor Mike M. as part of Game-U’s Accelerate program. Recently, Thomas and Mike started getting into virtual reality. Thomas got his feet wet recreating their home studio in VR, and now he wants to build his own VR shooter game!

Starting a game from scratch is a lot of fun, but it’s a lot of effort and planning too. Like Rome, good video games aren’t built in a day. They’re added to, layer by layer, until the designer is satisfied with the complexity and integration of the final product. Thomas wants to build a good video game, so he and Mike M. began with the first layer of functionality – shooting. For now, the player fires a bullet from his hand (now that’s an interesting superpower), into a single target, a cube. Thomas coded the bullet with the ability to “destroy” the cube upon impact. Preliminary projectile and target, check!  Mike M. next introduced Thomas to the modeling tool Blender, where Thomas can custom-build props (remember his 3D car?) to populate his gaming environment. Then Thomas can use the cube and the bullet as bases to add more functionality, variety, and realism to his game. Using Blender, he’ll model guns and targets, add them to the virtual environment, and then code them with more and more details. (For example, what happens when the shooter misses? Are there multiple targets to fire at? How does the shooter adjust his aim? Can he switch guns or projectiles? Do different projectiles produce different damage reactions? What about sound effects?) Thomas is building a whole new world!

We look forward to seeing more of your work, Thomas. It’s exciting watching your progress in virtual reality. Take the code line upon line as you build your new shooter game, and make sure you share the finished product with us!