Tutorials

Featured Authors:



			

			-blendenzo-


			

			-Social-


			

			-goldentaiji-


			

			-Dim-


			

			-blengine-


			

			-marvo-


			-Fenryal-


			-James XVI-


			

			-ST150 (offsite)-

Tutorials

Game Design (General)

Practice and Principles
Game design is an art, and like any art it takes effort to perfect it. These articles should help with that...

Pre-development Planning by Social
A Proper Pre-Production by Bob Mees aka Fenryal

Blender Game Engine

Getting Started
Learning to use the Blender Game Engine takes a bit of time (just like anything else worthwhile). If you don't know how to use Blender yet, I suggest you spend a few weeks learning the user interface, modelling, texturing and animation from the User Manual (offsite). These links will help you on your way once you're ready to dive into the GE:

Blender Game Reference (offsite) Learn the basics of the Logic Brick system, materials, and Python scripting. You can also download the zipped version (1.3MB zip)
Game Engine Material Documentation (offsite) Explains the "Use Blender Materials" option (new to 2.41). Note: Several of the images are broken in the online version of this document. I suggest you download the zipped version.

FAQ and Troubleshooting
There are some questions that just seem to pop up over and over again with new users of the Blender Game Engine. I hope that I can offer helpful answers to those here.

How do I publish my game? Game display settings, making an .exe, legal considerations, alternate publishing solutions and more...
How can I add video cutscenes or in-game movies to my game? FMV and Ashsid's Blender Video Texture Player
How do I setup a camera for a 2D side-scroller? Vertex parenting is the name of the game...

Also, some problems with the BGE are not version specific bugs. I'd like to offer you solutions to those here.

Creating the User Interface

Input Devices

Allowing the User to Input Text Web plugin enhanced Incomplete
Using Custom Cursors This very accurate method is known to work with Blender 2.34 and later. It will not work with Blender 2.25.
ST150's Custom Cursor Template (offsite) Here is Andrew West's custom cursor template. I find this method a bit more difficult to use than mine, but it works with earlier versions of Blender so it is a useful resource to add to your BGE toolkit.
Analog Joystick Demo (.blend, 226KB) A .blend file demonstrating analog joystick support. Includes calibration script for uniform performance between computers.

Realtime Text
Realtime text is your way of communicating with the player. Use text objects to graphically display the score, lives/level, messages, and a wealth of other data.

Using Text in the Game Engine (offsite) by Andrew West aka ST150
Generating Realtime Font Textures With FTBlender
Coloring Bitmap Text with The GIMP
Right-Aligned UV Text and RTL Language Support (They said it couldn't be done...)
Vertical Text? That's Downright Crazy!

Status and Progress Indicators

Setting Up a Health Bar by Jason Lin aka goldentaiji
- An Extension to the Health Bar Tutorial by James XVI
Making an On-Screen Timer

Menus and Options

Making a Basic Menu by Brandon Marvenko aka marvo
Designing a Save and Load System

Making Great Environments

Terrain

Generating Terrain With Noise (offsite) from the BlenderWiki Manual

Sky

Making a Seamless Skybox by Social
Making a Beautiful Sky a complete skydome creation tutorial by Brandon Phoenix aka DIM
Vertex Parenting - It's what you need to do to your sky to make it look cool...

Texturing

Blender Tutorials

Painting and UV unwrapping (offsite) A very complete overview of the subject from the Blender wiki manual.
An Introduction to Texture Painting in Blender by Erik Benitez aka Ven0mSevenX

GIMP Tutorials

Creating Cloth Banners by Brandon Phoenix aka DIM
Making a Stone Texture by Brandon Phoenix aka DIM
Making Good Ripped and Worn Fabric by Brandon Phoenix aka DIM
Coloring Bitmap Text for the BGE (Same as tutorial in Realtime Text)

Photoshop Tutorials

Torn Flesh and Zombie Flesh Tutorial by Chris Plush aka blengine

Adding Media

Movies

How can I add video cutscenes or in-game movies to my game? (Same as FAQ)

Music and Sound
Note: v2.25 has built in MP3 and OGG support (using fmod). Later versions do not.

MP3 and OGG Support (offsite) by Andrew West aka ST150
A newer (and easier IMHO) method of integrating audio with pySonic (an fmod wrapper) has been found. Tutorial soon to come.

Bullet Physics

Baking Rigid Body Physics Simulations for use in animations (offsite, Blender wiki)
Note: You can bake Sumo Physics simulations in Blender 2.41.

BGE Python

Beginning BGE Python by Social
Game Logic Python API for Blender 2.34 (offsite) Semi-complete documentation of the Python interface. This is more of a technical document intended for people who already have a basic grasp of Python programming.
Python vs. Logic Bricks Some claim that Python scripts are faster than Logic Bricks, but is it really true?

Website design by Tony "blendenzo" DiRienzo. All content is copyrighted by its respective author.