FPS Creator Update

[Noctrine]

You can sell toys lower if you make the instruction manual a separate purchase. That means they can make more money off of the kids who have limited funds but just want a toy that lets them call themselves a game designer, but still provide value to the people who may actually want to use it as a professional tool.

[Agent]

Anyone tried FPS creator X10 ? ( the direct X 10 version)
Is it any good?

[hallsofvallhalla]

its like regular but with shaders, so its kinda like playing a bad version of oblivion where people mod it by moving a plate in a house, or adding an extra NPC to one town

that is not FPS Creators fault, its the users fault. I havent seen too many dynamic games made with it, all stock content.

[Jackolantern]

That is just the kind of projects you get when you advertise "No scripting! No programming! Drag'n'drop building!" like FPSC has. Many of the people working with FPSC have become frustrated trying to build a game with other engines and platforms, because they have to learn how to code or script. If they can't be bothered with that, then finding a team or learning to model is definitely out of the question.

[Agent]

Ahh yes i see what you mean, it makes sense...unluck for them, it could have some serious potential

[Jackolantern]

Definitely. You could just dump all the stock content, script some new features and a complex storyline, and I even think you can code extensions to the engine for completely new things (in DX10 that is, I know you can code the source with DX9).

[Agent]

So it just comes down to the community using it then aye,the source is C++ right? A good cluey team could definitely pull something off with it.
I remember the god forsaken stock content in the original FPS creator. And then all those packs you could buy off them for extra... they definitely targeted young teens to make their own 'games' with it.

[Jackolantern]

The source is only available for FPSC DX9 (which is in DarkBASIC). The source, to my knowledge, for DX10 is not available. You can, however, code extensions to it to add new features. I am not exactly sure how this works, though. I think you can either use DarkBASIC, or I believe you can use C++. I know some DB extensions are not coded in DB.

[Agent]

Nice, yeah i liked darkbasic quite a bit - can't remember what put me off it though...

[Jackolantern]

It is a great platform for hobbyist, small indie and prototype games. However, for larger indie projects looking to make a commercial offering, it is too slow. Customers will complain that it runs slowly compared to their system specs. This is because DB was created from the ground up to be a generalized engine. Engines made in C++ and other technologies are heavily tweaked and optimized at low-level for their game type, be that FPS, MMO, RTS, action, sports, etc. The creators of DB wanted to have mercy on new developers and spare them all of that low-level tweaking and building. However, you have to pay for that somewhere, and it comes in the form of a performance hit.