Free Game Designer

Starting out I am going to go over the new version of Panda3d when it releases. I will spend some time learning the new features and posting my thoughts, then move onto going over the samples. I have been using Panda3d for a few months now and I really like how it works, text editor of choice for coding, python is easy to use and quick to pick up, no constant compiling, plus Panda3d has already been used to release a MMORPG and according to them all the basic code we need to do the same is available (but not all documented yet). The goal of my posts won't be tutorials, but more of a journal of what I did and some thoughts I have that could help someone reading this. While they won't be tutorials, I will try to give some insight and links that should be enough for anyone to learn it, hopefully without too much trouble.

After I get the new version and go over it, I will take the asteroids sample (if its still there, which it should be) break down each bit of the code to explain what it does, go over some more python and Panda3d info, then move onto using GiMP and Blender to add and modify the sample. I've used GiMP and Blender a bit off and on for a few years, but I still always have to go look over some guides each time I use one, so there should be plenty of links and thoughts, for learning and using them with Panda3d.

Once that seems covered, it will be time to make a game!! At the moment the plan is to make a 3d multiplayer online game, something simple, based off chess/checkers style game board with a few different levels to play on. The theme and game rules aren't set yet, but I'm thinking turnbased, soldiers and a battlefield, using guns, lasers or energy (maybe many different ones depending on level). Instead of chess or checker pieces, there will be little bunkers, maybe some different types of soldiers etc.

One more thing, I would like to use some of the other free options to make a game, but for now I will use Panda3d since alot of people want to make a mmorpg and python is a great language to ease starters into some of the more difficult languages. Not only that, but it runs good on my weak PC.