Development Blog

Bravo! I really think every dollar an engine developer spends on tutorials and documentation ends up paying off exponentially down the road.

Will we be able to make our content private so we can only allow certain team members access to models, scripts, and more ?

Actually, yes, that can be done. You just set permissions to private and add that person as an author. It would be nice if we could do it by Steam group membership, too.

every product have must haves and nice to haves and also special things that make the product unique. before a product down own the must haves I dont would waste my time to other things. the whole steam subscribe stuff is nice but not important for me and I would categorize it to the "special" stuff. Its not really important and a gamedev could live without for now. I mean a car with 3 tires dont need the best engine and some super sound system. its maybe the best car when I look on it but when I want to take a ride I see, damn it just have 3 tires. lol.

 

IMHO: I dont want and need models or other stuff from other users. Even as a small dev group there are other solutions. I rate the dev time into steamworkshops as timewasting same as the steamworks stuff and the steam controller stuff. we could have other stuff for this. that the users want - for months or even years.

 

just MO

The Workshop is important because right now the community itself is a huge underutilized resource. Without them, all progress is dependent on me and a handful of people working on various things. The sooner the Workshop is running, the sooner we can really enable the community to start producing additional content, including effects, scripts, as well as 3D models.

 

It's theoretically possible to pass around zip files right now, but that's not really practical. You have problems keeping people up to date, letting everyone know when you update something, etc. Getting that functionality "turned on" is important because then I can work side by side with the community, as they are simultaneously creating new things everyone can use.

Like DudeAwesome, i'm not Steam fan, and using LE3 forum Doanwloads section is just good as it is now , caus i can just pick up anything if i need and use it, Steam won't be great difference for me, i see only presentation change.

 

what i see that is more important and missing are :

-LE3 plugin system; if possible would be lot more important : any type of game system or extended features integrated in the editor for beginners or people that don't want to deal with too much coding. Beginners could find FPS , TPS, RPG, RTS or any other game type extension in the editor allowing them to make games without having to deal with all the code behind.Not sure if Lua is the way for that ?

-Second point : LE3 games, caus they show what is possible to do and good looking games, will make people wanting to use the engine caus they know it's possible to make great visual games seeing some.

-Third point : Some monetized asset store to sell 3D art made by any 3D company with better prices, if plugin system will exist you could find game or features extensions available for little money and very usefull.

Also people that could sell plugins would be more lot more motivated to make great ones.

The Workshop would be a prerequisite to support all three of those things.

The Workshop is important because right now the community itself is a huge underutilized resource. Without them, all progress is dependent on me and a handful of people working on various things. The sooner the Workshop is running, the sooner we can really enable the community to start producing additional content, including effects, scripts, as well as 3D models.

 

leadwerks progress will every be your task josh. when you say that the community should create some stuff give them the plugin system. they want the plugin system because they cant wait anymore to get those things they WANT. Uploading models/scripts or other asset stuff is just something to play around with. the quality is not the best of community created content and thats why I dont use them, I better pay for those things like models etc.

 

 

 

It's theoretically possible to pass around zip files right now, but that's not really practical. You have problems keeping people up to date, letting everyone know when you update something, etc. Getting that functionality "turned on" is important because then I can work side by side with the community, as they are simultaneously creating new things everyone can use.

 

its not just "theoretical" possible, its possible and this is also how the download section works here.

 

just take a look into the people who are active (pros) on the forums. the leadwerks hools.they are the hard core of people that have survived the leadwerks nightmares. sure they want help you and like leadwerks. but when you dont feed them, they will search for other food and food is cheap today.

I'm afraid a plugin system isn't a realistic addition right now. It would take a lot of testing and documentation and introduce many bugs with uncertain causes, since it would be a combination of mine and third party code.

 

My goal is to make a tool that's enjoyable to use and produces good results, not necessarily to have the longest list of features. A lack of assets is a serious problem for many people, so providing those and making a system for reusable items is a priority.

 

The Workshop really does change the way you work. I'm using way more third party items than before, just because it can be installed and removed so simply. All the content from Leadwerks 2 is showing up...it could have been posted already in the downloads area, but it was just something no one ever wanted to bother with. So I feel like I have a lot more material to work with already, and it is much easier to visualize ideas with than placeholder art.

I'm afraid a plugin system isn't a realistic addition right now. It would take a lot of testing and documentation and introduce many bugs with uncertain causes, since it would be a combination of mine and third party code.

But LE3.1 could expose some editor functions and some panel possibilities ? perhaps Blitzmax GUI layer is the problem ? LE3 can work without plugins, but having plugin system would mean more 3D artists and beginners coming to LE3.

A solution could be using Neosis GUI to create additionnal tools to manipulate a 3D scene in real time than save to a file the work. For example of strategy game : run LE3 game that would be in fact a tool with NEosis GUI with buttons to add/remove 3D units on some grid battlefield than save the game units positions and battlefield created to some file.

 

A lack of assets is a serious problem for many people, so providing those and making a system for reusable items is a priority.

Free models for toyers or beginners, or prototype.Once you begin a serious good game, you will buy quality 3D assets instaed or find a 3D artist in the team to make great ones.

 

It's my point of view, but if SteamWorkshop can bring success to LE3, indeed keep it and make it work.