FPSC was one of the most amazing pieces of software I have ever used. It was so easy to make some basic, but impressive, games/levels and it even had a simple multiplayer mode that worked.

It wasn't that hard to tweak the settings to make the games play a little differently and with the reasonably priced and usually good content in the market even a complete novice could make fun games that were absolutely impossible to make in other engines unless you invested a lot of time into them.

The only major downside purely in terms of usability was that you had to bake out the levels which was a pain, some versions crashed a lot, and you had to use some kind of cleaning program (forgot what its called now) to keep it running smoothly. Those three things held it back from being the ideal gamemaking software for novices.

When I heard some time ago (has it been years now?) that reloaded was coming out I was very, very excited. However, after watching the kickstarter/alpha roll out I am becoming confused about the direction of this software.

What differentiates it from the competitors? FPSC was unique for its time, but other engines have gotten easier/cheaper over the years. The recent demo game didn't blow me away like FPSC did. Something like Axisgamefactory- basically a level builder for Unity- has good, easy to use terrain tools and is bundled with great artwork. Unreal 4 has fairly easy to use terrain tools, excellent building tools- if you have the artwork its very easy to build environments in it.

I guess what I am saying is, I am just not getting what Reloaded is about. The direction is not clear to me. It is not apparent why I should use this software for making a game or be excited about its future.

Do other people feel the same? What do you think will make reloaded special/set it apart? If there is such a vision how can that be more clearly communicated?

I backed reloaded for greenlighting on steam, and want to see it do well, and have been slowly learning maya and mudbox while waiting for reloaded to become more fleshed out. However, at the moment I am having difficulty seeing why I would choose this over Unreal 4 or Unity+plus a couple of addons.

Huh?





EDIT: Sorry, when I first clicked on this thread his post didn't load into my browser, it was blank! LOL, I understand now! I would say ease of use and price are the two obvious points.

Its gonna be like FPSC, so a single person (in little time) can make a full 3D game in his own style, just way more powerful.



In theory, you can make a superior game in unity...but in practise, you'd have to make it a full time job to get the same game you can do with ease in FPSC, even if you only give your game like 3 focussed hours a week.







-Wolf

It's a FPS (First Person Shooter) creator. That's the main selling point I guess. Though there are differences depending on the pledge you make. Gold is best in my opinion. You get the veg pack, the horror pack and I think soon a zombies pack. Plus you can sell your games commercially if you make something good enough...



Edit: If you pledge now I seem to remember Lee saying you get all future versions for free, whereas if you wait until the full version comes out, you will have to buy it version by version. So it's a good incentive to pledge!



I think the intention behind FPSCR is for an easy product for as you say complete novices to be able to build something which looks and works great without ever having to touch a line of code. Certainly that's the attraction to me... I've tried more advanced software but it lacks the simplicity and easy to use nature that FPSCR has. I just want to build games for fun... not necessarily get lost thinking about modelling and programming, as much as I wish I could model and program I'm not so clever as those sorts of things. Believe me I've tried many times and failed miserably.



I guess FPSCR's intention is to become in effect an advanced level editor and game engine, offering ease of use to most people, but still allowing more able people to create their own media and modify the scripts in LUA.

I believe the selling point is its super easy to use i have used most of the engines out there and would say i always found myself coming back! and for me that says it all.

For some reason I have forgotten how to quote, anyway Wolf said:

"Its gonna be like FPSC, so a single person (in little time) can make a full 3D game in his own style, just way more powerful.

In theory, you can make a superior game in unity...but in practise, you'd have to make it a full time job to get the same game you can do with ease in FPSC, even if you only give your game like 3 focussed hours a week."

YES. This is what I want it to be like. This is what was great about FPSC.

It may just be that I am being impatient, and that in the next few months the features that mold Reloaded to that vision will be added.

Hi,



Some valid questions. Firstly, Reloaded isn't pretending to become the next Unity or Unreal engine. To start with Reloaded will focus on FPS's. Of course, they'll be some creep into other genres with the addition of 3rd Person, RPG elements, vehicles etc, but first person games will be it's primary aim.



We believe that Reloaded is already one of the easiest game creation tools available, and will only become better and simplier to use as more features are added. We expect to be able to offer you multiple levels and interior scenes and lighting in the next few months, as well as expanding on a lot of existing features. Even a total beginner is currently able to make a simple game in a few minutes just using drop and drag, and with a little work could easily create something a lot of fun in less than a day. The core of The Escape demo only took around a day and as users become better versed with the engine and more tools are added, we expect development time to be reduced further still.



I won't fall into the trap of saying we'll have a particular feature by date X, but I can promise you, we are totally committed to developing Reloaded, and are doing so as a community led project. We've already made a number of changes based on user feedback and are constantly reviewing our progress and your needs.



Lastly, remember if you or any user wants to make suggestions regarding new features or are concerned about a particular element, we will listen and you are welcome to contact us.



SC

I think this is a good question (and the point that other engines are becoming easier to use is a valid one). As it stands now, FPSCR isn't competing well against other engines (terrain creation, for example, is easier and better in other engines), but, since its still in early beta with many things to come, that will change. I think that additions such as the construction kit and character creator will give FPSCR a big boost. As far as price goes, FPSCR will only be cheap if you make money off the games you create with it. If you are creating games as a hobby, then Unity, UDK and Cryengine are cheaper (they only start costing if you start making money, or with Unity, if you go for the pro version, which you would only do if you had a realistic expectation of making money).
I think an area that needs to be looked at is scripting. In Cryengine, for example, you can create complex AI behaviours just by dragging nodes into a flow graph and joining them up. If FPSCR users are going to have to create scripts themselves, then this puts FPSCR behind other engines as far ease of use goes.
There is still a long way to go, though, and TGC have shown a refreshing desire to make FPSCR what the customers want it to be, which is why I pledged and why I am very optimistic about it.

While this may be true, and having a drag and drop script editor would be cool, cryengine is still vastly more complicated and time intensive than FPSCR will ever be.



-Wolf

This is true. I think that creating a simple, complete game is much easier with FPSCR. However, if you want to create a complex game, then the intensive scripting required with FPSCR narrows the gap. As I said, though, this still early beta. Only once it is finished can we make a proper comparison.

True.

I'm very optimistic, FPSC:Classics .fpi scripting offered so many possibilities, most never used...and now we have a much more evolved and "actual" scripting language. I bet that our modders and scripters will provide us with great kits about a year after reloaded's official release.



-Wolf

To be fair comparing to other engines out there, just isn't right nor is it fair. Reloaded will NEVER measure up to those engines ever, it will however measure well or the best in it's class, graphics will improve AI will improve and bucket load more.

It is impossible to say what the full feature set will be, the benefit of getting it now is future versions, and you get a head start on the product, besides similar mechanics to classic reloaded is a completely new beast.

It will be faster, better graphics, better lighting, terrains, water in door environments that will rival any thing that classic could do, plus the engine is being converted to C++ which is a 100 times faster more flexible what there not to like about it, reloaded will also in due process be upgraded to newer version of directx once every thing is done, better shaders better particles, instancing.

I really do miss X10's instancing really does make a difference when it comes to AI, I really don't see a down side yet of buying the software other than being limited to FPS games, for now.

Unity and UDK and which ever engine you want to compare it to can learn a thing or two about the easy to use editor and ease of use.

I like the terrain editing in UDK. I wish Reloaded could adapt some of its features. The way you can fine tune the terrain falloff and etc is just great. Hopefully we see things like that in Reloaded soon because I do like the easy to use terrain editor we have but it needs a bit more functionality to make the games even better. I noticed a lot of levels made with Reloaded have texture stretching on high inclines and declines. UDK allows you to have an inner circle inside your painting cursor to change the blending size within every push and pull. Allowing you to create a lot more realistic and interesting landscapes with fine detail. Not saying anything bad about the current terrain tools, they are actually still quite impressive.



When using x9 my main concern was the inability to have terrain and large maps. Once Reloaded was set out with a promise to have this.. I got really excited and pledged on both Kickstarter and TGC. Now I'm just experiencing the reverse; waiting for the ability to do indoor levels lol :p

Well, you are limited to FP for now, but not just shooters. Many are doing more than just shooters. And 3rd person is almost within reach. With just a few more Lua commands someone could build a 3rd person controller.

The selling point for FPSC Reloaded is that it's ease of use, affordable and what you make you can sell. That means the product is a one-off price, no complex royalty licenses to deal with, no subscriptions or annual charges for updates. The product allows you to make an FPS game in minutes, not hours, days and weeks with very little training required. When the time comes for you to sell what you make, we won't slap on conditions about what you can and cannot do, and certainly won't take royalties from you in exchange for continued use of the engine. What you make, you keep, and when you've bought the product, it's yours for life. As an aside, to make sure you never need to code or draw, we'll keep you supplied with model packs which expand the content for your games and features you need. If you think the product does not stand up to our present day competitors on these points, please let me know as I'd like to think EASE and AFFORDABILITY are two of our strongest USPs when this product finally goes to market.