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Blender Game Engine
Beginner's Guide
The non programmer's guide to creating 3D video games
Victor Kuller Bacone
BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by on 4th October 2012
Blender Game Engine Beginner's Guide
Copyright © 2012 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
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However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First published: September 2012
Production Reference: 1300812
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
Livery Place
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Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-84951-702-7
www.packtpub.com
Cover Image by Asher Wishkerman ([email protected])
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Credits
Author Project Coordinator
Victor Kuller Bacone Sai Gamare
Reviewers Proofreader
Pang Lih-Hern Joel T. Johnson
Michelangelo Manrique
Indexer
Acquisition Editor Rekha Nair
Robin de Jongh
Production Coordinator
Lead Technical Editor Melwyn D'sa
Hithesh Uchil
Cover Work
Technical Editors Melwyn D'sa
Rati Pillai
Lubna Shaikh
Copy Editors
Brandt D'mello
Insiya Morbiwala
Alfida Paiva
About the Author
Victor Kuller Bacone is the pen name for a Blender enthusiast of six years. By profession,
he is a video editor, but the explosion of current technologies has led him to learn 3D
software, and he chose Blender out of them all.
In the short span of his career within the Blender community in Catalonia (Spain), Victor
has promoted Blender events, master classes, and an online magazine under the name
Blendercat (http://www.blendercat.org) for anyone who wants to learn 3D using free
software. His great admiration for the animation and interactive side of Blender is combined
with his passion for games, and more specifically, the ease with which one can create games
using Blender. He holds a Masters degree in Computer Science, and teaches both young and
unemployed adults.
I would like to thank Sisizik, without whose help I couldn't have transcribed
this book.
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About the Reviewers
Pang Lih-Hern is a Computer Game Engine Programmer with more than five years of
industry experience. He started programming when he was 12, learning the quick, basic
language. After graduating with a degree in Software Engineering and Games Design from
Multimedia University Malaysia, he began his freelancing endeavors, which eventually led
him to be a part of the core technical team for John Galt Games (Malaysia). He was a part
of the decision-making group for designing and implementing the company's proprietary
game engine. Lih-Hern is also actively involved on the open source front, often submitting
fixtures and features for the popular, open source Ogre3D engine. One notable contribution
of his was the Parallel Split Shadow Map feature that enhances the shadow rendering of a
3D scene. He is also a strong advocate of Blender and is currently holding the position of
maintaining the Blender exporter to Ogre3D's mesh format.
After leaving John Galt Games (Malaysia), Lih-Hern co-founded Liquid Rock Games Sdn. Bhd.
(outsource development) and Nakama Studios Sdn. Bhd.(in-house development) with his
fellow artist partner Yap Chun Fei. The goal was to create innovative, AAA-quality games,
without the need for a huge budget cost, by means of using open source technology and
tools, such as Blender, Gimp, and Ogre3D. As of now, Nakama Studios (their in-house
development studio) is in the process of developing its first, racing title named TrackVerse
(formally known as Aftershock), an online, multiplayer, racing construction kit game. The
game's artwork have been modeled and textured using Blender and Gimp, showcasing the
capability of such tools in the commercial market.
Lih-Hern has also reviewed another book for Blender published by Packt Publishing called
Blender 2.49 Scripting by Micheal Anders.
First of all, I would like to thank Packt Publishing for giving me the
opportunity to review this book. I would also like to thank my family and
the co-partner of my company, for allowing me the spare time and support
to review this book. This book serves as a nice introduction to the world
of game development, to enthusiasts with little or no knowledge in game
development. I hope this book will help pave the initial, stepping stones for
using the Blender Game Engine to create their own dream games.
This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by on 4th October 2012
This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by on 4th October 2012
Michelangelo Manrique, born on May 20th, 1980, has always been interested in Fine
Arts. This interest made him not only start his university studies in the History of Art, but
also to work as a painter and art curator. Michelangelo also has a love of technology, and he
discovered the use of Blender in 2004. Blender caught his attention and he was fascinated by
this 3D suite's possibilities and workflow.
He is currently a member of bf-docboard-es, helping with the official wiki translation of the
Blender software to the Latin-Spanish community.
Presently, Michelangelo is working as a programmer. He publishes tutorials and writes
articles, and at the same time offers different courses for Blender learning. He is available
to do freelance or collaborative work with other studios, or for discussion events about the
software. Michelangelo is a Blender Foundation Certified Trainer.
For further information, visit http://www.lighthouseanimation.es.
Michelangelo has also been working on different areas of software engineering, such as
developing websites, managing databases, or programming for http://www.gpvwc.com.
He is currently working as a full-time programmer at gamereactor.es, and is actively
involved in the Blender community through publishing articles and offering courses for
Blender learning, especially regarding rigging and modeling.
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Table of Contents
Preface 1
Chapter 1: Things You Need to Know 7
Things you need, and things you don't 8
Time for action – start using the BGE 9
Exploring the interface of the Logic Editor 11
Time for action – exploring the logic bricks world 12
Time for action – moving the cube 18
Summary 25
Chapter 2: Your Characters 27
An example – save the whale! 27
How to create a library 28
Time for action – downloading models from the Internet 28
Importing other files into Blender 32
Time for action – cleaning up the model in Blender 32
Involving enemies in the game 37
Time for action – appending the enemy 37
Creating a meeting point 39
Time for action – making the enemy follow a path 39
Summary 44
Chapter 3: The First Level 45
Block out a level environment 46
Time for action – creating the scene 46
Creating a player view 54
Time for action – renaming the scene 54
Defining the boundaries 58
Time for action – closing the entry point 59
Marking the end of level 62
Time for action – opening the end point 62
Summary 66
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