Sunday, November 20, 2022

Game in the Brain Equipment in cepheus engine challenges


My problems with making a book about equipment is for Cepheus engine is Character rigging - this is creating the animation Skeleton of a Vacc suit, power armor, and any humanoid form.

This is one of my weaknesses because rigging is one of the most time consuming activities taking 3-7 man days in blender.

Even if I buy a rigged model, posing it is my other problem. I've not successfully posed a rigged model as of late.

Nicco and I can kitbash various models working off a template. Once the processes are made - which is a lot of trial and error - it should be more predictable per model. Of course getting reimbursed for the trial and error research is the hard sell. 


Our promise which allows us to charge more is, you get the models for your games and rendering. The way I can quickly render something from Daniel Grove's kits - buyers can render scenes from our products for their game.

 Also the feedback mechanism between equipment Purely described in the theater of the mind vs having A model to tweak is different.

The GM or player opening blender or the image file and zooming into the parts is a very different experience from just the picture.

With procedural terrain, cities, underground facilities (dungeons) etc...

Especially when we already figured out we can make all the internals for maps with our kitbash kit.

You can rerender the maps with tweaks. Also becuase all the maps are modular 3d components it will speedup up our workflow.

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I tend to mention this a lot - I work in a family biz of construction and manufacturing and I'm migrating the family biz to freecad. As a 2d and 3d artist the workflow improvements in 3d is a big deal. My understanding of freecad carries over to blender and the reverse works as well. Blender feeds into my freecad. 

I predict that it will take 8 weeks of about 1-2 hours of trial and error per week while making time for the other products will get us to being able to make Vacc Suits and Armor models. Unlike our other products - this is going to be very difficult to use without some intermediate-level blender knowledge in animation.  So for most people who buy the product its a detailed inspection of the model and probably changing the lighting and scenes of the poses they render. 

I dont think this will translate a lot in sales. No one ever bought Traveller equipment catalogue and said - It would be so cool if not just there was a Picture, but a 3d model So i can see what the heck this is supposed to look like in the comments. 

Of course Game in the Brain, Mneme, is like - Oh that's going o be us. We will be the guys you can comment "I need to see a model of X" what are you talking about here. And nicco and I will model it bit by bit. 


I think the theater of the mind is working with constraints, like in IT, we re-work the assumptions and ask can this be better. Of course working with new tools will require new Skills and that FRUSTRATING learning curve and the need for someone who can answer questions and guide. Game in the Brain has to be able to GIVE new tools and teach how to use them, supporting the users.  

We analyze what drives the story forward - how much is the immersion lost or managed with the tools? 



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