Ogre3D

21 Jun 2006

Ogre3D is an open source graphics engine. Unlike game engines, it does not encompass other game elements like audio, scripting and level design. However, it did provide a moderately high-level C++ API and a great foundation to object-oriented renderer design. I used this on 2 major projects on different platforms.

Deep Quest

Deep Quest is an underwater RTS that drew inspiration from Warcraft 2. It featured a single-player campaign that comprises of 10 missions, and is still available for download to this day.

This was the first official framework I put together for the use of other developers, combining Ogre3D for rendering, CEGUI for UI, Audierre for audio, Lua for scripting and XML for level data. It took 6 months to cobble the individual components together, and come up with the action queue system, navigation grid and general content pipeline. After that, I left the project to the game team who developed the actual content for another 6 months. Towards the end, I came back for a couple of weeks of polishing and bug-fixing before it was shipped.

Mechwarrior: Tactical Command

A local studio in Singapore was excited to get a license for the MechWarrior franchise on iOS, and set about making a squad-based tactical game. Their initial efforts employing Unity3D were facing problems as at the time, it was far too bloated and clunky to be used in such an ambitious game.

I was brought in to sort out the problem, and moved the team to a framework based around Ogre3D. It took about a year to get the content pipeline up and running. After that was done, I left the team to do their content creation. A few years later, Mechwarrior: Tactical Command was released on the App Store without any further intervention by me. Ironically, by the time they released, Unity3D would have been optimized enough to do the job.