3D Game Maker

In the way that the unsung classic Stunt Island was hard to classify as a game, so too is 3D Game Maker (3DGM). As the box says, there are "billions" of options to make your own games. After writing the preview I was actually anxious to play it. Would it exceed expectations? Would it fail miserably? Or would it be one of those "great idea, poor execution" games? All of these questions have qualified answers. Qualified by how old you are and how patience you can be.

3DGM ships with a large assortment of textures, environments, pre-fab games, enemy types, and many, many options. In fact, just about everything can be modified – from the basic look of objects and characters, to music and sound effects. You can really let your imagination run wild – provided you have the time and patience and you don’t want to design an RPG.

The basic game types available are: Shooter, Racing, Space, Flying, Horror, and Silly. These categories act as folders that contain their own set of player characters, obstacles, enemies, ammo, power-ups, etc. (with at least nine object for each sub-category, meaning you have roughly 54 player characters, bosses, etc. to choose from – nine in each category). All the types can be easily mixed. You can have a Silly player character in a Horror situation using ammo more suited for Shooter. It’s easy to mix and match, but don’t think it’s going to be easy to design a great level. There are some strict game physics that can’t be ignored. The most annoying is the inability to make steps or elevated terrain so you can have interesting architecture in a Shooter or an off-road driving experience. You’re on a 

flat surface the entire time. This is owed in large part to the limiting grid layout. And when designing a level you can’t specify where an obstacle or enemy will appear. You select the enemy types, their attack patterns, etc. and obstacles but their placement is totally random. Being able to script events would have been nice since any gamer will tell you that some of the best humor and tension comes from scripted events – or cutscenes, but this is where things pick-up.

It’s possible have FMV intros by simply importing the clip of your choice. For the truly enterprising designer it’s possible to capture your own clips via a digital camera. Or if you’re like me, you can scour the Net looking for clips.

All the textures can be modified or replaced with your own even on the characters and objects. Of course, getting them to look right can be a challenge. There’s no in-game tool to help you with the image editing. You have to use Paint or other drawing program. The same goes for sound files. 3DGM supports MP3 files so changing the music and sound effects are easy.

The second biggest downfall, is that mission objectives are extremely limited. To finish a level (or move onto the next) you typically have to destroy all the bad guys, complete a number of laps, or reach the end point. There’s no chance to make things more complicated. Like setting triggers. (i.e. blowing something up to trigger a door opening, allowing access to a key for a locked door elsewhere in the level.) Even making a key hunt isn’t possible. Designing huge open expanses to explore is fine but it’s not much fun if all you do is monotonously kill bad guys or race around.

Graphically, 3DGM can shine (especially with some user intervention). The animation, however, is sometimes atrocious. Jumping characters in 3D over-the-shoulder games have the same movement when they’re walking as when they’re jumping with no transition animations to show take-off or landing. The game engine moves everything along at a good clip depending on the depth of fog set. Objects in the game are varied but some have obviously been "borrowed" from other sources. To point out but two: A Star Destroyer from Star Wars, and the Dolorean from Back to the Future.

Navigating the various menus could have really bogged down 3DGM but as they are, they’re pretty easy to use, even in Advanced Mode, which allows you to tweak more aspects than in Beginner Mode. In-game control can be difficult to get a handle on. Control schemes can be defined but if another player wants to edit the controls they’re out of luck. Most of the controls seem too loose, especially the Shooter (FPS) mode, which just feels like spaghetti.

Just as in Stunt Island, it’s possible to export your efforts to others even if they don’t have 3DGM installed on their computer. The program can compile and compress your levels to make a single .exe file. Depending on how many of your own textures and sounds have been included (along with FMV intro) and the level size, which can get massive, the resulting .exe file can be enormous. Just making a small level with default textures, etc. made a 14 meg file. I would post my best results for download with this review, but I doubt you’d want to wait for all 200 megs of it. Plus, it’s X-rated and I don’t want to be sued. However, this exporting ability could spawn a strong on-line following, providing lots of stand-alone games. And if that on-line following is there it’s also more likely that other user created objects and hacks will be developed, like some cameras so you can record what’s happening at different angles and possibly make little dramas using the copious number of characters and vehicles. (Dark Basic is promising to provide more default objects for download.)

If you’re under 14, you’ll get some enjoyment making simple games for your younger brothers and sisters. But for the hardened gamers and experienced modders, you may be disappointed with 3D Game Maker’s simplistic tendency. That being said, you’ll only get out what you put in. If you put some effort into understanding how things work and what 3DGM is capable of, you’ll be able to create some nifty little distractions.

- Omni