PlayerMaker on Hockey Game

[sorgim]

Hello,
I want to make a hockey game. Is PlayMaker a good tool to setup the moves of the player?

[FritsLyn]

That very much depends on what you want to set up. What do you mean by 'Moves'? Ai, Animation?

[tcmeric]

Just to follow up, why not to tell us a bit about your game? 2D, 3D? Top down? Control a whole team or a single player?

Playmaker can work as an animation controller (tells which animations to play when based on your button input). However, it is not an animation creator. Ie, you would still need to make, buy or go to a studio to capture animations. If your game is 3d, it might be hard to find to buy animations that are for hockey. So that might be something to consider before getting too invested in a specific idea (if this is your first game).

For example mixamo is a popular place to get animations these days, as they are currently free: https://www.mixamo.com . You can sign up with an adobe account (free). They have a ton of animations, but I dont think any sports ones??? You can check.

Maybe this one is best? https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/74041
It has 8 basic animations. Not a ton, but I dont see any others.

[sorgim]

Ok thanks for reply.

It's a 3D game and a single player should be controlled. I have a friend who can do mocap for the animations. So what I need is an animation controller for the player, the teammates and the opponents. Also the logic of handling the puck.

Is PM a good tool for that? Where can I find informations to implement that kind of game?

[tcmeric]

Yes playmaker can handle all those parts. Very cool that you have someone who can do or help you with mocap. I would start with some very basic prototypes if you are new to playmaker. Most of the tutorials are towards FPS or third person camera/adventure games, but it would be easy to adapt to your needs. The playmaker official tutorials are a good place to start, even though they dont seemed like they are aimed at your type of game, they really are the core concepts.

Even they are from 2011, not much has changed, so they are still relevant.

Here is my tutorial about actions/events and states for beginners:

mdotstrange has a good paid tutorial series, but I still suggest the above first (at least a few): 10$ sale right now: https://www.udemy.com/cant-code-who-cares-make-games-anyway/

[sorgim]

Great, I will have a look on it, thanks!

One more question I have: What do you think, does it make sense to develop such a game for mobile? Or are the devices to weak in performance to calculate the collisions within the animations?

[tcmeric]

Mobile is getting much better these days IMHO. Often it is not the physics for such games that are a problem, but more about the graphics. But since the lighting for the game should be more basic, and the models can be more low poly, you could do mobile if that is your desire. I guess also consider how you would handle the buttons, which is another limitation of mobile games.

[sorgim]

Ok I see, it's good that there shouldn't be problems with the physics. In my opinion lights and shadows are nice but not that important comparing to playing a game that makes fun. I will dig in this now and maybe some other questions will come up.. So long, thanks a lot for you help!