CryEngine Game Development Blueprints

Perfect the art of creating CRYENGINE games through exciting, hands-on game development projects

About This Book

• Create CRYENGINE games from scratch with CRYENGINE Blank Game Starter-kit
• Discover good working practices and tips to quickly jump into making a new level in the game
• Build practical game projects and discover advanced concepts of CRYENGINE game development using the examples in the book

Who This Book Is For

This book is intended for CRYENGINE game developers, wanting to develop their skills with the help of industry experts. A good knowledge level and understanding of CRYENGINE is assumed, to allow efficient programming of core elements and applications.

What You Will Learn

• Create a CRYENGINE game from scratch with the Game Starter-kit
• Add custom methods to allow the player/AI to use a weapon
• Create complete “start” and “end” game menus using Scaleform and C++
• Discover how to use highpoly modeling workflow and techniques within the pipeline for the SDK to use
• Use the Crytiff exporter from Photoshop
• Export the CHR―the format the engine needs to read the skeleton
• Integrate the character in the engine using the character tool
• Better understand the rules to create and author skeletons to rig characters designed for CRYENGINE
• Debug common setup issues that might appear during production with useful tools

In Detail

CRYENGINE is a game engine developed by Crytek for PC, Playstation, Xbox, Android, and iOS. It can be used to create AAA games, movies, high-quality simulations, and interactive applications. It is most popularly used for game development.

In this book, you will start off by exploring the CRYENGINE “Blank” Game Starter-kit, creating a completely playable character from scratch and controlling its movement. You will learn how to implement a weapon and ammo class, and will create complete “start” and “end” game menus using Scaleform and C++.

Additionally, you will learn some key texturing techniques for PBR and how to create and bake maps to the lowpoly model. You will also explore how to get a static model from Maya and shaders setbup in the SDK to check the textures during creation, and create all the necessary engine files to export and see the game character’s animations in your engine.

In the final third of the book, you will learn how to create objectives, set up saved games, layer on audio polish to help immerse the player in the experience, and debug game issues.

Style and approach

An easy-to-follow, practical guide covering three exciting projects. As you work through each project you will explore new topics including complex animation, advanced scripting, and complex character motion. All the code used in each project is explained in detail.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Getting Started
Chapter 2: Creating a Playable Character
Chapter 3: Implementing Weapons and Ammo
Chapter 4: Creating an Enemy AI
Chapter 5: Creating User Interfaces
Chapter 6: Modeling Workflow for Game Characters and Tools
Chapter 7: Highpoly Modeling
Chapter 8: Lowpoly Modeling
Chapter 9: Texturing and Materials
Chapter 10: Building the Character Rig
Chapter 11: Exporting the Character to CRYENGINE
Chapter 12: Initial Level Blockout and Setup
Chapter 13: The Flow Graph Workflow
Chapter 14: Scripting Gameplay Content
Chapter 15: Maintaining Our Work