Using Quake to teach gamedev

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mankrip
Posts: 924
Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2008 3:02 am

Using Quake to teach gamedev

Post by mankrip »

I'm in a quite bad financial situation, and one of the ideas I've had is to give some private gamedev classes in my house. I'd be using Quake engines, because that's what I know best. My own engine, along with FTEQW and maybe Darkplaces.

Does anyone here have some experience with this kind of work? What to expect?

These are my computers. It's not much, and I guess I'd be able to teach only a maximum of 2 people at a time, because the second laptop is too old and slow.

Some of the contents of the classes would be:
- QC;
- Alias commands, config files and installation;
- Texture / GUI image / sprite editing;
- Mapping (using Jackhammer).
MDL model editing shouldn't be featured, because it'd surely be far beyond the learning skills of anyone where I live.

And there would be maybe a few tech demos featuring those contents, using royalty-free free assets or assets made from scratch. Due to the "no MDL" rule, the demos would be limited to styles where 2D sprites works well (third-person side scrollers, top scrollers, or anything else where the camera doesn't rotate in 3D). And only action games; no RPGs, RTSs, simulators or whatever.

I'm still not sure about doing this. Many potential students would certainly be interested, but I guess very few would be able to pay anything. The audience would most likely be 11-25 year old people with very bad math skills and no English knowledge. Also, I have no idea how much of my free time I'd have to spend on this.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh mankrip Hell's end wgah'nagl fhtagn.
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Baker
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Re: Using Quake to teach gamedev

Post by Baker »

I'm sorry to hear about this and I hope things go well.
The night is young. How else can I annoy the world before sunsrise? 8) Inquisitive minds want to know ! And if they don't -- well like that ever has stopped me before ..
xaGe
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Re: Using Quake to teach gamedev

Post by xaGe »

I wish you luck with whatever you end up doing.
mankrip
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Re: Using Quake to teach gamedev

Post by mankrip »

Thanks. Anyway, I've always had the idea of doing something like this for free someday (which is why I wouldn't like to do it under the current circumstances), so I was wondering if someone else had similar experiences. I find it fun to teach, when the student is actually interested, and I've done some volunteer work as a class monitor ten years ago.

One thing I find quite valuable in Quake modding is that it forces people to think outside of the box. The engine and QC code architecture are exclusively focused in action games, and this encourages mod developers to learn their math and physics. The lack of string manipulation means that the developer would need to really think outside of the box to create RPGs and the like, and the lack of arrays means the same for several kinds of puzzle games. There's no easy way out, no simple way out, and no quick way out.

I think this "spartan" approach of Quake is what encourages its enthusiasts to learn so much, so I think it could be used as a teaching tool.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh mankrip Hell's end wgah'nagl fhtagn.
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JasonX
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Re: Using Quake to teach gamedev

Post by JasonX »

I would definitely take some classes! Where do you live? Have you considered setting up a patreon for your engine work? Most of the guys here would love to support you.
mankrip
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Re: Using Quake to teach gamedev

Post by mankrip »

JasonX wrote:Where do you live?
Brazil.
JasonX wrote:Have you considered setting up a patreon for your engine work?
Good idea. I've been reading about it since you posted, and their business model seems to be a good fit.

Previously I thought about Kickstarter, but its business model would make such a project a hard sell. Most of my engine work has been very experimental in the last five years, because my current focus is on creating new features or rewriting old ones from the ground up, and the amount of time that these can take is highly unpredictable.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh mankrip Hell's end wgah'nagl fhtagn.
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qbism
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Re: Using Quake to teach gamedev

Post by qbism »

What about streaming classes or live development work on Twitch? Twitch has a subscription model. Might go hand-in-hand with the Patreon idea.
As mentioned in OP, there's probably an 11-25 audience. But perhaps an older dev audience as well who might want to get into it as a hobby. The kind of people making new games for retro platforms perhaps.
frag.machine
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Re: Using Quake to teach gamedev

Post by frag.machine »

Vimeo and YouTube would be good options, too.
I know FrikaC made a cgi-bin version of the quakec interpreter once and wrote part of his website in QuakeC :) (LordHavoc)
mankrip
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Re: Using Quake to teach gamedev

Post by mankrip »

Live streams are impossible because I don't have any Internet access at home (not even on a smartphone), and I intend to keep it that way. Internet access is really bad for productivity.

My engine won't work on retro platforms, and it doesn't work on the Dreamcast anymore.

Video editing takes a ton of time, so I'm not sure about it. I prefer to spend my time coding.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh mankrip Hell's end wgah'nagl fhtagn.
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mankrip
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Re: Using Quake to teach gamedev

Post by mankrip »

I'm planning what to do with Patreon. First, I'm working on an engine feature that should help to exemplify the new direction of my engine work.

Also, I'm a bit shy about the whole situation, so I'm pondering about it a lot.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh mankrip Hell's end wgah'nagl fhtagn.
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