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Bright Memory: Infinite. One Man Show For Xbox Series X Development

https://www.abacusnews.com/games/ho...andout-bright-memory-infinite/article/3084525

If a high school drop out can make a game like that on Xbox Series X, so can anyone!!!




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The textures and overall IQ seems pretty sharp in the vid and screens. Since the OG game can run maxed out on modest PC GPUs I bet he was able to add some neat FTX stuff for this re-release
 
The textures and overall IQ seems pretty sharp in the vid and screens. Since the OG game can run maxed out on modest PC GPUs I bet he was able to add some neat FTX stuff for this re-release

Whats cool is in the article he states he is more artistic/artist than a programmer:

"Tools like Unreal Engine are helpful for people like Zeng, who considers himself an artistic person “with no interest in coding.” Zeng said around 80% of natural sceneries seen in the Bright Memory: Infinite teaser video were made by Quixel Megascans and obtained via Unreal Engine."

When starting game development, people always go with 2-D first, not 3-D because 3-D is much harder. Perhaps this proves otherwise? I am not a coder, but I love art.
 
There has to be a streamlined way to make 3-d games more simple like 2-D games. Not complicated 3-D games, something simple like:

Virtua Fighter 1
Virtua Racing 1
1st Person Shooter like Quake/Doom

Arcade quality put your tokens in and play without long boring CGI movies/cut scenes
 

CamHostage

Member
There has to be a streamlined way to make 3-d games more simple like 2-D games. Not complicated 3-D games, something simple like:

Virtua Fighter 1
Virtua Racing 1
1st Person Shooter like Quake/Doom

Arcade quality put your tokens in and play without long boring CGI movies/cut scenes

Sorry... are you saying this because you want arcade-style games (which, I don't know how that came up in a Bright Memory thread, given that Bright Memory game does in fact contain cutscenes and, well, doesn't take tokens) or because you believe because these old games are "simple" by today's standards and that they would be simple to make today?

Because you CAN make your own VF or VR or Doom, just get Dreams or find a Doom WAD editor or download the consumer version of Unity Engine and go nuts. It's all there for you to do. Making your own game great, that's another story. With the Virtuas and Quake and Doom, you're talking about some of the most legendary minds of gaming collaborating with a team of elite developers to create some of the best games of all time. Just because something is old doesn't mean it's simple, and anybody who has ever dabbled in game design has learned just how hard it really is to make even a simple 2D game that's good.

Also, just because Zeng Xiancheng is a high school dropout doesn't mean he's not smart. It just means he didn't want to be in high school anymore. There are lots of reasons people might drop out; some go the route of drugs and porn and menial jobs and their parent's basements, others go the route of founding airline industries and winning Oscars and becoming star athletes and inventing billion-dollar industries...

So then, if what you're saying is you just want simple games with score-attacks and no story or theatrics, you're not going to find that too often in AAA games for obvious reasons, but there's plenty of stuff on the market (especially in indies) which offer arcade-style play. Or maybe get to know Newgrounds?
 
Sorry... are you saying this because you want arcade-style games (which, I don't know how that came up in a Bright Memory thread, given that Bright Memory game does in fact contain cutscenes and, well, doesn't take tokens) or because you believe because these old games are "simple" by today's standards and that they would be simple to make today?

Because you CAN make your own VF or VR or Doom, just get Dreams or find a Doom WAD editor or download the consumer version of Unity Engine and go nuts. It's all there for you to do. Making your own game great, that's another story. With the Virtuas and Quake and Doom, you're talking about some of the most legendary minds of gaming collaborating with a team of elite developers to create some of the best games of all time. Just because something is old doesn't mean it's simple, and anybody who has ever dabbled in game design has learned just how hard it really is to make even a simple 2D game that's good.

Also, just because Zeng Xiancheng is a high school dropout doesn't mean he's not smart. It just means he didn't want to be in high school anymore. There are lots of reasons people might drop out; some go the route of drugs and porn and menial jobs and their parent's basements, others go the route of founding airline industries and winning Oscars and becoming star athletes and inventing billion-dollar industries...

So then, if what you're saying is you just want simple games with score-attacks and no story or theatrics, you're not going to find that too often in AAA games for obvious reasons, but there's plenty of stuff on the market (especially in indies) which offer arcade-style play. Or maybe get to know Newgrounds?

I appreciate your enthusiasm in this post. I wasn't being dismissive on past gen games, I was trying to approach it from a practical standpoint so I would not get overwhelmed. Its like trying to be an artist and being at Leonardo Da Vinci level, or trying to be a professional basketball player like Michael Jordan, you have to start somewhere and get a feel for this and acquiring skills but it takes time and a desire and will to achieve those things. You cant just jump right into it (which I know most common sense people already know)

In no way shape or form I am dismissing Xiancheng as dumb because he is a high school drop out or any high school or college drop out. I think he is amazing and inspirational. Dont even get me started on how (in the US at least) our formal education is absolute garbage and a waste of time. I wish I would have graduated high school at 16, those 2 extra years would have jump started to my life and could have achieved much more. Bill Gates was a college drop out, and there are tons of other actors, athletes, entrepreneurs, who have achieved wealth and success who are drop outs. I personally think with online learning, and having a proper financial education (learning personal finance, investing etc) can get you miles ahead instead of "go to school, get good grades, get a good job with benefits and retire in a pension plan or 401k"

And no he is definitely not creating an acrade style game, it is way more advance than that. I *personally* want to create arcade style games for game development so I can get my feet wet first.

I will definitely check out newgrounds, thank your for that information. The whole point of this thread is to appreciate the development process in games, and I was just trying to show if 1 guy like him can do it so can anyone. Of course if the game sucks no matter how hard you work on it, that is another story.
 
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GHG

Member
Whats cool is in the article he states he is more artistic/artist than a programmer:

"Tools like Unreal Engine are helpful for people like Zeng, who considers himself an artistic person “with no interest in coding.” Zeng said around 80% of natural sceneries seen in the Bright Memory: Infinite teaser video were made by Quixel Megascans and obtained via Unreal Engine."

When starting game development, people always go with 2-D first, not 3-D because 3-D is much harder. Perhaps this proves otherwise? I am not a coder, but I love art.

Read the article and it gives some interesting insight as to how the game came together. He used a bunch of pre-made assets from the epic UE4 marketplace outsourced a few things and then threw in a bunch of pirated assets:

Tools like Unreal Engine are helpful for people like Zeng, who considers himself an artistic person “with no interest in coding.” Zeng said around 80% of natural sceneries seen in the Bright Memory: Infinite teaser video were made by Quixel Megascans and obtained via Unreal Engine.



Other software such as Character Creator 3 and LIVE Face allow Zeng to fashion a new character model in just minutes, complete with skeleton and skin, as well as animated facial expressions. Clothing is added by outsourced service providers. Models of weapons can be found on the Unreal Marketplace, the Unreal Engine’s associated online store for game assets. They can then be tweaked according to Zeng’s taste.

But Zeng’s sourcing of game assets came under scrutiny in January last year when he released Bright Memory: Episode 1 on Steam. As positive reviews came pouring in, so did questions about the art used in the game.

It turned out that some of the 3D models that Zeng obtained for free online were actually pirated assets. As pressure mounted, he admitted to the mistake and scrambled to replace all the stolen graphics with new ones in just a few days.

It also talks about how he came up with solutions for sound.

If you want to learn to do things the "right" way then starting with 2D to learn basic principles and then working up from there as you would with anything technical. If you have a specific idea plus the talent to be able to pull it all together in a way that looks and feels good to the player then there's nothing stopping you from taking the approach he's taken.
 
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