Curious about 3d modelling

I recently had this idea for a game where the player digs up dinosaur fossils, one bone at a time, and then assembles them in a museum. That's the bare minimum description of my idea by the way, and I was wondering, how difficult would it be to make a game where you can fully interact with the environment and dig up bones and how hard would it be for a skilled modeler to make models of bones or other fossils?

 

Hard and time consuming are often concepts that people conflate. (myself included, especially when giving time estimates). It wouldn't be hard for a skilled modeler to make complete dinosaur skeletons with individual bones at all. However, it may take a long time.
-> side note... Google is being a smartass. I just googled how many bones in a t-rex skeleton:


At any rate, there are ~380 in a T-Rex, some have much more. Even with mirroring you are looking probably ~250ish, probably less if you dupe and tweak. Still a lot of work. And a lot of time defining and building the relationships and data structure so you can build them. None of which is difficult, or hard, but also not quick. There might be existing resources to draw from, either commercial game stuff, or if you are brave, academic datasets that could possibly converted to usable game models. That may be more difficult, but possibly faster.

 

I see, well, it definitely sounds like something I need a few modelers working on. This means that my game idea is probably best done when I have actually established my game company with a less ambitious project.

 

You can probably get this done on upwork very cheaply, because it draws from a global talent pool you can get decent work dont for dirt cheap rates (at varying quality, be sure to check peoples portfolios before giving them the bid). Otherwise its going to be too ambitious yeah

 

I wouldn't even begin to know where to look. Besides that, unless I get some kind of capital coming in or a new job, I can't afford to pay anyone. Most of my existing team is friends who share my vision of getting a game dev company done. And all my previous attempts to get artists has led to a crapload of people telling me to beat it when I couldn't pay them.

 

Cool, nice to see that there are other people into the idea

EDIT: Did you just copy the first line of my first post?

 

https://www.upwork.com/

Thats where to look. You can literally get this done for £10 to £20. I use upwork for stuff like this all the time. Your problem before was not using a service like upwork to get it done. If you just contact artists your in for a headache, upwork provides an ebay like service for it so you and they get guarantees.

 

I'll give it a shot, thanks. I was using Freelancer.com before this

 

Yeah ive had mixed success with freelancer.com. I find it much easier to get higher quality work done for cheaper on upwork generally, freelancer is more of a mixed bag when it comes to quality and reliability.

Still you gotta be careful and only accept people who demonstrate a portfolio to you, any serious artist will have this.

 

Okay, well, if it works out, I'll be sure to give you a copy of my completed first game

 

There is a game called World of Guns or something like that? Not really a game, just a showcase of 3d models of firearms with the inner workings all animated, and you can field strip each gun by clicking on parts in the right order. It's free to play, so look it up on steam.

Sounds like a similar effort, in a way. First, you gotta know about the subject. Like zombie mentioned, there is probably academic databases to help you out there. YOu just gotta find them, and know enough about the subject to make sense from it.

Second, you gotta model all the bones. For an experienced modeler, this is a matter of time. There is already tons of high quality bone models and scans out there -- the work itself really shouldn't be that big of a bear. For instance, i got a free model of a jaguar skeleton. I used that to make a dog skeleton in probably a quarter of the time it would have taken me from scratch.

The difficulty is in keeping things organized, and delivering something you can understand and use. This means good communication, as you will necessarily be dealing with a ton of tiny things that all work together to create a larger whole.

The actual production of the models is simple enough, but the make-it-or-break-it thing is how its organized. You'll need to plan this well and do lots of test runs before going fully into production. Make sure you get a clear, logical workflow figured out, and that all parties understand how it will be organized and that it's going to be compliant across the board.

 

If you're lucky, there might be a University or a museum somewhere out there that has photoscanned their collection and released the models under the MIT license.

 

Try it with just cubes and basic shapes, to see if you have a game. Sneaking out to dig might be fun. Or finding a good spot. A farmer chases you away with rock salt. Assembling real dino bones is fun since you have to figure out what they are, based on what was around them in the ground. You might later find parts A and F connected, when you first thought they were different dinos.

If it's a game, you can be digging up robot parts on another planet. Or, with dinos, maybe you pay a necromancer and the spell only works if the parts were correct. Or maybe it's some sort of idle game -- you set up some "skeleton holders" for dinos you know, pick a field, hire some TAs, and they fill with bones overnight (or not, or barely, if you picked the wrong things).

If it's an educational game, how much do you know about fossils? In the game, do you apply for the grant, get permission to dig, learn what the tools are called? Use clues in the rock to estimate the year? The goal is probably just to identify each bone. Lots of bones from lots of dinos -- especially ones we're not so sure about -- can look alike. But the more realistic, the harder it is to make it a game.

 

I've been 3D modeling for 20 + years first thign you should be to check if you can buy the 3D models you need. code with that and then IF you need more or any 3D models updated check you hiring options ( budget etc ) people have been modeling for 30 odd years and there is alot of good 3D content out there ready to uses.

 

You probably want to use a simplified skeleton for gameplay reasons anyway if you are not planning a training program for paleontologists...

 

Depending on the intended gameplay, the amount of skeleton simplification could be part of the difficulty level e.g. early on you have a full spine as a single 'part', but later you have to join multiple sequences of vertebrae into a spine.
(Assembling 380 bones might be a bit much though. )