Just last week, I took three students with me to attend the 10th International IT Seminar for Students in Madrid, Spain. Our initial plan had called for two teachers, four students, and a demo of Arduino robotics, but due to financial constraints, we had to redesign at the last moment. This led me to take a team well versed in Blender and Unity instead. Usually, the faculty members give a lecture first in the morning and then the students lead the other students in workshops. But since we were only four, I pitched in and did a workshop on creating your first Blender game, a labyrinth for a ball with physics governing the movement, in 15 minutes. And this is how you do it.

Let’s say you want to have a labyrinth field, which you can tilt with the arrow keys, and with holes the ball can fall through, which signifies a fail. All you need is a plane, a sphere, and a second plane below the labyrinth so you can easily detect the ball falling off the labyrinth. And you need the Blender Game Engine, to make it all work, but fortunately, it is included in Blender for the same price, e.g. for free. You design the pieces in the default view, but when you’re done, you go into the Game Logic view, and this allows you to attach the sensors, controllers, and actuators to the pieces so you can make it move. Continue reading Your first Blender game in 15 minutes →