Makin' Games with Blender Game Engine, ArmorPaint & Armory

Workflow & design process is not as "Rigid" or "Established" as new artists tend to think. The 3D world is always in flux and ever-changing. New tools & solutions are created every day, often times they greatly influence the creation of content, but sometimes these new tools can have a deleterious effect on creativity and art. This is more prevalent than ever in the interactive gaming industry.
In the video game design industry, there is a glut of “free-to-use” game engines available, for example Unreal & Unity. These popular game engines produce enticing visual effects and ease of use. On the surface, these tools seem to present themselves as wonderful and efficient solutions for artists to create the games and stories they would like, but they also have a dampening effect on creativity. When these tools present themselves as “free” or “industry standard”, rapid user adoption & widespread use creates the perception in the minds of fledgling artists that these are the “only" tools that should be used, when there are in fact others like UPBGE, Armory. Godot, and of course, BGE.
At BCON 2018, in my talk, I mentioned that I have quit my job and I now rely on Blender 100% for freelance work and I am making an independent video game. Explicitly, I am using the “soon-to-no-longer-be-supported” Blender Game Engine. I am collaborating with Tim Crellin and many other artists to publish a commercial game titled “The Shadows Lengthen”. I am a living example of an artist using a non-standard workflow and I invite the Blender community challenge this perspective and approach.
What I would like to show is my progress so far (it looks really good and exciting!!!) and compare its strengths and weaknesses to other game engines in the industry. I would greatly appreciate any community questions and feedback and hopefully address the criticisms of my workflow and hopefully gain some valuable insights myself.
I would like to highlight that the Armor game engine and ArmorPaint have been wonderful tools that may provide a life for my game project in the years to come. ArmorPaint in particular has been a real life-saver for my workflow, and while its features are still threadbare, it is an extremely worthy project that I feel everyone should support. It's also worth noting that the armory game engine by Lubos Lenco - was discouraged as a project that was lauded in his words as "The Dumbest Idea Ever". However his work has already produced wonderful results that I have benefited from!
In summary I would like to make it clear that I am not "fighting" for an outdated tool, but I am pushing for an integrated game development workflow. I want to show everyone how cool using non-standard tools can look!

Best,
Thomas Murphy

Speaker