Comparing Phoenix Engine with Unity ... David?

DaveyJJ · Post by **DaveyJJ** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 11:58 am

The question about whether or not Phoenix is planned to be more of an SDK or more of a game building engine came up, I believe, on the idevgames.com forums, but I didn't see it answered. So I'll put it out there again ... are you planning Phoenix to be something along the lines of Unity where novice/wannabe game developers can dive in and get started, or more along the lines of an SDK where coding will be the mandatory activity and 3D game creation will be back into the hands of the "priesthood" as it were.

BTW, I have to congratulate you on your work to date (both in terms of games and Phoenix). My (nearly) eight year old is set to emulate you and your skill level and products are amazing. Great work! I stand completely in awe of what you are capable of ... and still capable to learn. Geez, I'm old.

DaveyJJ

EDIT -- I didn't see the http://wolfire.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=460 thread discussing Unity, but also don't see the answer to my question above ... basically, will Phoenix be as easy to pick up and start to learn as Unity is, and will it have a similar interface to build and test runs your games in?

Post by **David** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 1:46 pm

I want to make it as user-friendly as possible, but it will still require significant programming knowledge to use properly. It is only three or four weeks into development though, so plans are not concrete yet.

DaveyJJ · Post by **DaveyJJ** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 1:53 pm

David wrote:...but it will still require significant programming knowledge to use properly.

I'll let my son have a go at it then when it's done

And again, thanks for taking the time and creating some really fine stuff.

Lugaruman100 · Post by **Lugaruman100** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 1:55 pm

I didn't recall Unity being a engine for ''novice/wannabe game developers'', it's easy to use for only experienced game developers and programmers.

*Edit* wait one minute. Arnt you that person whos on insidemacgames and unity forums? I think I saw a screenshot of what you modelled in chetah.

DaveyJJ · Post by **DaveyJJ** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 3:54 pm

I am the same DaveyJJ who hangs out on any number of Mac-related forums, idevgames, insidemacgames, and the Unity forums included.

I actually do consider Unity as a game creation system that is easier to begin to use than any other of similar power on the Mac. I am absolutely no expert but was able to grasp all of Unity's basic and fundementals (even if I have to rely on others sometimes for the tougher scripting) within just a handful of hours. Torque is all but impossible to create stuff in without a knowledge of C/C++, while someone with a basic knowledge of either Javascript or Boo can easily get into Unity.

The reason I know this is that I was the guy who volunteered and was responsible for creating the Unity tutorial (physics, timers, scoring system, lighting, models, texturing and shading, collisiions etc) ... and I myself am an absolute newbie to the game creating and programming world.

I'm always curious about new tools as they make themselves known for the Mac as I've been a Mac user since 1986 and seen lots of things come and go. Anything that looks cool (like Phoenix) captures my interest.

Post by **David** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 5:43 pm

I agree about the Torque engine, I got a free copy of it from one of the uDevGame contests, but decided that in the time it takes to figure it out, I could probably write my own engine that is better suited to what I want to do.

Razor7 · Post by **Razor7** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 6:42 pm

speaking of uDev games david,
do you think you will have an early build ready for next years contest? with whatever game your making?

-TC

zip · Post by **zip** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 6:44 pm

I believe uDG requires that your submission be open source.

Lugaruman100 · Post by **Lugaruman100** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 9:09 pm

DaveyJJ wrote:I myself am an absolute newbie to the game creating and programming world.

So am I.

Blorx · Post by **Blorx** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 9:35 pm

[ot] I'm not a complete programming newbie, I've been actually programming since Apeil...I learned fro January until then...I am a quick learner

Nayr · Post by **Nayr** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 8:16 am

I'm not so sure about the open source part... anyway, he's gonna have a hard time porting it to panther, which your game has to run on.

Post by **Jeff** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 11:19 am

Nayr wrote:I'm not so sure about the open source part... anyway, he's gonna have a hard time porting it to panther, which your game has to run on.

Eh?

Nayr · Post by **Nayr** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 1:54 pm

all udg entries will have to run on panther. Tiger is optional. because of this, he's gonna have a bad time converting the shaders to 10.3.

Post by **Jeff** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 2:12 pm

UDG games have to be open source. That's kind of the whole point...

For that reason alone, there is absolutely no chance that David is going to enter the contest.