Wolfire Games Forums

NickD wrote:You have a point, but there are a lot of engines like Releam Crafter and stuff like that that have such limited amounts of stuff you can do, that you mind as well not use it. The only reason that I would use someone else's engine is the map editor. Otherwise the rest is cusomisable and fits to your needs. If you're experienced enough you might go ahead and edit it and add some stuff. The only map editor I would recomend is from Klink! software. But I still wouldnt take it too seriously, because I feel like the creator was lazy and just wanted to finish and sell it ASAP.

I take any indy developer who actually releases a product at all seriously.

Now, if you're talkin' about the big "structured" corporations rushing crap to completion, than yah... no good.

_Nik

The only four reasons anybody should be creating their own game engine are:
For learning
For fun
Because of licencing
Because existing open source engines aren't good enough

There is really no point otherwise. You will spend lots of time and the overall quality of the engine won't be as good as an open source alternative and the content of the game will suffer. Now, if you really want to create your own engine then by all means do so. As a user I'd much rather have a good game and a good engine than a not as good game and a not as good engine.

I mostly agree with you, but I would argue that Python can be used to make a serious game if you find/write your graphics functionality in C++ (fast) or C (faster) and use it as a Python extension module. I worked in school last year developing such a Python/C hybrid engine. It worked quite nicely. As you said, Python's is interpreted, which means iterative tasks (i.e., anything graphics, especially 3D) slow it down tremendously. But, take those out and put then in C, and then use Python for logic, and you've got a golden solution

Yeah, it's that balance between speed and mantainance.

I take any indy developer who actually releases a product at all seriously.

Very true. The amount of work (oftern unpaid at the beginning) is just huge.

alextgordon wrote:The only four reasons anybody should be creating their own game engine are:
For learning
For fun
Because of licencing
Because existing open source engines aren't good enough

There is really no point otherwise. You will spend lots of time and the overall quality of the engine won't be as good as an open source alternative and the content of the game will suffer. Now, if you really want to create your own engine then by all means do so. As a user I'd much rather have a good game and a good engine than a not as good game and a not as good engine.

I don't know if I agree with this. Using an existing engine is not easy and it dramatically limits what you can do. More often than not, I think you will find that it is easier to write it from scratch than to try to hack someone else's code into doing what you want. The end result will also be much, much better. Can you imagine Lugaru or Black Shades being a mod for Quake 3 or something instead of being written from scratch?

Of course, it depends on what you want to do. If you want to make a generic FPS, then by all means use the Steam/Unreal/Doom engine or open source equivalent and make it, but at that point all you're really doing is making models, animations, textures, and maps. The programming part, at least in my opinion, is where the real innovation occurs, not to mention fun.

Jeff wrote:

alextgordon wrote:The only four reasons anybody should be creating their own game engine are:
For learning
For fun
Because of licencing
Because existing open source engines aren't good enough

There is really no point otherwise. You will spend lots of time and the overall quality of the engine won't be as good as an open source alternative and the content of the game will suffer. Now, if you really want to create your own engine then by all means do so. As a user I'd much rather have a good game and a good engine than a not as good game and a not as good engine.

I don't know if I agree with this. Using an existing engine is not easy and it dramatically limits what you can do. More often than not, I think you will find that it is easier to write it from scratch than to try to hack someone else's code into doing what you want. The end result will also be much, much better. Can you imagine Lugaru or Black Shades being a mod for Quake 3 or something instead of being written from scratch?

Of course, it depends on what you want to do. If you want to make a generic FPS, then by all means use the Steam/Unreal/Doom engine or open source equivalent and make it, but at that point all you're really doing is making models, animations, textures, and maps. The programming part, at least in my opinion, is where the real innovation occurs, not to mention fun.

I happen to agree. I've been writing some code using another person's objects and it is not fun. It feels more like I'm kluging (I made that word up, it's like kluge-ing) through the program than writing something elegant.

Also, in most cases it's a lot harder to force an existing engine to do what you want rather than write your own. Look at all the mods for Source and other things that just die because the programmers get frustrated, and then take a look at some standalone games. The standalones always make progress faster and end up being a more polished product.

So, yeah, there's my rant.