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[JigxorAndy]

Hi everyone!

I'm interested in making a game that will be based primarily on text and interfaces. I basically want to create a 2D game based on a graphical interface that features "windows" with lots of text that can be moved around, opened and closed. The concept I am going for (in terms of how it looks/feels) is something like this:

http://www.mrcracker.com/wp-content/images/hackevo.jpg

...but with much less tacky graphics, and hacker unrelated.

I am trying to decide on the best engine/framework/IDE/language to create this with. It needs to be fast, be able to handle high resolutions (1920x1080) and eventually be able to support a network/multiplayer game (ie. text chat between players). Which one do you think is the best to develop this game with?

I am very experienced with Multimedia Fusion 2, however it is not suitable for this sort of game as it requires lots of instances of inner "windows" of which is MMF2 has a hard time differentiating between. For this reason I would like to start a new development environment with this project. I don't mind learning a new language or engine.

Thank you for your time.

[nikki]

maybe have alook at wxwidgets ?
i believe there are many bindings available, so you can use in alot of languages.

I have played around with it in blitmax since thats possible too  .

Although ive found that i love it more to create my own system
since it's mainly 2d rectangular collision i find it not that hard..

EDIT: actually i think wxwidgets is not so ok for you since it's primarly focusen on OS gui things.Blitmax on its own is very capable if the buttons/windows need to be graphical.

[increpare]

The most obvious suggestion for graphically-rich gui stuff is CEGUI.  It's not an engine, it's a library, but it can be made fit atop a lot of engines.  Qt is far nicer than wxWidgets, though I don't know how easy it is to skin to make look like a non-windows/osx/os-native/whatever application (neither do I know how easy it is to do this in wxWidgets).

[Chromanoid]

I would use Java + Netbeans 6.8 with its wonderful GUI Editor Matisse <edit>which is called Java Swing GUI Builder now</edit>.

[Rob Lach]

Flash might work. Of course that would depend on how you want the multiplayer to work.

[Chromanoid]

Flash might work. Of course that would depend on how you want the multiplayer to work.

Andvanced UI like windows, frames, custom components etc. in Flash is horrible i think...  Maybe you could give Flex a try if you want to use AS3...

[JigxorAndy]

Thanks for the quick responses guys!

I have played around with it in blitmax since thats possible too 

Blitzmax might be a good option for this project. I've used it a little bit before but I haven't done a whole lot with it. I was actually considering this as one of my options before posting this topic. Does anyone with Blitzmax experience have an opinion on this?

The most obvious suggestion for graphically-rich gui stuff is CEGUI.  It's not an engine, it's a library, but it can be made fit atop a lot of engines. 

CEGUI actually looked very promising. It looked very capable of making custom looking menus and windows. It also had a neat editor and a cool way of handling the window instances. However, I don't really know much C++. I know I said that I'm willing to learn a new language but I don't think I'd be able to learn enough to make this game.

Flash might work. Of course that would depend on how you want the multiplayer to work.

I don't think flash will be suitable for this project because it probably won't run that well on older machines and it's not as 'nice' to make standalone games with, but thank you for the suggestion.

I would use Java + Netbeans 6.8 with its wonderful GUI Editor Matisse.

I don't know much about Java either but I will have a look into this.

Thanks again for all of your replies. Do you have any more suggestions or ideas?

[BlueSweatshirt]

I would recommend CEGUI, it's an awesome solution.

If you really don't want to learn C++, maybe a wxWidgets binding to Python?(I believe there's one)
I'm not sure how easy or difficult it is to skin the interface to a custom skin, though. 

[nikki]

I was actually considering this as one of my options before posting this topic. Does anyone with Blitzmax experience have an opinion on this?

Well i have some experience. And a opinion.
Since you want a non-OS specific or graphical user interface, I wouldn't go for librarys that are especially written for cross-os native gui's (like wxwidgets, thus my first answer was not right )

I have made custom gui's in blitzmax without any 3-rd party libs.
because it's only buttons, and some concept as screens/windows/gadgets.

For a more lightweight solution to your gui-needs you could also use one of the many sourcecodes to tackle this program (this one, or this one, i am sure there many more )

My experience is that when you use a very heavy library your wasting alot of time getting to know it.And all it complex unneccesary things.
especially when all you want (as far as i can tell from the screenshot) is some draggable windows, some buttons and a textfield or 2.

[GhostDog]

When it comes to interface game, I care less about the engine than I do the authoring tool.  The tool and the functionality the tool provides helps avoid the tarpit of man hours of UI creation.  The backend to any UI system is really trivial to write.

[Martin 2BAM]

I would recommend against wxWidgets/QT for a game. Use something OpenGL-based so you can add effects or "manual rendering" later if needed.

wx/QT are great but for application GUI development (and to get a grasp on wxWidgets you need to spend a long sweet time with it )

Regards

[Mikademus]

The most obvious suggestion for graphically-rich gui stuff is CEGUI.  It's not an engine, it's a library, but it can be made fit atop a lot of engines. 

CEGUI actually looked very promising. It looked very capable of making custom looking menus and windows. It also had a neat editor and a cool way of handling the window instances. However, I don't really know much C++. I know I said that I'm willing to learn a new language but I don't think I'd be able to learn enough to make this game.

If you need a truly powerful GUI package to use inside a 3D-rendered game then I too would recommend CEGUI. However, there is yet no visual editor for CEGUI skins, which is a HUGE drawback since the XML-based skin definition format is a bloody horror. If C++ is the way to go, then there ar a few other alterantives. BetaGUI and QuickGUI comes to mind immediately.

If you need a really powerful GUI system that is NOT to be rendered in 3D, then I'd direct you to wxWidgets (middleweight) or Qt (super-heavyweight).

[StudioFortress]

I've done lots of Swing and love it; this is my recommendation. What I really love is how easy I've always found building custom components with it (but there is a bit of a steep learning curve to get used to it's quirks). Best of all there is always an example somewhere online for whatever your building. The Java OpenGL bindings also include an OpenGL canvas you can embed in Swing components.

I've also done a bit of work with WX and didn't like it. I vote against it.

[salade]

While I really like wxWidgets, it's not really a game framework - it's more suited towards building more general purpose applications.

[Richard Kain]

You might consider just using Unity. I'm going through their UI-related tutorials right now, and it seems that they have a pretty flexible scripting system for their interface. I also know that you can completely re-skin their interface elements however you please.

[nikki]

isn't unity a slight overkill for a game that will be based primarily on text and interfaces?

isn't unity a 3d engine?

[Zhal]

Lynx was (or is, I'm not sure) also making their own pyglet-based GUI library:
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=6669.0

http://code.google.com/p/kytten/

[Richard Kain]

isn't unity a slight overkill for a game that will be based primarily on text and interfaces?

isn't unity a 3d engine?

Not especially. Yes, Unity is a 3D engine. But it has 2D drawing capabilities, and a decently robust GUI scripting system. (that can be skinned as the user sees fit) You don't actually have to use 3D with it if you don't want to.

Also, there's the fact that it is a decently cross-platform engine with its own browser plug-in, as well as its own visual-editing toolset. Using an engine like Unity means that you don't need to re-invent the wheel.