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[CowBoyDan]

One minus of Unity is that you have to use teh component-based programming.

Depends what you are doing.  If you aren't using unity's physics events you can create a single component, attach it to the camera (or an empty object whatever), and write all of your code from that.  Just store the references to any GameObjects/Transforms you want to modify during the game loop.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

I made a basic falling sand game in less than five minutes in my engine. The script is eleven lines and this is including the bits that handle the things that aren't physics.

Also, really awesome scripting capabilities powered by Lua.

My engine is badass and I think Flash and Game Maker both suck.

if that were true, why not release your engine as a commercial product to compete with them? people would prefer to use your engine over theirs if it really was better, and you'd soon become rich. or if you're generous release your engine for free and soon every indie would be using it

[Pineapple]

if that were true, why not release your engine as a commercial product to compete with them? people would prefer to use your engine over theirs if it really was better, and you'd soon become rich. or if you're generous release your engine for free and soon every indie would be using it

1) because it's not done, though a commercial release is indeed what I would like to do when it is done

2) because it only does ANSI graphics and is otherwise a bit specialized (despite the ease of scripting it's unfit to make plenty of kinds of games)

3) using the experience I've got making this engine I have been considering making my next programming project a more robust and flexible game engine.

[CowBoyDan]

That's great your next project is to make a better game engine (and more power to you, you should do what makes you happy), but meanwhile I'll be over there making games 

BTW, you should really write your own programming language first, then.. then you can write your game engine in your own programming language.  That way you can get over the limitations of those pesky standardized often commercial programming languages.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

if your engine can only do ansi, then by comparison wouldn't someone who wants to make a non-ansi game say that that engine sucks more than game maker or unity? i guess what i don't understand is saying that your engine is better than those engines and that those engines suck if they can do everything yours can

it might take longer to make your game in gm or unity than it would in your custom engine, but would it take more time to make your game in gm or unity than it takes to both code your engine and then your game (combined time)? so i'm still not sure what benefit coding your own engine would be if your goal is to make a game, unless you specifically want to do something that is impossible in an engine (which happens occasionally but usually isn't the case)

[Graham-]

Maybe she was just being playful.

[Pineapple]

if your engine can only do ansi, then by comparison wouldn't someone who wants to make a non-ansi game say that that engine sucks more than game maker or unity? i guess what i don't understand is saying that your engine is better than those engines and that those engines suck if they can do everything yours can

it might take longer to make your game in gm or unity than it would in your custom engine, but would it take more time to make your game in gm or unity than it takes to both code your engine and then your game (combined time)? so i'm still not sure what benefit coding your own engine would be if your goal is to make a game, unless you specifically want to do something that is impossible in an engine (which happens occasionally but usually isn't the case)

I made two statements:
-My engine is badass
-I think Flash and Game Maker are suck

Things which I did not state:
-My engine can do everything Flash and Game Maker can
-My engine does everything better than Flash and Game Maker

I did not comment on Unity because as far as my (limited) experience with it goes it's pretty sweet.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

yeah but from your statements i don't really know what you mean -- you didn't fill in any of the details. why do game maker and flash suck? (flash isn't even an engine so it isn't even very relevant -- flixel and flashpunk would be relevant tho). you didn't say anything specific about gm or flash at all besides that they were bad

[InfiniteStateMachine]

Yeah I wrote my own framework which was basically to address issues I have with Flixel and other state based libraries.

Which issues do you have with it? I quite like state-based stuff, so I'm quite interested in any improvements

mostly like putting the states on a stack so you can push stuff like GUI's and modal popups without having to actually change the state (pushstate and popstate). Also added 3d support and a skinnable GUI library. I do plan on releasing it after I port it to Monogame from XNA.


Don't get me wrong I love Flixel

[InfiniteStateMachine]

it might take longer to make your game in gm or unity than it would in your custom engine, but would it take more time to make your game in gm or unity than it takes to both code your engine and then your game (combined time)?

The answer to the question is sometimes. If the game is simple enough then I could probably do it faster from scratch than in Unity or GM. The main reason being that I'm not an expert at those engines and would have to learn them.

If I were to do something like say write my own Skeletal animation system then that's a situation where something like Unity would help a lot. If I were to do a 2D platformer I can see Unity taking a lot longer (of course this specific example is specific to Unity).

[Pineapple]

yeah but from your statements i don't really know what you mean -- you didn't fill in any of the details. why do game maker and flash suck? (flash isn't even an engine so it isn't even very relevant -- flixel and flashpunk would be relevant tho). you didn't say anything specific about gm or flash at all besides that they were bad

They suck because I don't like them and I don't like them because they suck

[Richard Kain]

They suck because I don't like them and I don't like them because they suck

Circular logic. Also, personal opinion can't be taken as analytic critique.

A more convincing argument would be to point out that game maker relies too heavily on its GUI elements, and that they often interfere with more efficient development.

As to Flash, well that's just indefensible. Flash is more a platform for software development than game development. And there are so many different approaches that can be used with it.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

yeah but from your statements i don't really know what you mean -- you didn't fill in any of the details. why do game maker and flash suck? (flash isn't even an engine so it isn't even very relevant -- flixel and flashpunk would be relevant tho). you didn't say anything specific about gm or flash at all besides that they were bad

They suck because I don't like them and I don't like them because they suck

in that case i'm not sure why are you are letting us know this in this thread -- if it's just an arbitrary personal taste thing that you don't know the reason for and not actually related to anything that would matter to other people, what did you post it for?

[Geeze]

They suck because I don't like them and I don't like them because they have no pineapples

Fixed the circular logic.

[Aik]

I'm mulling over trying a 3D project, but my general instinct would be to go back to Panda3D. Everyone being on board the Unity boat makes me wonder if that's a bad idea...

[BorisTheBrave]

Unity is the strongest engine I've seen for some time, flexible, well documented etc, but here are still some reasons for writing your own, as several people seem genuinely convinced it is never a good idea.

Limitations of the engine - the easier to use an engine is, generally the more limitations it has - this is not a bad thing, it's just that if you try and make task A easy, you make another fit less well. Anything completely general is basically a programming language or library, not an engine. So sometimes there won't be a engine that does what you want well enough, particularly for obscurer game genres. E.g. unity wouldn't help writing a text based adventure.

Fit for purpose - this is pretty similar to limitations. Some engines have a million features I couldn't hope to write for myself. But I actually only need two features for a given game, and I feel I might well be able to polish those to what I need better than a general engine.

Uncertainty - most engines will let you hack in stuff they weren't explicitly aimed for, but there is always the risk that you discover "X is impossible". If I were to write a physics heavy engine in Unity, I'd be SOL if I needed some custom tweaks for the stability. I don't know in advance whether that will be necessary. Porting to other platforms is a big point in this, one that will make your product manager sit up and listen.

Feel - sometimes I wonder whether engines make things too easy to retread ground, and thus reduce innovation. You might write that off that it is easy to innovate in other areas, but you must have noticed games from certain engines always have a very similar "feel" to each other, which only the best users of that platform manage to break away from. E.g. you could spot an Adventure Game Studio game from a mile off, and Flixel and Game Maker to a lesser extent.

[Richard Kain]

but here are still some reasons for writing your own

Now you see, _MadK? This is how you argue a case. This is the proper way to defend/support a particular position. Nice, well-structured reasons that are clear and make sense.

I'm still going to keep working with Unity myself. I've tried the whole write-your-own engine approach, and I've just decided its not for me. I could eventually get where I want to go, but it would just take too long. And I've been finding that bending Unity to my will has not been as much of a challenge as I had expected. Sometimes I am forced to bow to the structure it imposes, but I always seem able to get it to do what I want in the end.

[Hima]

The only thing I don't like about Unity is how you have to spend so much money to build on different targets. Limiting you to two machines is also really really really annoying, especially when you move to a new machine.

If only panda3d has an editor like Unity3d *sigh*

[Ludophonic]

I'm mulling over trying a 3D project, but my general instinct would be to go back to Panda3D. Everyone being on board the Unity boat makes me wonder if that's a bad idea...

Although it often seems that way on this forum, not everyone is on board the Unity boat.

I've had to use Unity on and off for the past year and i've grown to hate the thing.

[Klaim]

Guys, please make it clear when you're talking about either a game-specific, genre-specific or general game engine. It would make the discussion far more clear. To me at least.

I'm making a game specific engine, but as said I cheat by just gluing specific engine libraries together. The reasons are game-specific. If I had to do a game with different features, I would invest more time in Unity first. Depends on the game idea and targets, really.
That said, the more programming skills and experience you have, the more choice you have too.


I wish there was Unity when I made my first games in high school. I wouldn't have passed several months building a crappy 2D engine with DirectX  ;__;  (I learnt basic technical english that way too). It took me several (spare time) months.