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[zradick]

I've always been a DIYer myself.  It definitely doesn't help with getting things out fast, but there's never any question about what I can or can't change, or any licensing related restrictions.  It probably doesn't hurt that I write Java for a living, so doing it on the side for fun (while inherently a bit disturbing) makes a certain sort of sense.

Since I have no desire to get into the 3D space and I realize that at best I might make something "casual", I find those limitations acceptable.  I crank out code pretty fast, but I also don't generally worry about optimization for my render loops or other things that would potentially be needed for production games.

Anyway, chalk one vote up for ground-up development with true OOP (and pass back my wine glass).

Cheers,
--Zack

[Etaoin Shirdlu]

Pyglet is a cross platform library that is showing a lot of progress very quickly. I've been playing around with the 1.1 alpha 2 version and really enjoying it.

How does it compare to pygame? Is it fast enough to do a side-scrolling with parallax scrolling?

[GlingGling]

I've used Construct (thanks Hideous), Processing, and XNA.

Construct is really friendly, I got on with it instantly. It's more friendly than Game Maker. It's still young so the support isn't as good as Game Maker. Also it can still be a little unstable. I'll give it some time to mature it should become good competition to GameMaker and Multimedia Fusion.

Processing is great. I could go on for a while. It's extremely friendly, the documentation is great. The community isn't amazingly active but still helpful. If you know C# or Java you'll be right at home. It doesn't make you know about objects or any bullocks to get started. I'll agree while maybe not totally ideal for games it gets the job done. It's really good for creating visual non game projects though. The fact that you can very simply export your project to a web applet that runs on any system is one of the best parts of the language.

After Processing, I thought I'd try out XNA. I'm glad I did it in that order. XNA uses C# so if you know Java you'll get comfortable in no time. XNA is kinda like Processing in an Iron Man suit. It's ridiculously more powerful but a great deal harder to deal with. This drawback is softened by best in class documentation (MSDN) and a very strong and active community. If you're starting out chances are anything you want to do has already been done or is covered in the documentation. With XNA, the sky is the limit... actually PC and Xbox360 are the limit, but who's counting. I heard that Mono.XNA is on the move though so linux and mac should get some love soon.

These three products should cover the full spectrum of independent game development. I'd recommend starting at the top, but if you're more comfortable coding Processing is a great first choice. And if you're really comfortable coding, especially in C#, XNA can be a good first choice too. Did I mention it's all free?

[Hideous]

Yeah, Construct just (finally!) got rid of it's file corruption issues. It's getting bigger.

[Don Andy]

I'd actually like to see something like Gamemaker, but able to create platform independent games. Or at least for the three "major" OS.

But Construct does indeed look very interesting. I think I'm gonna play around with it a bit.

[BenH]

I keep trying out new versions of Construct, but I find the graphical event-based system a lot slower to use than if I just wrote the script/code myself like I do in GameMaker.

[Hideous]

You can write scripts with Python in Construct. I guess you didn't see that?

[BenH]

I knew it had Python, but I didn't know where to look for a list of construct's commands to use within it. Also, without even using Python, the Python DLL managed to crash my game. :/

[Hideous]

The commands are all listed in the built-in python editor. Also that's really strange.

[BenH]

I just tried the latest version and attempted to include some simple code such as "Sprite3.Angle = 45" and I get this error:



..and then this one:


and then this one which keeps appearing until I close the game (then it crashes)



So yeah, this is why I've not been able to get on well with Construct so far

[Hideous]

Hm. You better post that over at scirra forums.

[ravuya]

Sounds like it might have a conflict with a pre-existing installation of python. Weird, though.

[GlingGling]

I've also had some time to sit down with Pygame for a while. I really enjoyed working with it and having fun with Python. There is something to be said about dynamic languages and Python makes a lot of efforts to make coding concise yet explicit.

Coming from XNA, Pygame was fairly easy to get into. I read that the creators of XNA looked closely at other frameworks at the time to see what they did right. Pygame would have been an active framework.

Not much to say, it's a fully featured game development framework using the Python language. The only thing more I would ask for is to include a 2D rendering system using openGL. I've read that Pyglet is working towards this goal so I'll have to keep an eye on it.

If you love Python, don't torture yourself with another language, try Pygame today!

[Hideous]

Or pycap. Pycap rocks.

[Skofo]

Blah. Shitty list.

[GlingGling]

Blah. Shitty list.

Shitty post. Perhaps you could suggest some more.

[moi]

shitty poster

[Skofo]

Blah. Shitty list.

Shitty post. Perhaps you could suggest some more.

Try the dead obvious ones like C/++/♯, Java, and Object Pascal. Then after that you could add Source SDK, Flex SDK, FlashDevelop, OGRE3D, id Tech, M.U.G.E.N, GameBlender, devkitPro, PAlib, Javascript, Unity and Irrlicht Engine, for starters. And you can remove the (2D) next to Flash and Game Maker because they are completely capable of producing 3D games.

shitty poster

I am sorry I am not a big part of your exciting hobby.

[Derek]

Yah, this list could definitely use a bit of an update.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

There are a few 3D games made in GM, like Cactus's Mondo series, but the engine is centered around 2D and it's only possible to get 3D with GML code which can barely do anything, and what it can do is largely undocumented. And strictly speaking all 2D games made in latter versions of Direct X are actually 3D games shown on a single plane with the camera looking straight down, so you could make the argument that all GM games are 3D, but they just look 2D.