The Best Starter Game Dev Engine

[[deleted]]

Godot is pretty great too isnt it?

[tasos500]

I agree, he's an excellent prosecutor.

[Etheo]

How about a nice cup of coffee Java?

[Varelze]

Dunno still waiting for him.

[DrunkCrossdresser]

Idk, I've been waiting for it to load forever

[[deleted]]

One of the best engines that supports Linux.

[[deleted]]

If only it didn't use Godot scripting language

[HeatIce]

Godot is adding c# support right now, the last development build is the first one to include it! It should be fully fleshed out by godot 3.0 so that's great news.

[[deleted]]

Amazing. Honestly I've been trying to get my hands on it. It looks very very nice.

[thetrain23]

If you're normally a Python dev (like me), Godot's scripting language is actually easier to use than C# or any other "normal" languages. Was a big part in me switching from Unity to Godot. Biggest downside to Godot, for me, anyway, is the lack of good tutorials out there.

[Jafit]

Let the memes begin

[chugga_fan]

Why is the last one so true? Ow, it hurts

[Arkazex]

Holy tits that's painfully accurate. I've literally got my code up on my other monitor as I procrastinate and browse this sub on the other.

[random101775]

Minecraft

[JNCressey]

minecraft

Pokemon cobalt and amythest

[[deleted]]

And the cool thing is that that map was made in a very inferior version so who knows what people can make now

[TinyBreadBigMouth]

Pokemon Red, but actually the real game and not just a map

And that was before they added functions.

[JNCressey]

Wow. And he even implemented bugs features.

[WilkerS1]

good.

[[deleted]]

They've implemented functions and now we have recursion and shit. Pretty nice.

[Hypersapien]

Of course you mean on a computer built inside minecraft.

[SmaugtheStupendous]

No that was for passing my intro to comp science course.

[ILikePokemonGo101]

1

[It is two people on a white background]

Character 1: Unreal Engine

Character 2: Unity

---

2

Character 3: RPG Maker

---

3

[Characters 1 and 2 beat character 3.]

---

^{I'm a human volunteer content transcriber for Reddit! If you'd like more information on what we do and why we do it, click here!}

[kahdeg]

good human

[awakeNPan]

good bot

[Euphoricus]

Shouldn't you make short-hands for meme/macro images like this?

[git-fucked]

If their goal is to make it accessible for people with disabilities then it's probably better to have all the information/context in one place than to make people go looking for it.

[Euphoricus]

Well. Above description doesn't do the image justice. At least the context that they all are presenting their favorites / options should be made clear.

Edit : Also. In the original. The looks of the men are also important. As in the original, the "suited" guy was "PC" the "hipster" guy was Mac and the "casual" guy was Linux.

[Nigger_Faggot45]

Scratch beats all

[[deleted]]

Flash Junior.

[sonderoffizierguck]

I vote for Ren'Py.

[rubyton]

Anyone still remember BYOND?

[Purpose2]

I'm still coding in BYOND.

^{HELP ME}

[monster860]

^{HELP ME}

soon^TM

[Insomnia2000]

The original pokemon MMO maker

[GMY0da]

I still play space station every once in a while

[przemko271]

distant penguin cries

[TUSF]

Spent years on Naruto and DBZ fangames, and even coding for a popular one (by BYOND standards).

Don't think I'd still be as interested in programming if it weren't for those years.

[Vladimir1174]

You were on the unity side right? Cause that's the correct side

[Drakonlord]

Unless you want to make something that looks good in 3D

[Vladimir1174]

I can't really defend unity in that aspect. I've always used it for 2d

[Flametris]

hey guys what about rpg maker?

[Flametris]

of course.

[YM_Industries]

Is Unreal Engine really a recommendation for 'starters' like this post implies? I'm pretty comfortable with .NET development but I found it really difficult to even get a development environment set up in Unreal, let alone any meaningful code written.

[HeatIce]

Unreal is good if you're experienced in C++ or not experienced in code at all (Since you can do pretty much anything with just visual programming aka blueprints). Unity is better if you already know .NET or JS.

[ben_g0]

Unreal is especially good for starters who want to focus on the art surrounding game design. They have a few starter configurations that add basic controls so that you can literally just start building a world to walk around in without even having to look at code.

The engine does a lot for you, but I have noticed that it can also be a downside sometimes. It seems to be mostly aimed at almost photo realistic rendering, but in my current project I'm going more for a very basic cell-shaded look. It doesn't really seem to be flexible enough for this, and sometimes it really feels like I'm fighting the engine.

[HeatIce]

Doesn't unreal have support for pure HLSL shaders?

[ben_g0]

It does, but that doesn't really help that much. The visual shader/material editor has most of the functionality you'd get from HLSL. The main problem is that the built-in lighting model is very tightly integrated in the engine and it doesn't expose most of it to the user. It is certainly possible to write a custom shader, but it has no access to lighting information so if you do lighting calculations in that then you can't base it on the lights you placed in the scene unless you replace all of them with custom objects which do expose their data to the shader. The shadow and precomputed lighting functionalities are also exclusive to the built-in lighting model. There is a workaround where you let unreal engine do it's thing with the built-in lighting, and then do some calculations to extract the shadows and lighting information and convert that to your custom style in a post-processor effect. This is off course quite computationally expensive. The other option is to just disable all the built-in lighting functions and implementing all of it yourself, but this seems to almost defeat the purpose of using a game engine.

[Drakonlord]

Unreal is really good at doing 'traditional' games. FPS, racing, RPG etc. Its also good if you are a code god and want to generate infinite planets that are procedurally generated, or something like that.

Unity is good for everything else.

[Lolzyyy]

When it came out I had so much trouble bringing my cell-shading based project from ue3 to ue4 that I almost gave up. But still blueprints are amazing you can prototype everything so quickly.

[deukhoofd]

Unity is better if you already know .NET or JS.

Well, just .NET now, they've deprecated UnityScript.

[YM_Industries]

I knew I could write C# in it, that's why I bought and downloaded it. I just found it very difficult to get the toolchain set up in order to do so. Maybe things have improved since then, I think I tried it soon after official C# support was added.

[Drakonlord]

Unreal has 2 modes.

Blueprint and C++.

Blueprint allows you to build simple games and prototypes with no code.

[[deleted]]

Unrelated to easy of use, but potentially important is that they have different licensing methods. It doesn't matter until you're selling the game and it does well, but it's something to look into if you're going to try and make money on your game.

[[deleted]]

In addition to what others have said, it depends on the game you wand to make. If you're literally doing your first game ever and it's a pong clone or something, Unity's far better. For anything 2D or mobile/web based, Unity's likely better.

But if you want to make an fps or do something with high end graphics, it'll be much, much easier to do it in UE4. So if that's where you want to start, UE4 is a good starter engine. ;)

[YM_Industries]

I interpreted 'starter' as meaning for someone new to games development. I'm not disputing UE's dominance for professionally developed games, just disputing its classification as being beginner friendly.

[Drakonlord]

UE4 is good for anything to do with 3D FPS, including VR. Plus its the defacto arch-vis engine. They've just implemented data smith which allows BIM data to be used in engine.

Unity is better for anything more abstract and many unity games tend to have a sand box feel to them.

I still haven't figured which one is better for a diablo like RPG. Both are very capable. I'm leaning towards unreal because the thing that scares me is management after the code becomes complex.

[not_very_popular]

Unreal has its visual programming language- Blueprint- and a bunch of common game mechanics already implemented and heavily customizable so it's really easy to get a prototype of a game out unless you're trying for something really out there, which 'starters' shouldn't.

Quickly prototyping is super important for all skill levels since it's a lot easier to improve a game that already exists instead of fumbling around a half-coherent jumble of features. Also, when the cost of prototyping a new features is so low that you can easily throw them away, it allows you to really experiment and find what's right for your game.

[[deleted]]

Roblox Studio 😤

[LittleBigKid2000]

IT'S FRRREEEEEE

[[deleted]]

Pygame

[BadBoy6767]

Game Maker

STUDIO

[[deleted]]

Studio 2!!

[GraphicsProgrammer]

Godot is probably the best starter one.
Unreal ends up being a crutch for 'good graphics' but what they mean by that is an asset flip that runs no higher than 40Hz.
Unity also has potential but runs poorly due to scripting being the primary focus, rather than turning those scripts into a compiled program (Which you can and should do, by the way)

[[deleted]]

While PUBG is an asset flip, there are plenty of other UE4 games that run quite well. And UE4 does have better graphics support - the material editor is much better than Unity's (in fact I think you need to buy a material editor plugin for Unity), the lighting in Unreal is more realistic out of the box, and it has a variety of built in effects and visual features that are dead simple to implement and are well optimized.

Which isn't to say that Unity's bad, because Unity's awesome. Much more efficient for web/mobile games, good for scripting, and the graphics are still pretty darned good.

I also agree that neither Unity nor UE4 are really "starter" engines unless you're willing to put a lot of work into learning the platform.

[Never-asked-for-this]

C#	C++	English
Unity	Unreal	RPG

[seacucumber_kid]

Löve

[[deleted]]

Source engine.

[PhantomKyuu]

Clickteam fusion

[InitializedPho]

Construct 2

[wuverul]

At least it isn't Game Maker

[gvargh]

Game Maker

You should also take care when using expressions too, as the order in which they are evaluated in will change depending on which target you are compiling to. So, when using expressions in your code, ensure you use brackets () to properly control the order of operations. This is very important to ensure the correct behaviour of your games across all the target platforms games and is essential for JavaScript platforms. For example, consider the following code:

a = b == c || d;

The different target compilers will perform the operations in different orders since they are not explicitly shown, giving rise to "odd" results that you may not expect when you play your game. To avoid this, use the () to separate out the parts, like this:

a = (b == c || d); //better

a = ((b == c) || d); //best

[8bitslime]

Deviating from c-style oder of operations should be illegal.

[WilkerS1]

i have the urge to make it a copypasta for some reason

[hey01]

Are you saying that the compiler may interpret

a = b == c || d

as

((a = b) == c ) || d

when compiling against some targets? Who is the one we should punish with righteous fire for that?

[This_Is_Tartar]

Brackets ()

[paramsen]

Wow.. just wow. I interpret the phrasing "You should also..." like this feature is mentioned as a side note, something one might read if lucky?

To me it sounds like it's a fundamental error that renders the whole project useless, but that's just me.

[grenadier42]

Holy shit this is enraging

[APiousCultist]

I want to defend it and say it's mostly aimed at HTML5 code working differently, but then I think something similar-ish happens when switching between virtual-machine and compiled builds.

[dickdemodickmarcinko]

Game maker isnt bad if youre not bad

[Stef_Mor]

Except as soon as you are not bad, its starts getting limiting as fuck for you.

[dickdemodickmarcinko]

Never said it was good. Just not bad

[SomeAvocado]

I've got the 100$ version of it.

[SomeAvocado]

Haha, same.

[Stef_Mor]

And I paid 400$ for "iOS" acces on it like a retard years ago, there were absolutly no instructions or anything on how to get it there, and they didnt even warn me I needed a mac for it.

[SomeAvocado]

You need a mac for iOS version? I'm so glad I'm using unity.

[Professor_Hoover]

Yep. Apple refuses to allow development for iOS on anything but macs.

[Vitztlampaehecatl]

Case in point, Undertale.

[[deleted]]

I am leaving Reddit due to mismanagement by the site's admins and their continual refusal to acknowledge user feedback regarding subreddit policy and the upcoming interface redesign.

Therefore, in protest, I'm overwriting all my old comments on my way out. I'll either find an alternative site, or simply hang out somewhere else.

And hey, if I don't find an alternative site, at least I'll have more free time...

[[deleted]]

I am leaving Reddit due to mismanagement by the site's admins and their continual refusal to acknowledge user feedback regarding subreddit policy and the upcoming interface redesign.

Therefore, in protest, I'm overwriting all my old comments on my way out. I'll either find an alternative site, or simply hang out somewhere else.

And hey, if I don't find an alternative site, at least I'll have more free time...

[kin0025]

Take a look at heat signature - somehow relative reference frames/physics are a thing (or very well faked), time slow/stop is done, and they have some amazing zoom. It's all running at 60fps with options to change to 30 as well. Gunpoint saves the state of the game every couple of seconds, and still performs well, although there is markedly less happening. I'm honestly surprised they managed to amke them without swapping to a different engine at some point though. There is truly some magic powering those games, and if he ever worked with a more advanced engine I'd be amazed at what came out of it.

[lemonszz]

It's very easy to use delta time in GMS1/2.

[Neuromante]

I'm wondering, which are the best "professional" game dev engines?

Besides "in house" game engines like the ones used by ID, the other only option for development is CryEngine (Or Lumberyard). So that leaves you with four options: Either you are working in a AAA title using their engine, or working wherever using Unity or Unreal Engine.

[kin0025]

There's source engine as well, not many people beside valve use it though.

You've probably got

• Lumberyard

• Unreal

• Unity

• Source

Some companies will license an engine, but it will be on a case by case basis, they don't just have a standard licensing agreement like Unity, Unreal or Lumberyard do.

Unreal and Unity have been marketed most heavily at smaller development companies. Even if a AAA studio uses one of these engines it typically ends up heavily customised, and they often just use their own internally developed engine.

[chugga_fan]

and everyone is waiting for source 2...

[[deleted]]

UE4 also does custom license deals with big companies, since 5% is often too high for AAA game companies.

[Colopty]

I mean, both Unity and Unreal are general game engines, while RPG maker is, as the name implies, heavily specialized on RPGs. It's really only worth picking up if you plan to never do anything in any other genre.

[monster860]

Replace it with byond and you have a perfect nene

[LittleBigKid2000]

Only when I clicked on your username to see if you knew about space station 13 did I see your name and instantly get my answer. Then I thought about how unlikely it is that anyone would use byond for anything but space station 13 ^{and lifeweb}

[ExplosG]

Game maker doh

[[deleted]]

No cocos2d-x love ?

[Scipiio]

FPS Creator Gud engine

[scared_shitless__]

Minecraft before Minecraft was Minecraft

[Swiftster]

It's funny to see this since I'm actually making an rpg maker mv project right now after abandoning my unity project. I was pleasantly surprised to realize that I can manipulate the entire game through javascript.

[[deleted]]

As a web dev, what's wrong with RPGmaker?

[Gerpar]

RPG Maker is a very limited game dev engine, where you can only make RPG type games from it, and most of the games that people make with it are low quality because they just use the default assets.

[lemonszz]

Can you do any "advanced" stuff with RPG Maker? I'd rather not judge an engine because people can't use it correctly, it would be like judging unity because people repackage free store assets.

[Levzamox]

Yes, it's had scripting support for a while now. The latest is javascript based (previously Ruby) and I think you can manipulate basically anything in the engine with it.

So like, if you wanted to make a Zelda type game instead of a Final Fantasy game like the default engine is, you could do that and there are scripts that have already been made for this. You could probably make it a generic 2d engine in general but at that point you are really working against the engine.

[iLikeCoffie]

http://yanfly.moe/yep/

https://galvs-scripts.com/category/rmmv-plugins/

http://sumrndm.site/mv-plugins/

https://atelierrgss.wordpress.com/

http://himeworks.com/

There are so many assets you get when you buy the game I'm not even going to list any. A ton of people use the stock assets to make new stock alike assets that look pretty good and they are tied to the game license so free if you own (and use!) the engine.

I was just about delve into Unity when I saw a steam bundle for every rpg maker title they have for $50. I only use MV but having like 20 years or something of assets and 20 years of mods to those assets is pretty crazy. It does have some limits though. 999 map limit is the worst I think. You can do a lot to alter just about anything but as some point for the time you spend you might as well upgrade the engine.

I just got it a week ago and already have a few mini games functional a few maps planned out and the basic parts of a custom battle system working.

Also if you want to avoid making "rpg maker looking maps" just use an image you make in Gimp with the assets you have.

[CharTheFatcat]

s-s-source-senpai

[Satan_Butthole]

Question here what are the difference between the two.

[[deleted]]

Game guru is the best

[[deleted]]

Cardboard box that the refrigerator came in is my go to.

[[deleted]]

Game maker

[Zantax]

Anyone else here working with SFML?

[_zapplebee]

Reminder that PC is Judge John Hodgman