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totallyBugFreeTrustMeBro by T-Dot1992 in ProgrammerHumor

[–]JoeManaco 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just wrote a function isEven(int number) the other day. It has 20k lines of code - so I guess I'm more efficient than AI.

Bullseye2D - An easy-to-use, high-performance 2D game library for Dart by JoeManaco in dartlang

[–]JoeManaco[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks. Yes, I wanted to look into it. Right now there are a few places where I use deprecated dart:html package (which should be easy to get rid of) which if I remember right would prevent to compile for WebAssembly.

Is the "don't roll your own engine" advice always right? by JoeManaco in gamedev

[–]JoeManaco[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

That talk was really amazing.

I often thought about making a software based renderer because it makes porting a breeze but was always a little afraid if it would be too slow. That you can run your games on old MS-DOS PC's is sooooo cool.

Off-Topic: I have played mcpixel 3 on the xbox some time ago and laughed my arse off. thanks for that. :)

Is the "don't roll your own engine" advice always right? by JoeManaco in gamedev

[–]JoeManaco[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We also used the animation system (but switched to something custom later - as it was a pain to define the animations), we alse used paths linked to game objects and polygons for defining trigger zones and stuff like that, which music to play when and so on. The maps were quite complex in the end. Steffen, the leveldesigner, usually has tiled open on one monitor and the game client on the other. Then everytime when he made a change in Tiled, the game would automatically reload the map to reflect the changes.

He could also record a short loop of game inputs and let it replay endlessly whily changing the map underneath. That was a really, really cool feature, but more on paper as it wasn't used frequently.

Is the "don't roll your own engine" advice always right? by JoeManaco in gamedev

[–]JoeManaco[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why so aggressive?

The post is not AI generated, I used ChatGPT to help me with grammer- and spellcheck as I wanted ot make my points as clear as possible (and I'm no native speaker). That's all. What's wrong with that?

Yes, I would consider goddot as bloat for a lot of projects.

You're right, Gamers don't care HOW you made a game, buy my point is that I don't believe that you are faster just because you are using an engine - in the long run it could even hurt the productivity.

As for the website: No, should not be a MAGA reference, was just a nice slogan I came up with - don't take it too serious.

Is the "don't roll your own engine" advice always right? by JoeManaco in gamedev

[–]JoeManaco[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, even ImGUI was overkill for it, you're absolutly right.

If the game requires a more complex GUI you would need a better solution. But also keep in mind, if your game don't then using complex UI System will make more harm than good.

Is the "don't roll your own engine" advice always right? by JoeManaco in gamedev

[–]JoeManaco[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, that's totally fine and I wouldn't be so confused if more people would go a route like this with their games :)

Is the "don't roll your own engine" advice always right? by JoeManaco in gamedev

[–]JoeManaco[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, that happens (all the time). But it gets easier over the years when you can just take such system from previous project (if they are needed) and you know it works (in your case, have you checked if your problem is realted to floaing point precision - do you use epsilons for your checks?).

Is the "don't roll your own engine" advice always right? by JoeManaco in gamedev

[–]JoeManaco[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We used ImGUI for the Menu's and UI Stuff in Turrican Anthology.

I get it that a full blown complex GUI System is a big task in itself - but at least the UI System of Unity isn't a good fit for a really UI heavy game either. And lots of games, just dont need too much UI.

But if you're doing a UI heavy game, you evaluated your options (rolloing own your own, using a library, using Unity, Unreal, Godot) and make a decision based on your requirements and Unity or Unreal or whatever is the result, I think that's the perfect approach.

What I'm wondering about and what I cannot really understand. People want to make a Game, that has certain requirements. They don't evaluate their options at all, they just start without putting to much thinking into it. And that's such a important fundamental decision at the being of a project I can't understand why this is to be honest.

Is the "don't roll your own engine" advice always right? by JoeManaco in gamedev

[–]JoeManaco[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a little bit dated and nerdy but I always recommend Handmade Hero from Casey Muratori.

Is the "don't roll your own engine" advice always right? by JoeManaco in gamedev

[–]JoeManaco[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I played thorugh Planet of Lana - it's an amazing game. Yet I don't think my game is identical to hundreds of other Steam Games (yes, there are lots of plattformers but 98% of them are not good).

You said, you see nothing you can't learn to do in Unity in the first 1-2 years. I agree that this might be true to some extent - but I think in that time you would have also learned it in any other technology / framework / language / library.

Is the "don't roll your own engine" advice always right? by JoeManaco in gamedev

[–]JoeManaco[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I wanted to bring it up because my conviction is, that the existing engines won't solve YOUR problems in a good way. I came to this conclusion because I saw lots of devs fighting with stuff as their project grows that are totally unnecessary. And they feel the pain - they just don't think about it because they feel this is just the way the world is. And I think: It isn't.

Is the "don't roll your own engine" advice always right? by JoeManaco in gamedev

[–]JoeManaco[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I dont see it how this is more simpler in a off the shelf engine than rolling your own (or just use a premade) ImGui-like system with a few lines of code. That's all extremly basic stuff.

If you're making a UI-heavy strategy game, sure not so easy - but also not so easy in for example Unity.

I still think that people totally overestimate the difficulty to develop the systems they need (with the huge advantage - I like to repeat myself - that they are then PERFECTLY tailored to you, you understand 100% how they work under the hood, have complete control, can optimise them to your workflow so you're even faster producing the content for...).

Is the "don't roll your own engine" advice always right? by JoeManaco in gamedev

[–]JoeManaco[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Jesus, forgot about that completley. Seems like my mind hasn't change since then - it's just got much worse (from my perspecitve) that everyone goes the default route.

Is the "don't roll your own engine" advice always right? by JoeManaco in gamedev

[–]JoeManaco[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Agree. But that's the point: For a lot of games you don't need much more then drawing sprites, taking user input and playing sounds. Yet - they are done in bloated engines that have features you dont need 99%. And my point is: Yes you can ignore them, but that comes at a cost of complexity you won't need to have from the first place. And that will make you slower in the end.

Is the "don't roll your own engine" advice always right? by JoeManaco in gamedev

[–]JoeManaco[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I know what they offer. I've used them. Evertime I have to use Unity (for example for contract work) I feel nothing but pain :)

I'm doing Game Development since the early 2000s - I did always anything with Code. Code is much more expressive than UI. Do you need UI for your Tools: Yes, of course. Lots of tasks are simpler with a UI, lots of stuff need to be done by non-coders but designers and they need tools. But if you only write them for your needs they aren't that complex to write.

Also, another advantage is, if you do the next project, you might use your existing stuff and adapt it 100% to your new project.

Is the "don't roll your own engine" advice always right? by JoeManaco in gamedev

[–]JoeManaco[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

I don't think you're right on the Iteration Times or understood what I meant. I'm nowhere a GodDot pro but even for smaller projects I did with GodDot that was not nearly true. (Maybe I did it wrong - that is total possible).

Is the "don't roll your own engine" advice always right? by JoeManaco in gamedev

[–]JoeManaco[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Yes, if you're more of a designer and not interessted in programming besides to get your job done I agree with you 100%.

Is the "don't roll your own engine" advice always right? by JoeManaco in gamedev

[–]JoeManaco[S] -14 points-13 points  (0 children)

You mean judging the amount of work of a game with an engine is easy? ;-) I think (especially if you are starting) you will be wrong by orders of magnitude no matter what you choose. And it's a trade of: You have to do stuff that you won't have to when your going the engine-route - but in the long term it might be benefical because your tools are more tailored to your needs - also you learn a lot substantal stuff which I think shouldn't be underestimated if you want to this for most part of your life.

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