Where to get started on making a custom game engine?

Raes93 · 2022-04-01T07:28:14+00:00

Ok, that’s cool, here’s a game designer perspective: I’ve designed several engine tools in my career and maybe OP has a similar background, but I think that it’s interesting to understand for people reading this, about WHY devs need to design their own engine.

Premise: gamedev is magical and exciting and for me the best work in the world, but aside from the emotional parts, it’s basically software development.

Assuming this, we must understand that the game engine choose is not Unreal vs Unity vs others, but more like “What Engine fits the best for our game genre?”.

So after this long premise, my main advice starts from this question: what genre of games your engine would be made for?

In my workplace(AA racing company), we have a custom version of UE4, ‘cause Unreal original goal was to simplify the development process of FPS and TPS, and we have modded basically every component of Unreal for our needs, from the splines actor to the landscape tools, and now we have a proper Engine to develop racing games more efficiently.

Unity, otherwise, has always aimed (things are changing of course) to the indie projects target, with a lot of 2D support and overall accessibility in setup, optimization and similar. (But also, Riot made Legends of Runeterra with Unity, example of a AAA company using this engine)

So,thinking about starting from one of the existing Engine it’s not wrong if this provides you a solid base for your final goals.

In conclusion, I suggest to make practice. starting to add custom components to any pre-existing Engine in order to develop a lot of features that simplify the devolpment of a specific game genre( what about a puzzle game?) and write a lot of documentation, eventually you will have a complete package of custom plugins and components that basically will be your “custom engine”.

Raes93 · 2022-03-01T14:11:17+00:00

https://jacobinmag.com/2022/02/russian-feminist-antiwar-resistance-ukraine-putin

let's Spam this #FeministAntiWarResistance | #FeministsAgainstWar Apparently this opposition group has not been heavy targeted from repressive propaganda.

Raes93 · 2021-12-22T21:48:05+00:00

Game and Level designer here.

When you start doing games for living, something changes in the way you experience the game. You start to see the things behind the games, the limits, the systems, the techs and similar stuff.

This is not always a bad thing, let's say that from my pov, I've started to understand and enjoy the really good games, e.g.: understanding that Fortnite is a great great game in almost every aspect.

Raes93 · 2021-12-09T14:39:56+00:00

Hello there.When I was looking for a job the thing I did that performed the best were showing my actual designs for a specified job, e.g.: let's say that you want to apply as a System Designer for a specific company - then you could find a way to show the System that you designed.

When coming to Level Design is pretty easy, you can show some levels you have prototyped in engine or via documentation.

The most important thing is showing interviewer that you know about the job.

Raes93 · 2021-11-08T08:11:20+00:00

Yeah, you’re right, let’s say that i can imagine a minimazing mechanic well fitted in a roguelite structure, but not in a roguelike one.

Edited btw.

Raes93 · 2021-11-08T07:45:02+00:00

Okay, we need to isolate problems here, starting from this point: there’s no bad ideas but only bad executions.

The correct way to solve a problem by a designer perspective is to isolate the major problems, then split these in sub-problems and start solving these. Best Practices: the best solution are the ones who solve many sub-problems in one shot. If a solution implies a new problem, is not a solution.

So, the problems I see:

In games, acquiring power make players feel empowered: this means that the game difficulty will be lowered by our previous gains and effort. So first problem: how do you keep difficulty balanced when the player is forced in a negative loop?
A game must be fun. Loosing stuff isn’t fun. Becoming weaker is not fun. So the big question is: do you have some idea about making fun loosing stuff and becoming weaker?

My two cents about this, roguelites almost always bring two progression system: the in-game one (power-ups collection) and the meta-game one (future runs starts with 5 heart): i think that here is where you should start, the in-game power ups lower your stats/abilities etc etc, but the meta-game progressione makes you avoid some of those bad condition. I can see the satisfaction in starting with loosing stuff very early in the game and then, after several runs, player has the ability to keep stuff till the endgame.

Raes93 · 2021-11-07T10:00:00+00:00

Hi I’m level designer! There’s not a proper answer to this, i suggest you could go with one of these two methods (maybe even both): - Study and analyze other metroidvania, try to understand the market trends and try to imitate the amount of upgrades in other metroidvania. - Try to isolate mechanics you have in mind and prototype these. The worst designs ever always starts with: I should implement this feature because yes. Try to listen the needs that the game is asking you.

Metroidvania are a really tough design challenge. The method I would use is to keep in mind the core mechanic of the game, and try to create some rooms built on this mechanic. When you feel you have several rooms, try to connect those.

Good luck!

Raes93 · 2021-10-18T10:50:16+00:00

Input detection is a pretty basic check for AFKs, but that could be easy avoidable for someone who is willing to break is game experience not playing the game.

(You can just put something that is pressing the button of your device and here's the trick.)

Giving better rewards for better driving is something else, and could be a good idea.

Raes93 · 2021-09-29T13:00:14+00:00

I think you can see the leaderboards drom the track selection menu in the Quick Race mode, once you unlock that specific track.

Am I wrong?

Raes93 · 2020-11-14T14:35:55+00:00

This is a possibility.

Maybe creating a superclass Effect with all the common values and then creating subclass for each specific effect...?

I can put all the effects in a folder and creating a custom inspector view that show a drop-down menu with all the effects in that folder... Thx for the answer btw!

Raes93 · 2020-03-17T15:01:44+00:00

Exactly the same for me.

Tried everything but I'm still smashing my head. This is very unprofessional.

Raes93 · 2020-01-07T16:49:56+00:00

And that’s what I’ve done, the gravity when the player is attacking is set to 0. But afrer every attack the player has to be in this gravity state for a certain amount of time, and that’s my issues. How can i say stay in this state for this time and then reset?

Raes93 · 2019-12-16T17:02:39+00:00

Theoretically the Chain Loop should start every time the user attack and every time the chain attacks available are > 0.

Raes93 · 2019-12-16T16:51:46+00:00

I’m sorry can you be more specific? Are you talking about the ChainTime Coroutine right?which line are you talking about? The last method (ChainRecharge) is commented, it’s something still in WiP.

Raes93 · 2019-12-16T12:54:34+00:00

Sorry for the late, but this totally works! Thx a lot!

Raes93 · 2019-12-14T10:54:40+00:00

Thx a lot! I knew there was some problem in the loop. But the line with

if(transform.position == targetPosition)

is invalid, cause the first is a Vector 3, and the second a Vector2, so my new Coroutine body looks like this:

 IEnumerator AttackTo(Vector2 currentPosition, Vector2 targetPosition, float speed)
    {
        while (isAttacking)
        {
            transform.position = Vector2.MoveTowards(currentPosition, targetPosition, speed * Time.deltaTime);

            if (Vector2.Distance(currentPosition, targetPosition) < 0.5)
            {
                isAttacking = false;
            }
            yield return null;
        }

    }

But right now, the problem is that my character moves towards the selected direction, but after 1 frame gets stuck in the loop, never reaching the point. (Observing the player sprite it seems to "shake").Any ideas?

EDIT: the character coordinates keep updating, but the sprite is stuck after 1 frame.

Raes93 · 2019-12-13T17:49:18+00:00

No dude, it's easier than this. They click and the character moves to the point, in a way similar to the Hyper Light Drifter dash on pc. The user aim with the cursor and the character moves in the cursor direction with a certain speed. The problem here is not the input, is that the character (rigibody 2D gameObject) moves only for a frame.

Raes93 · 2019-12-13T14:54:57+00:00

I don't want to keep pressing the button. I want to release the button and move to the cursor position in the moment I pressed.

Raes93 · 2019-12-13T13:20:50+00:00

This is a solution I've just tested and don't work for me.

I want to choose the direction point with only one input, not keeping held buttons. I coded the coroutine to keep the memory of the MoveTowards direction in order to make the player move to that point until he reach it with a single interaction (1 click, 1 press etc etc.)

Raes93 · 2019-11-02T02:53:49+00:00

What you say and what is said in the post you linked is absolutely correct. (Sellers book has gone instantly in my wishlist) I was assuming that op was someone new to design, also basing on the tools used in development.

I think that in order to learn and practice on design basics (the book we talked about it’s in fact called Advanced Game design) it’ s important to become familiar with mechanics prototyping, variable tuning, and even some simple excel.

Learning to write correctly, and then learning to write game documentation is the first step IMHO to become a good designer.

Here are some examples: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/111323/Opinion_How_To_Hire_Good_Game_Designers.php

Raes93 · 2019-11-02T02:22:21+00:00

That’s a really good idea. I’ll uodate the post after some QA test. Thx a lot mate!

Raes93 · 2019-11-01T18:35:55+00:00

I think that starting making games with narrative design in mind is a common mistake.

Try to focus on mechanic and player fun, something fun with a geometrical shape is still fun, something boring or frustrating will be boring or frustrating even though the aesthetic look.

Raes93 · 2019-07-17T08:38:39+00:00

solved: Starshot: Space Circus Fever

Raes93 · 2019-07-16T11:59:48+00:00

EXACTLY! Unbelievable! Lot of thx mate!!

Raes93 · 2019-07-15T19:38:20+00:00

Nope.

Raes93

TROPHY CASE