Game development is one of the largest branches of software engineering, and the only one that has a need in people from other fields, like artists and composers. Each year more and more young developers are starting making their own indie games, alone, or with a couple of friends, to later become a part of the industry. That is when they meet their first obstacle -- choosing the game engine.
Game engine is a pre-made software development environment, that in most cases has already built-in logic for rendering of 2D and 3D graphics, a physics engine or collision detection (and collision response), sound, scripting, animation, artificial intelligence, networking, streaming, memory management, threading, localization support, scene graph, and may include video support for cinematics. Developing all that from scratch is such a horrendous task that it would practically render indie development impossible. Luckily, there are many various options available on the market. Some giants of the industry like Unity, or Unreal engine, do not require representation. Instead, I would like to present you rather new, but very promising engine -- Godot.
Almost all game development environments rely on some programming knowledge, but some are more suited to those coming from a programming background. Godot is a perfect example of a tool built for programmers.
The Godot API exposes almost every element of the engine, and it’s rare to find features which are not directly accessible by code. Godot receives praise for its fantastic documentation and ease of use from a coding perspective.
The Godot engine comes with a programming language called GDScript. To some, this is an immediate turnoff. Frequently, in-house languages are either unnecessary or poorly thought-out.
GDScript came as a result of in-house testing by the Godot team. Rather than creating a new language for the sake of it, GDScript came through iterating through other languages such as Python and Lua. None of these languages work quite how they want, so the team created GDScript to be as readable as Python, yet retaining essential elements for development like strict typing, better editor integration, and more straightforward optimizations for speed.
Many developers who start with Godot find themselves pleasantly surprised by how quick the language is to pick up. However, if learning a new language isn’t on your list, there is an alternative.
Choosing a game development environment frequently means choosing a programming language. No matter how comfortable you are in your preferred language, if the development tools you require are not supported, then you are left with little choice.
Godot currently directly supports C++, C#, and GDScript. They are also working on VisualScript, a code-free node based programming system similar to Unreal Engine’s Blueprint system.
Godot supports the creation of both 2D and 3D games. Indie developers making 2D games love the work-flow Godot provides. Rather than pseudo 2D (a 3D world represented in two dimensions), Godot works in an actual 2D space expressed in pixels. This hugely simplifies 2D game creation and optimization.
3D support is newer and still lags behind Unreal Engine and Unity. Nevertheless, unless you are building a AAA game with top of the line graphics you are not going to run into any limitations using Godot.
Godot has specialized nodes for both 2D and 3D, with some designed to work in both, and support for 2.5D is coming soon.
I personally see this engine as a way more promising alternative to that of heavyweight Unreal Engine, which is often an overkill for most of the indie games, and Unity, which is highly specific and requires deep learning of it.
What do you think?
1. Are you interested in game development, or maybe you just like to play games?
2. What future holds for the game industry in your opinion? Will AAA companies dominate, or indie market is the key?
3. How do you think, is it always a better option for an AAA company to make their own engine, or using those that already available is totally fine?
Game engine is a pre-made software development environment, that in most cases has already built-in logic for rendering of 2D and 3D graphics, a physics engine or collision detection (and collision response), sound, scripting, animation, artificial intelligence, networking, streaming, memory management, threading, localization support, scene graph, and may include video support for cinematics. Developing all that from scratch is such a horrendous task that it would practically render indie development impossible. Luckily, there are many various options available on the market. Some giants of the industry like Unity, or Unreal engine, do not require representation. Instead, I would like to present you rather new, but very promising engine -- Godot.
Almost all game development environments rely on some programming knowledge, but some are more suited to those coming from a programming background. Godot is a perfect example of a tool built for programmers.
The Godot API exposes almost every element of the engine, and it’s rare to find features which are not directly accessible by code. Godot receives praise for its fantastic documentation and ease of use from a coding perspective.
The Godot engine comes with a programming language called GDScript. To some, this is an immediate turnoff. Frequently, in-house languages are either unnecessary or poorly thought-out.
GDScript came as a result of in-house testing by the Godot team. Rather than creating a new language for the sake of it, GDScript came through iterating through other languages such as Python and Lua. None of these languages work quite how they want, so the team created GDScript to be as readable as Python, yet retaining essential elements for development like strict typing, better editor integration, and more straightforward optimizations for speed.
Many developers who start with Godot find themselves pleasantly surprised by how quick the language is to pick up. However, if learning a new language isn’t on your list, there is an alternative.
Choosing a game development environment frequently means choosing a programming language. No matter how comfortable you are in your preferred language, if the development tools you require are not supported, then you are left with little choice.
Godot currently directly supports C++, C#, and GDScript. They are also working on VisualScript, a code-free node based programming system similar to Unreal Engine’s Blueprint system.
Godot supports the creation of both 2D and 3D games. Indie developers making 2D games love the work-flow Godot provides. Rather than pseudo 2D (a 3D world represented in two dimensions), Godot works in an actual 2D space expressed in pixels. This hugely simplifies 2D game creation and optimization.
3D support is newer and still lags behind Unreal Engine and Unity. Nevertheless, unless you are building a AAA game with top of the line graphics you are not going to run into any limitations using Godot.
Godot has specialized nodes for both 2D and 3D, with some designed to work in both, and support for 2.5D is coming soon.
I personally see this engine as a way more promising alternative to that of heavyweight Unreal Engine, which is often an overkill for most of the indie games, and Unity, which is highly specific and requires deep learning of it.
What do you think?
1. Are you interested in game development, or maybe you just like to play games?
2. What future holds for the game industry in your opinion? Will AAA companies dominate, or indie market is the key?
3. How do you think, is it always a better option for an AAA company to make their own engine, or using those that already available is totally fine?
Comments
Yes, I started with simple terminal like games (Simple State Machine) than moved to unity. I had tried game development in very different languages: c++ (sfml) java, python, javascript, however I never made past basics in some of them: c# and unity is the best option.
2. What future holds for the game industry in your opinion? Will AAA companies dominate, or indie market is the key?
Probably, its like movies, they can spend more, and they can make great effectsm, however quality of story will fall
3. How do you think, is it always a better option for an AAA company to make their own engine, or using those that already available is totally fine?
It depends how much money you want to spend. if you are a lord like rockstar games you have to make your own,
when I was a naive teenager and wanted to develop games and did not understand until the end of how difficult it is until I made my game for the thesis.
2. What future holds for the game industry in your opinion? Will AAA companies dominate, or indie market is the key?
I still think that AAA companies will dominate their large resources to make a really high quality product.
3. How do you think, is it always a better option for an AAA company to make their own engine, or using those that already available is totally fine?
If you can use someone else's engine, without creating your own, why not.
No, unfortunately not. I'm not interested in game development and i don't like to play games. I played a lot in the past and i don't waste my time anymore for playing games or creating them.
2. What future holds for the game industry in your opinion? Will AAA companies dominate, or indie market is the key?
AAA companies will dominate for sure. I'm not sure about this market, but AAA companies will dominate in every sector of the world. It's not only my opinion, also it's expert's opinion.
3. How do you think, is it always a better option for an AAA company to make their own engine, or using those that already available is totally fine?
Creating own product will be always better than using somebody's. Of course it takes more time, more resources, but it delivers quality and uniqueness. But sometimes using already available mechanism is better solution. It depends on situation you are in.
It is difficult for me to say what is more forward-looking. Personally, I like very much the game. It is true that games can cost a lot, but many people work at the same time. What's more, this work is really remarkable. because if we want to create a good role-playing game, its production is like recording a good movie or series.
Usually, where a lot of money goes, it is the most developed. However, it is not uncommon that people with an open mind can create something amazing. However, it is often underestimated.
Personally I'm not into gamedev but it's always interesting for me how some software is created. Just the fact how much effort and resources is needed to release a game, not to say a AAA product, it's mind blowing and kudos for people engaged in the industry.
I really rarely play games - lack of time. And when I have some free time I want to spend it in other ways. But there were times when I've played a lot.
2. What future holds for the game industry in your opinion? Will AAA companies dominate, or indie market is the key?
I think that every developer and every genre has it's place in the industry. Also not everyone like to have a ton of hours of gameplay and maybe only want to play a little, disobliging game.
3. How do you think, is it always a better option for an AAA company to make their own engine, or using those that already available is totally fine?
In programming there is a paradigm that states "don't repeat yourself" and it is also applicable for developing video games. If you can use existing tools for the job then use them. But when there are more shortcomings than benefits then think twice about such decision.
I am not interested in game development any more, I didn’t follow that path, but I am still a gamer, but currently suspended because of lack of time.
2. I think that indie games and AAA titles are complementary. It is unlikely that AAA would dominate the market, because they aren’t made so quickly, and recently there were a lot of controversies around their quality and microtransactions. I personally don’t play any indie games, because I like the pleasure of experiencing high quality of graphics (Glorious PC Gaming Master Race of course 😊) and long, interesting plot, but others – probably most of gamers prefers to have fun with well made, interesting game regardless of the graphics. There is enough place on the market for both AAA and indie games.
3. Using already available engine is fine, I don’t know why not. After all, for the gamers it is not that important, and companies can choose whatever fits their needs best. Of course, own engine is more “prestigious” and can possibly deliver more advantages which come with total control over such software.
I'm never tried to create massive complex games. But I've created copy of battle city console game, as a final project of my C++ class in the university. And drawing and describing a lot of things happening on the screen is hard. Also I faced that I haven't enough experience in 3D games development, was when I, as a part of research and development team, should create a prototype of AR application. And this was so close to positioning and interacting with objects in games, that game development experience could have really help.
Also I don't play games much so I don't particularly interested in game development.
2. What future holds for the game industry in your opinion? Will AAA companies dominate, or indie market is the key?
I think that there is a few major markets. AAA companies won't go away in the visible future, just check the competition of PUBG and Fortnite. Epic games just crashed competition by the investing a ton of money in the game. But also there is space for games that have individuality and are more creative than ones from big studious.
3. How do you think, is it always a better option for an AAA company to make their own engine, or using those that already available is totally fine?
I think that competition leads to innovation, so if companies will invest in different engines it will create more possibilities and versatility for developers, as well as for gamers. So I bet on making own in-house game engine.
Not really, I am not a pro gamer nor I am interested in game development. It’s just not my cup of tea. I have only one game that I enjoy playing and it’s a racing simulator called Forza. I am not interested in anything else and I get bored quite quickly after trying and playing any other type or genre of game.
2. What future holds for the game industry in your opinion? Will AAA companies dominate, or indie market is the key?
I don’t really follow the market so I can’t really have an opinion on it but I think that smaller companies which want to shine on the market have usually to think outside the box and maybe create a completely new product, a game changer that can change how the things are perceived. I guess that AAA companies focus only final revenue and don’t have so many ideas that indie market companies can have. They have their own franchises that they try to develop year after year because they know that many people will buy the copy of the game after all.
3. How do you think, is it always a better option for an AAA company to make their own engine, or using those that already available is totally fine?
I don’t know anything about game engines and I can’t really say which option is better. To me the most important thing is how my favorite simulator looks like and it doesn’t interest me which engine it was built on.
I’m not really interested in game development, probably because I’m not really a huge fan of computer games. I rarely play any, and probably that’s because, I haven’t even thought about it.
2. What future holds for the game industry in your opinion? Will AAA companies dominate, or indie market is the key?
I think that it’s the beginning of an end for the AAA companies. I think that indie companies will quickly dominate the market, because it’s now much easier to develop, and sell your game. In the era where internet is available to almost everyone, the best marketing for a game is making a good game, and the internet will do it’s thing.
3. How do you think, is it always a better option for an AAA company to make their own engine, or using those that already available is totally fine?
I think that using already available engine is totally fine, but if you can afford it, like the AAA companies, you should make your own engine. Dedicated solutions are almost always better than generic ones.
1.I am interested in creating games. I do not have any enthusiasm of creating them, but if I ever got a nice team to do something my own, why not?
2.A hard question because AAA games are always needed. In the case of Indie games, if game was succes there is no financial assistance like in the case of AAA.
3. It depends what the company wants to do. If something unique, company needs own engine. In the case Witcher, company used ready engine. In Witcher 2 CD Projekt Red used own game engine, becouse they wanted to achieve something unique
2. Triple A and indies are like enormous breweries and craft beers. They’ve raised because there was a certain demand for something unique and fresh. It’s always about demand, so as long as people need variety of games there will be a place for both indie and triple A on the market.
3. Performance is the case. Balance in picking game engine should take the first place. It’s obvious that for 2D game there is no need to make a performance overkill with own game engine written in C++. Simple, out of the box one, which uses preferred language for scripting should be used.
Yes, I really like computer games. They capture and inspire me. And they take a solid piece of my time.
2. What future holds for the game industry in your opinion? Will AAA companies dominate, or indie market is the key?
Complex issue. Personally, I prefer AAA projects. Creating them requires a lot of work, they are thought out and beautiful. They have interesting stories that absorb the player. But indie-games have the right to life. They have their fans, who are actively moving progress in this direction.
3. How do you think, is it always a better option for an AAA company to make their own engine, or using those that already available is totally fine?
Nowadays there are quite a lot of good engines, and if the company wants to invest money in them, and not itself engaged in the development and maintenance of this project, no one cant blame her.
2. Both possibilities have advantages and disadvantages. There is a different budget here and other possibilities.
3. It depends on the budget but I think that it is better to create your own engine that will give you more options.
Yea i am interested, but in simple games for mobile phones, for free to let people have fun of my work and make them happy !
2. What future holds for the game industry in your opinion? Will AAA companies dominate, or indie market is the key?
I think that idies are getting stronger from now, i can bet that a market will be full of indie games , and 90% of them will be great games with good graphics
3. How do you think, is it always a better option for an AAA company to make their own engine, or using those that already available is totally fine?
I think that engine must be adapted to game, i think that pre-prepared engines for many games are like something to ALL it someghing to NOTHING !