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The engine of your indie project. Short review of available game engines

As you know, creating games is not the easiest task. The more we learn about this process, the more impossible it seems that it works.


“The most useful way I have found is to think of the game as a mentally ill patient. "She completely lost her mind, so every instruction you write will be executed like some kind of ridiculous nonsense." Tom Francis, creator of Gunpoint.

Reflections on how to design and write your own game paralyze the mind. The only way out is to just do it. You need to start, jump into the development process, even if it is very scary. I hope the information provided under the cut will help make your first jump a success.

1. GameMaker Studio 2.


Description:

  • License and price: $ 99 for a perpetual license for developing desktop games, a trial period is available.
  • Ideal for: short 2D platformers and RPGs, cross-platform games.
  • Created games: Nidhogg, Undertale, Risk of Rain, Hyper Light Drifter.

GameMaker Studio 2 is the first thing you should pay attention to if you want to start developing games. The engine allows developers to work using their own scripting language.

Pros

Mark Essen, creator of Nidhogg 1 and 2, said that GameMaker is great for beginners because it has open scripts and a huge amount of documentation, which allows beginners to get comfortable quickly. Alex Preston, creator of Hyper Light Drifter, said the large GameMaker community is a huge advantage. Young developers should look for the best places to get community help and use the best techniques to achieve their goals.

Minuses

GameMaker is very simple in its code, so you can quickly get confused in a project. At the initial stages, you can iterate very quickly and focus on the design of the game, but if you don’t adhere to any personal organizational standards, you will see the bad side of creating games in GameMaker. Duncan Drummond, the creator of the truly excellent Risk of Rain project, noted that the simplicity of the platform could turn into problems for developers. You can easily develop a game, but if you do it wrong, you will lose productivity very quickly.
GameMaker is not the best choice if you want to switch to another engine in the future, such as Unity.

Beginner Tips

The best way to learn is to delete your work and start all over again. So you can pump your design skills. To learn how to develop games, you just need to start. Work, even if it turns out badly, try to get as much help as possible. Remember, the more mistakes you make, the more you learn.

2. Unity


Description:

  • License and cost: the initial version is free, Unity Plus - $ 35 per month, Unity Pro - $ 125 per month.
  • Ideal for: almost any indie game.
  • Games Created: Ori and the Blind Forest, Cuphead, West of Loathing, Galak-Z, Pokemon Go.

Unity is one of the main indie game development platforms. Although it has amazing 3D capabilities, 2D games are also created on the engine. Unity is harder to master than the other engines in this post, but the huge community and documentation will help you get comfortable quickly.

The Unity store has many add-ons that will make the development of 2D games on this engine even more convenient. You can use tools like the Corgi Engine and Rex Engine, which offer off-the-shelf physics and controls.

pros

Even if you are used to making Ira in the old-fashioned way, Unity will be able to interest you. With it, you can quickly create a concept and prototype of the game. The game development industry uses a lot of both simple and complex engines. Unity, of course, is one of the best engines and allows to achieve high development productivity. It can be used both for creating small games, and in the AAA project.

Cons

Even this engine has its drawbacks. If you encounter some kind of bug, then it completely depends on the developer of the engine. After all, you have to wait until the developer fixes the problem, because the project has closed source code. The editor and the debugger are far from always stable, although the developers have publicly stated that fixing such errors is the first line in their priorities.

Tips for beginners.

Not always everything depends on the ability to do something. It is important to set the right goal and find a way to achieve it. Even if you don’t have enough knowledge to create a game on Unity now, just set a goal.

3. Ren'Py


Description:

  • License and cost: free.
  • Ideal for: visual 2D novels, simulations.
  • Compatible with: Python.
  • Games Created: Analogue: A Hate Story, Long Live the Queen.

Ren'Py is an easy-to-learn open source engine. Although it requires some programming knowledge, in reality you need to know how to use a text editor and image processing program. Working with this engine will be very useful for beginners of the Python language.

pros

Ren'Py is a cross-platform engine that opens up great opportunities for developers. It is convenient for beginners, but requires some editing skills for script files. Yes, you can’t just drag and drop the things you need, but writing code is not scary. This engine allows you to solve the main problem of a novice developer - the fear of starting. Quick and easy development will help you create your first game. Even if in the future you want to write something different from a novel, Ren'Py will give you a rewarding experience. When other people play the game created by you, the attitude towards yourself and your abilities changes.

Minuses

The engine is somewhat limited in supporting graphic and mechanical functions. It is very problematic to create a game with 3D or Live2D, you will encounter a huge number of problems, so if this is your goal, choose a different platform.

4. Ink


Description:

  • License and cost: free.
  • Ideal for: text adventure games.
  • Compatible with: Unity, C #, HTML.
  • Games Created: Sorcery, 80 days.

Ink is a free add-on for Unity. It is suitable for creating branched dialogues, stories. Ink is easy to learn and integrates seamlessly with Unity.
Ink was created as optional software. That is, you create a game in Unity, and then connect the script and dialogs made using Ink.

Plisov It is

very difficult to write a detailed script and a system of branched dialogs. Ink helps not to get confused and seriously simplifies the life of the developer. Ink will be of interest to those who are more interested in writing stories for games than pure programming.

Cons

Using ink as an independent full-fledged engine is very difficult, so most developers regard it as an addition to their project.

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