I have been doing the c++ thing for a while and decided to take the jump from side project games to a full scale game. I opted for an action-adventure 2d game for starters since at the heart of all games are the same components. I have written it with great detail so far to be fully portable to 3d for the next game by just overriding the rendering methods. My question is, for a simple game with around 15 or so different classes of enemies, is a scripting engine worthwhile or should I jump to the finish and save that for my first 3d game? The real deal is, is it worth more to have a fully functional game or to have exquisite coding on that game? I figure a scripting engine would add a month or so to production. Just let me know your opinions.

Scripting engines are a pain to write, but they can be worthwhile. You might want to try Lua or Python so as to skip the unfortunate step of writing your own compiler or interpreter for a really simple game.

Generally, I find that coding large amounts of game logic in C++ is akin to gouging your eyes out with rusty nails. A simple, typeless scripting language is much more pleasant.

I am studying scripting myself.. For me one has to study the existent scripting languages at first, in order to appreciate their capabilities, and use them.
After that, if you are interested in a painful (but remarkable) experience, try to make yours, accordingly to your developement needs..

Fire burn wisdom in me,
Wisdom set mind and spirit free,
Moonlight shows me the mysteries of life,
Winternight gives me clearsight and storms to fight.

Actually, eventhough expression parsers are "complex", they vastly simplify the engineering of your game. Don''t listen to everything you hear, you''re not making a fucking standard language or anything. What you want to do is read a keyword of your own and some scripted values that go with it, am I right? What''s so hard about that.

Scripting is beautiful , the more flexibility you have in the scripting language, the better your engine should be. It doesn''t have to be though. It shouldn''t take too long to come up with something simple. I say this out of experience in making my game. As time went on, I moved more and more away from hard-coding in C++ to scripting.




[Edited by - atcdevil on October 12, 2006 10:12:28 AM]

Thanks for all of the input!