*SORRY IF THIS IS IN THE WRONG AREA

- - -

Hello,

My friends and I are trying to create our own 2D RPG game. But we need an engine to begin development. Can somebody please tell me what engine fits these requirements;

_______________________________________...

- Free

- 2D

- Collab. Friendly (more than one developer can work on it)

- Supports C#

- Allows me to sustain full rights of ownership to my game and my company

- Easy exporting, for switching engines

_______________________________________...

Sorry for such a specific question, I would REALLY appreciate any help.

Most 2D games don't use engines. Usually they write their own game-specific logic code, because 2D games vary alot more than 3D games do.

So 2D games usually use APIs - one for sound, one for graphics, and so on. But then the programmer uses the API to write their own " "engine" " code for their game - they write their own map loading/saving/drawing code, movement code, etc...

While 2D game engines do exist, usually they are either very generic (so you'd be just as well off writing your own code), or very specific (so unless you are making exactly the type of game the engine author had in mind, you're out of luck).

Are you looking for a set of tools for easily making maps? That's a different subject. Try Tiled. It's not an engine, but is a tiled map editor.

Many 3D game engines like Unity now offer some basic 2D features as well. See my earlier comment about being so generic that you are often better served to write it yourself.

If you don't know how to program, you can check out RPG Maker (see my earlier comment about being too specific)... If you already know C# and are an experienced programmer, I'd suggest finding some good graphic APIs and get crackin' at your own code.

For 3D games, engines are almost a necessity. For 2D games, they can almost be a hindrance.

Unity has decent support for 2D games these days. Torque2D also just had a big release.

Most 2D games don't use engines. Usually they write their own game-specific logic code, because 2D games vary alot more than 3D games do.

Thank you very much. I was just in doubt whether to continue coding my own game without an engine or not, because I thought most 2D games used game engines.

I agree with Servant of the Lord's answer. I would recommend you Unity as well since it cover most of your specifications (except for the Collab Friendly, that's on the pro version)

While I agree with Servant of the Lord, I would also share some experience.

Writing games that run on variety of computers is a pain in the ass. Unless you use GDI (and probably even then), you are going to be introduced into the Graphic Drivers Hell. I've used mostly Direct2D (and now Direct3D), and it is less than pleasant, because all the bugs DO NOT happen on your computer. So you are running around the office telling colleagues "does this crash on your PC?", and then staring at the code and analyzing what could possibly go wrong with some other computer configuration. If you go down that route, make sure you've got damn good logging system (and that you log a lot because you might have to "debug" on a PC without VS).

You also mentioned C#. While I love .NET and C#, writing games in pure C# is a challenge - unless you use WinForms' GDI+ mapping or WPF (make sure you use at least ver 4, or you'll get familiar with NotifyPartitionZombie and other goodies), you'll have to interface with the OS in some way. And interfacing with DX creates a whole lot of problems. While projects like SharpDX make your life a lot easier, there are some inconsistencies, some things are more difficult in C# or require you to use unsafe code, or are plain buggy. Thankfully, SharpDX devs are awesome and fix things almost immediately, but there are surely problems awaiting in less used code paths.

Game engines like Unity, although tailored for people with completely different mindset than mine, handle all the unpleasant shit for you. With one awesome feature - with a few clicks you can build a Windows Phone, Android or iOS game.

Try Unity!

All of the requirements you listed meets Unity3D. They are also rolling out some additional 2D support.

*SORRY IF THIS IS IN THE WRONG AREA

- - -

Hello,

My friends and I are trying to create our own 2D RPG game. But we need an engine to begin development. Can somebody please tell me what engine fits these requirements;

_______________________________________...

- Free

- 2D

- Collab. Friendly (more than one developer can work on it)

- Supports C#

- Allows me to sustain full rights of ownership to my game and my company

- Easy exporting, for switching engines

_______________________________________...

Sorry for such a specific question, I would REALLY appreciate any help.

When i was programming in C# (now programming in C++), i used Mono for Game development. I was mainly for 2D gaming and supported Android programming as well, if i remember correctly.

Normally I'd shy away from going too low-level (even in 2D) due to platform compatibility issues, but if you use C#, I think you can use something like Xamarin to that effect. I'm not super-familiar with that stuff though, admittedly.