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Game Engine that will meet my requirements

Started by July 24, 2014 11:32 AM
23 comments, last by SimonForsman 10 years, 6 months ago

I am planning on making a PC game, which would be a great thing to spend what's still left of my summer holiday.

First,I need to say that I have no programming language knowledge whatsoever but I am willing to learn.

What I thought of is:

-a 2D top-down RPG game but with the ability of moving in ANY direction(most probably I will use only 8-directional sprites)

-map selection (there will be 2-3 different premade maps)

-character customization(I want to able to select from a few types of haircuts and skin color)(can be replaced with character selection)

-random items spawned in some areas of the map (example: I want items to spawn in a house, if the player takes all the items existing in that very house, they will be respawned in a specified amount of time.)

-random monsters (zombies that follow you when you get in their field of view and you lose them if you hide) spawned in some areas of the map(example: I want monsters to spawn only in towns, if the player kills 5 zombies from that town, those 5 zombies will be respawned in a specified amount of time)

-interaction with objects (example:I want to be able to cut a tree or mine some rocks to get resources)

-crafting (a 3x3 Minecraft-like grid and an adtional 1 slot for tools and/or fire)

-health, hunger and thirst bars

-vehicles (would be nice)

-portals

-multiplayer

-armor

-ranged weapons & guns (crossbows, bows, lever-action, pistols, rifles, stuff like that)

RED = Needed

GREEN= Optional

Thanks in advance to anyone who is willing to help.

English is not my native language, so yeah.

What exactly do you want help with?

So far you've just listed your ideas. You need to ask questions if you want answers.

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All of this:


-a 2D top-down RPG game but with the ability of moving in ANY direction(most probably I will use only 8-directional sprites)
-map selection (there will be 2-3 different premade maps)
-character customization(I want to able to select from a few types of haircuts and skin color)(can be replaced with character selection)
-random items spawned in some areas of the map (example: I want items to spawn in a house, if the player takes all the items existing in that very house, they will be respawned in a specified amount of time.)
-random monsters (zombies that follow you when you get in their field of view and you lose them if you hide) spawned in some areas of the map(example: I want monsters to spawn only in towns, if the player kills 5 zombies from that town, those 5 zombies will be respawned in a specified amount of time)
-interaction with objects (example:I want to be able to cut a tree or mine some rocks to get resources)
-crafting (a 3x3 Minecraft-like grid and an adtional 1 slot for tools and/or fire)
-health, hunger and thirst bars
-vehicles (would be nice)
-portals
-multiplayer
-armor
-ranged weapons & guns (crossbows, bows, lever-action, pistols, rifles, stuff like that)

combined with this:


I am planning on making a PC game, which would be a great thing to spend what's still left of my summer holiday.

First,I need to say that I have no programming language knowledge whatsoever but I am willing to learn.

is a really tough hurdle. While I know little about it having never used it, I'd imagine that RPGMaker would really be a way for you to go:

http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/

Again, I've never used it, but I'm willing to bet you'll have a blast with it. I think it looks like a fun tool.

You may also want to consider picking up titles like Neverwinter Nights (available for download here: http://www.gog.com/game/neverwinter_nights_diamond_edition and other places) which comes with a modding/design toolset to create your own scenarios and games. You could have a really good time creating an RPG over your break and you'll likely learn quite a bit (it has a great modding a user-created content support structure).

Indie games are what indie movies were in the early 90s -- half-baked, poorly executed wastes of time that will quickly fall out of fashion. Now go make Minecraft with wizards and watch the dozen or so remakes of Reservior Dogs.

I would not recommend RPG Maker due to limitations on the actual engine itself. (Which I found out after a year working with it, and I ended up hacking my way through pretty everything). It's pretty hacky to get movement in eight directions, and it's difficult getting a real-time battle system, (much-less ranged attacks), and mouse-support along with adding multiplayer functionality is messy as well, too. It's also limited to Windows, so forget trying to add Linux or Mac support without a complete rewrite in a portable environment. Oh, and the performance is going to definitely drop when you add too many events on your maps. (I'm not bashing on RPG Maker, I'm just trying to tell you that it isn't for you.)

Start with something else, such as Unity, or Monogame (which both use C#). Of course these have much steeper learning curve than RPG Maker does, it's probably worth it in the end, and will yield better performance as well. It's not extremely hard for what you're doing, and it fits the job perfectly; You can port it to different platforms with much more ease.

Why does nobody ever recommended the Unreal Engine?

It has a while to go yet to compete with all the plugins and other support of Unity but the editor is totally cracking....

Why does nobody ever recommended the Unreal Engine?

It has a while to go yet to compete with all the plugins and other support of Unity but the editor is totally cracking....

I actually was considering recommending it (especially me being a hardcore C++ extremist, I mean, it's a great engine), but it's really overkill for what he's trying to do.

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I have never seen a 2D game made with Unreal Engine.

I think I will go with Monogame and learn C# and XNA, anyone has links to some kind of pdf books to start learning?(I don't have the money to buy them.)

I think you're underestimating the time requirement of learning to code which learning how to build a game, in addition to creating art for it. I think you should start with Flash, javascript is pretty easy to learn and it is more or less a graphical tool, where you can "draw" your game and start moving right away. You can post it up on newgrounds after you finish and anyone will be able to play it. It might require you to learn some html in the process as well, which is extremely easy, and this foundation of javascipt/html will be more useful then C# and C++, as most games nowdays are leaning towards browser gaming, so you'll be gaining valuable experience as a web developer if you want to persue this professionally.

You didn't come into this world. You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean. You are not a stranger here. -Alan Watts

I think you're underestimating the time requirement of learning to code which learning how to build a game, in addition to creating art for it. I think you should start with Flash, javascript is pretty easy to learn and it is more or less a graphical tool, where you can "draw" your game and start moving right away. You can post it up on newgrounds after you finish and anyone will be able to play it. It might require you to learn some html in the process as well, which is extremely easy, and this foundation of javascipt/html will be more useful then C# and C++, as most games nowdays are leaning towards browser gaming, so you'll be gaining valuable experience as a web developer if you want to persue this professionally.

wat.

Can you cite sources?

I don't know much about the game, but I'm not 100 percent certain if Javascript is the right tool for the job. I don't see any real benefit of using it here based on the information given.

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@The OP

You can't directly jump into programming games, you actually have to learn the target language, and know it well. It isn't that easy.

Now I'm not the best C# programmer, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt.

First off you need an IDE. Visual Studio is the best one for C# in my opinion, so be sure to download that.

Next, you need tutorials. Microsoft has great C# tutorials, I recommend you start with them.

http://rbwhitaker.wikidot.com/monogame-tutorials looks promising, and it seems to have a set of C# tutorials as well.

You shouldn't be looking to do anything game-related for at least a month or two, maybe even several months.

I think you're underestimating the time requirement of learning to code which learning how to build a game, in addition to creating art for it. I think you should start with Flash, javascript is pretty easy to learn and it is more or less a graphical tool, where you can "draw" your game and start moving right away. You can post it up on newgrounds after you finish and anyone will be able to play it. It might require you to learn some html in the process as well, which is extremely easy, and this foundation of javascipt/html will be more useful then C# and C++, as most games nowdays are leaning towards browser gaming, so you'll be gaining valuable experience as a web developer if you want to persue this professionally.

Maybe I am underestimating a bit the time required,on another note art creation is my thing so that wouldn't be that hard.I will take your advice and learn Flash.

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