Hi guys, I'm 19 years old and I'm taking Computer Science course here in Brazil. Sorry about my poor English, but I have a question that it's kinda annoying me.

I've started programming in January and I'm learning C in college and I'm just studying C. I want to be a Game Programmer, but I don't want to use Unity, Unreal Engine nor any game engine already made by someone else.

I see some people programming games from 0 by using OpenGL or DirectX. And most of the games are written in C++ or Java.

So I would like to know what would be better? Use an engine like Unity or programming a game from scratch?

I know that making a game in Unity would be much easier, but the game wouldn't be completely yours and I guess you'd have to pay to have full access to Unity Pro.

Thanks in advance.

First off, your English is excellent.

Deciding between an existing engine and writing your own depends on your needs:

If you are most interested in learning how to write a game without using an engine, you should do that.

If you want to focus your efforts towards finishing the game as quickly as possible, an engine is probably the better choice.

If you don't want to spend money on an engine, but have plenty of free time, then maybe writing your own engine is the better choice.

If you have an idea for a game that none of the popular engines are suited for, then you'll have to write your own.


There are hybrid approaches as well:

Some teams have used Flash to prototype games, and then write the game again from scratch once they know the game is worth the additional effort.

You can use Unity to see what it supports, get a feeling for how to put together a game, decide what parts of Unity you like and what you don't, and then make another game from scratch using what you learned without using Unity.


There isn't a "best" solution - game development has too many different choices that each person (or team) can make -- more than what could be fulfilled by one engine or system.

First off, your English is excellent.

Deciding between an existing engine and writing your own depends on your needs:

If you are most interested in learning how to write a game without using an engine, you should do that.

If you want to focus your efforts towards finishing the game as quickly as possible, an engine is probably the better choice.

If you don't want to spend money on an engine, but have plenty of free time, then maybe writing your own engine is the better choice.

If you have an idea for a game that none of the popular engines are suited for, then you'll have to write your own.


There are hybrid approaches as well:

Some teams have used Flash to prototype games, and then write the game again from scratch once they know the game is worth the additional effort.

You can use Unity to see what it supports, get a feeling for how to put together a game, decide what parts of Unity you like and what you don't, and then make another game from scratch using what you learned without using Unity.


There isn't a "best" solution - game development has too many different choices that each person (or team) can make -- more than what could be fulfilled by one engine or system.

That was a helpful answer. I will download Unity and see how it works, but I will keep programming in C and try to be a game programmer in the future. I think complex games like League of Legends, Dota, World of Warcraft.. they may have their own engines I guess. Thanks!

I know that making a game in Unity would be much easier, but the game wouldn't be completely yours

OpenGL aint mine either but you don't see me complaining :D

I make a distinction:

Want to learn how to make a game? Start from the bottom (scratch, or some basic framework).

Want to make a game? Start with an engine.

Want both? Reduce the scope of the game as much as you can, have a try at it... and fail, rinse and repeat until you actually have a game.

Just a side note.. You don't need to pay anything to use the full version of Unity. You only need to purchase Unity Pro ($1500 per platform) if you make more than $100k a year using the engine.

I know that making a game in Unity would be much easier, but the game wouldn't be completely yours

OpenGL aint mine either but you don't see me complaining

I make a distinction:

Want to learn how to make a game? Start from the bottom (scratch, or some basic framework).

Want to make a game? Start with an engine.

Want both? Reduce the scope of the game as much as you can, have a try at it... and fail, rinse and repeat until you actually have a game.

I know that OpenGL isn't yours, but it's different from using a made engine. When you use an engine like Unity, you have limitations. There are things you can't do. When you develop your own game from scratch, you can make your own tools to edit it, you can do a lot of stuff that I bet you can't do in Unity.

But I will give a try to Unity and test it, but I won't stop programming :)

Just a side note.. You don't need to pay anything to use the full version of Unity. You only need to purchase Unity Pro ($1500 per platform) if you make more than $100k a year using the engine.

Yes, you need to pay $1500 for Unity Pro. That's what I meant by "full version". :B

Well, at 0 experience and no game, you're a long way off from having to worry about making $100,000 in a year. If you do manage to stick with it, learn to develop games, code one, release it, and it makes 100k... Then set some aside for taxes, and set 1,500 aside for Unity. Until then, feel free to use Pro in the meantime. :)

- Eck

Hi,

The typical game engine took a team years to create and thousands or tens of thousands of work hours. Though various game engines have strengths and weaknesses, like different types of wheels - why reinvent the wheel?

Same answer as the above. But I will also add that if you are a student it is a really good experience to create your own engine, how to programm physics, graphics, animation etc... If you have time to do so, then I encourage you to try and make your own game from scratch.

Since you are shockingly young and in the midst of a CS, then I'd recommend that you - in parallel to working with game engines - write your own rendering library where you handle transformations, lighting, etc. yourself.

It is surprisingly hard to get right, but it will teach you a lot.

You may not create a game with it, but at least you will load and transform and light the Utah teapot. :)