Hey everyone, Im wanting to develope a game. I''m not really a programmer, and I''m not particuraly interested in doing any more programming than absolutely necessary (Im more into the art and design aspect). Anyways, I have a game that I''m wanting to develope, and I need an engine that is capable of handling very large landscapes and many, many characters on screen. So my question is this: What are some good engines that are able to do this? I was kinda thinking holding off for a few months until Unreal Tournament 2k3 of Unreal 2 comes out and use thier SDK''s to at least start out in, but are there other good options available now? Thanks!

Not sure about what engines would be best for you, but you should probably realize 3 things before you start:

1) Given a good engine, you will still have to do a helluva lot of programming to make a new game from it.

2) If you want to make a new game from a respectable existing engine, you should expect to pay a lot of money to the company that created the engine.

3) I get the feeling from your post that you have never done something like this before. If this is the case, starting out on an engine like Unreal II might not be the best idea. Logically, a stunningly powerful engine like Unreal II would also be extremely complex. I suggest you try and do something much simpler first.




Things are not what they are.

I suggest you use Blitz Basic to make your own engine or if you don't want to program you should join a team and hope they are willing to work on the game your wanting to make. Blitz Basic is not the quickest language in the world but its much easier then c++ (and probably cheaper then the Unreal 2 sdk) and I think it should be able to handle your game (depending on what you mean by "many many characters on screen"). Besides, there are always "tricks" you can do to help boost fps if they are slow. Check it out at http://www.blitzbasic.com. It will cost you $100 but its definately worth it in my opinion at least.

One tip - especially if your new to game development, don't plan on trying to compete with big games like unreal, quake, etc because you'll only end up frustrating yourself. Remember, these teams are made up of many people and they often have substantial budgets to work with...

Jeremy DenHartog
CEO/Designer for X-Factor Studios
http://www.x-factorstudios.com

[edited by - X-Factor Studios on May 4, 2002 11:24:03 AM]