Choosing an engine
6 May 2007This is the next post in my little series about planning the RPG that I want to build. Before I got a bit off track with last post about the importance of a game design document (GDD) I was delving into some of the choices about game engines. In short I’ve decided to use and existing game engine.
Just doing some quick research, you will find that there is a near overwhelming choice of game engines available. Just take a look at this list that I found at wikipedia .
When you research just a bit further you find that these engines vary in price from “free” to “a whole lot of money”. Besides price you will also find that the feature sets, capabilities and, the number/quality of published titles vary greatly.
For myself, as I am evaluating these engines I am looking at the following items:
- Price: I can afford a few hundred dollars but, not much more.
- Features: As I further build out my design, I will be able better discuss this. For now, I am looking at generalities such as shaders, lighting, indoor and outdoor environment capabilities.
- Documentation: This is universal for the free and “cheap”engines and SDKs. Since this is my first independent attempt at a game I don’t want to spend a lot of time fighting the platform.
- Scripting Systems: A scripting system is imho vital for prototyping features.
- Support: Obviously, if you are counting on an engine to be the foundation to your “dream” game you’d like the assurance of an active community in the case of a free engine. Likewise, in the case of a commercial engine you’d like a reasonably responsive support.
At this point I’ve narrowed the decision down to one or two engines. However, I’ll save that for hopefully the next post in this series.