New to game development

Hello forums,

my first post/topic.

I have finally decided to start working on my own game. I'm working for over a year as a software developer (we're working on Business Intelligence software), so I'm not completely new to programing. I've already worked with Python, Java, C, C#, Visual Basic, Delphi, SQL, ...

My dream has however always been making games, since I enjoy playing them very much. But being completely new to this, I'm a bit lost.

My plan is to make a 2d or isometric 2d sandbox online (mmo) rpg. Think Haven & Hearth, if you know it. Now I'm not much of an artist, but I guess I could get other people to do that. What I'm asking is this:

- Most important - I don't want to code a new game engine, so what game engine would you recommend for my type of game?
- Would Eclipse game engine be too limiting for me?
- Would any other game engine for that fact be in the way of making a sandbox? What I'm asking is, are the current game engines that are out too restrictive to make a sandbox game? Would I be better off making my own?
- Any other tips you could give me?

Thanks a lot in advance.

If you actually know that lot of languages you can go for C++ and then you got like 42 good engines, like CryEngine 3, Alegro library too.

If you want to do 2d XNA is very good too, and is for c#.

If you want to do 2d XNA is very good too, and is for c#.

Thanks for the answer. I tried Eclipse a bit, but I was disappointed. Seems like it's actually made for people who have no knowledge in coding and it's options seemed limited.
What I'm actually looking for is an engine that supports online and possibly 2d/isometric graphics, possibly even makes it easier to build a sandbox game.

I found FIFE (http://en.wikipedia....ric_Free_Engine), would this do the job well? Or would I have problems with the online part?

Shameless bump, still looking for a good engine that will help me with my cause

Shameless bump, still looking for a good engine that will help me with my cause

What exactly are you looking for regarding an "engine" ? Are you more aptly looking for something to handle the rendering aspects of the game task?

I have personally enjoyed using OGRE3D but there are others that are out there; however be aware that it is purely for rendering only. You are still responsible for all other aspects of the game development cycle, but I think there is a lot of benefit in exploring what is needed to make a game outside of the world of rendering initially and then getting your feet wet by actually writing your own DirectX or OpenGL port of a rendering framework once you understand the core basics of the remaining portions of an engine.

But beyond that if you want a full fledged engine, many C++ engines have been released for free. Some come with their sources; however most of the commercial ones that have been released FREE to use by hobbyists are only the binaries with some documentation. Don't be afraid to experiment and find something that works for you.

What exactly are you looking for regarding an "engine" ? Are you more aptly looking for something to handle the rendering aspects of the game task?

I'm looking for an engine that already has:

- 2d isometric graphics support
- online support
- main functions like mouse/keyboard event handling, character movement
- perhaps even a map editor (since I'm not good at graphics)

I found FIFE (http://wiki.fifengine.net/Features), but it doesn't have online supported. I'm just asking if there is more such engines (preferably with online/mmo support), because I can't find any..

I really hope you take this advice.

Start with the starcraft 2 galaxy editor. I'm serious.

It sounds like you know programming, what you don't know is how to make fun gameplay systems and the general flow of game design. Working with a fully robust game like starcraft will give you all the art assets you need and the game is already 2d isometric. You also have multiplayer right out of the gate (up to 8 players), you just gotta ask a few buddies to hop on battle.net to test your designs.

I know it's easy to have pie in the sky dream when you start, but thinking your going to make the next MMO with your first game as has been said countless times, isn't a very tangible goal. Set a more obtainable one, make a popular map for starcraft 2 as you gain in experience with making games.

I'm personally coming from the opposite direction. I never programmed but i did tons of modwork using kismet in the UDK and the galaxy editor with starcraft 2. I'm only a couple weeks into programming but all the game design knowledge i took from working with those editors is a godsend. I was easily able to quickly prototype things with easy to use triggers and premade units and gameplay to really learn game design. It's really empowered me as i pick up C#. Even my quirky little first attempts at a game in unity are sorta fun because i've learned how to deal with complications and make the most out of unforseen limitations and I also know that you can get lots of fun out of incredibly simple gameplay systems if you do them right.

I guess what i'm trying to say is you can learn a hell of a lot by just having fun playing with a relatively casual game engine and learn things about general game design in a short period of time that would take long periods of iteration in straight code.

Edit: The community for modding starcraft 2 is fairly healthy and will likely explode again with the release of the next expansion if you're interested:
http://www.sc2mapster.com/

I really hope you take this advice.

Start with the starcraft 2 galaxy editor. I'm serious.

It sounds like you know programming, what you don't know is how to make fun gameplay systems and the general flow of game design. Working with a fully robust game like starcraft will give you all the art assets you need and the game is already 2d isometric. You also have multiplayer right out of the gate (up to 8 players), you just gotta ask a few buddies to hop on battle.net to test your designs.

I know it's easy to have pie in the sky dream when you start, but thinking your going to make the next MMO with your first game as has been said countless times, isn't a very tangible goal. Set a more obtainable one, make a popular map for starcraft 2 as you gain in experience with making games.

I'm personally coming from the opposite direction. I never programmed but i did tons of modwork using kismet in the UDK and the galaxy editor with starcraft 2. I'm only a couple weeks into programming but all the game design knowledge i took from working with those editors is a godsend. I was easily able to quickly prototype things with easy to use triggers and premade units and gameplay to really learn game design. It's really empowered me as i pick up C#. Even my quirky little first attempts at a game in unity are sorta fun because i've learned how to deal with complications and make the most out of unforseen limitations and I also know that you can get lots of fun out of incredibly simple gameplay systems if you do them right.

I guess what i'm trying to say is you can learn a hell of a lot by just having fun playing with a relatively casual game engine and learn things about general game design in a short period of time that would take long periods of iteration in straight code.

Edit: The community for modding starcraft 2 is fairly healthy and will likely explode again with the release of the next expansion if you're interested:
http://www.sc2mapster.com/

I understand what you're trying to say. It's also true that I know little of game designs and general game design flow as you call it. That being said, I have both UDK and Unity installed, I have only done some map editing in UDK I believe and started watching Unity tutorials.

I guess picking up Unity again would help me dive into game designs then? Perhaps I should try making a simple Unity game first? Or perhaps even a mod for another game?

I know MMO sounds far fetched and I'm realizing that simply coding skills will not get me far. Thanks a lot for your advice.

Yeah you should definitely dip into making simple unity games here and there, but I'm not sure you got the point of my post.

By using UDK and kismet, or Starcraft 2 and it's galaxy editor you can prototype and get a feel for game design MUCH faster than jumping into unity and building everything more or less from scratch. It can be incredibly daunting when everything rests on your shoulders and you're new to game design, there's no instant reward factor that you can get with a game that already has tight graphics and sound. That's why it's good to use these easy to use programs to find out if this is something you can fall in love with on a basic level.

Here are just some things you probably have no idea how annoying they are to deal with that you can completely ignore if you used starcraft 2's engine:
-setting up a 2d isometric game with working camera and mouse inputs (this is why i suggest galaxy not UDK)
-getting decent art, sound, and animations in
-decent net code (or any net code at all)
-UI (in a general sense, you'll get health bars and things like that, but you may need to use debug outputs to get values of things you are prototyping or hotkey abilities with no actual UI elements)

Seriously, any one of the above things takes months to do well, some years. You're saving yourself all the pain of setting up the boring stuff and jumping right into weapon systems, abilities, all the "fun" stuff.

Will you make a ton of money or become hugely popular off a mod for an existing game? Nope. But at least there's a chance you'll finish it and get something out of it, rather than jumping into unity with the intention of making the next MMO blockbuster and ultimately failing before any single core component is finished.