Do you feel like you're cheating when you drive a car instead of using your legs? Do you feel like you're cheating when you buy a car instead of making one from scratch?
No not at all.. Ive seen this kind of reasoning on some forums. When I try searching on google. But the only specific thing that I feel like cheating is on game engines. Kinda weird really.
have you been this path before? would be much better if you could share your experience
If you were referring to me, then yes, that IS my gamedev autobiography 
And most likely not just mine :D
BTW I became curious on your engine. Did you make an editor for it as well?
Nope. I didn't make any in-engine editing tools. I do lots of data driving of my programs, but that's done through XML files. You can see some samples in my "sifting through the aftermath (Of the Week of Awesome II) http://www.gamedev.net/blog/1922/entry-2260314-the-week-of-awesome-ii-sifting-through-the-aftermath/
Some engine highlights:
Object Hierarchy - A spaceship can have turrets on their wings, which can have attached barrels, which in turn can have grapple hooks attached to the end all translated, rotated, and scaled appropriately.
Control Library - Uses anchor points and dynamic containers to support multiple screen resolutions and layouts.
Data Driven Game - You can actually mod my game using the XML Settings Files. I discuss this system more in depth in my Sifting through the Aftermath post.
Multi-pass Rendering - To support shaders and glow effects.
Other Minor Systems - Input Manager, Camera, Particle System, Simple Physics, Asset Managers, Game State Management, etc.
Working on an engine for a year and a half was good learning. I was finally at a part where I was starting to see REAL game stuff happening. Working on a dynamically scaled/positioned control library for a couple of months is great and all, but showing your (non-programming) friends this resolution independent GUI isn't as rewarding as showing them a ship blowing up another ship.
Now I'm becoming a cheater who uses Unity. :)
- Eck
Do you feel like you're cheating when you drive a car instead of using your legs? Do you feel like you're cheating when you buy a car instead of making one from scratch?
No not at all.. Ive seen this kind of reasoning on some forums. When I try searching on google. But the only specific thing that I feel like cheating is on game engines. Kinda weird really.
If i was building cars it would feel like cheating if i did buy one :).
I feel like I'm cheating by not refining my own silicon to grow into crystals to cut wafers and make microchips to program my games on.
I got the same feeling, but in the end, it's all about getting to that end product, so if you go using rpg maker for all I care, just make it good (and if someone ever makes a real great game with rpg maker that doesn't feel half-assed and cloned but truly original, then I'll be amazed and that person will have made a serious point about their worth despite using a fairly simple toolset).
Also, I assume that a lot of people making games actually accept 2 challenges: developing, and creating a game. To me, these are two standalone goals, and if you're only interested in the first, then by all means, go low level!
Do you feel like you're cheating when you drive a car instead of using your legs? Do you feel like you're cheating when you buy a car instead of making one from scratch?
No not at all.. Ive seen this kind of reasoning on some forums. When I try searching on google. But the only specific thing that I feel like cheating is on game engines. Kinda weird really.
If i was building cars it would feel like cheating if i did buy one
.
Check the parking lot outside any car factory and you'll realise that everybody who builds cars is cheats then :P
Fixed that for you.Create WHAT YOU WANT not WHAT YOU DON’T WANT.
You learn a lot more about the low-level technology in games that way and you should end up stronger as a game programmer because of it. And it’s not as if you don’t have all the time in the world. Especially if you are young, now is the time to learn the low-level difficult things while your brain is still a sponge. There is no better time to start working from scratch.
Im actually not young anymore. Im already on my 20s. I will trying learning both at the same time. Ill try doing unreal on week days after my stupid work :D i guess and low level directx on weekends. Im not really sure if this will work. I want to learn 3D game engine cause I want to get into game industry yet I am always curious to what is going on under hood. That way when I am learning DX I kinda still have an idea on whats going on even though I am learning unreal as well.
