Story of my life.

You know there are some people who make games and engines...
Rare, but they do exist.

*cough* us *cough*

=D

I think one of his points is that even if you do make *A* game with that engine you developed, you've wasted a lot of effort that could have been put into making two (or more) games with someone else's engine.

Now, if you actually make three games with that same engine you developed...then he might we willing to cut you some slack : )

This makes me depressed....... I'm going to go tweak some code.

Or just do what I do... Make my own engine, make games with my own engine, and use other great engines to make kick ass games with a better understanding of what's actually going on. You'll see...

I can foresee that as I increase in knowledge of techniques I'll eventually stop creating my own engines in favor of using solid foundations. As new techniques come out I'll work hard to implement them so that I can stay familiar with current trends.

I think building engines can be an insecurity issue. You need to know how everything works and that you are capable of doing it all yourself. But once the mystery's solved you're left with choosing your own half-assed library or something that can take you to the stars.

indeed.

before I started making my engine, I didin't even know enough to know what to look for in an engine. It has been a learning experience, a very hard learning experience. But if I had just used a premade engine, I would still be a know-nothing when it if it came down to solving hard problems.

As for us, we don't want to just be game developers, we want to be engine and game developers, we enjoy building our entire system. If things continue that way in the future we will likely reconsitute some of the harder components that were made, and build new ones, which make things better.

Quote:Or just do what I do... Make my own engine, make games with my own engine, and use other great engines to make kick ass games with a better understanding of what's actually going on. You'll see...

I can foresee that as I increase in knowledge of techniques I'll eventually stop creating my own engines in favor of using solid foundations. As new techniques come out I'll work hard to implement them so that I can stay familiar with current trends.

I think building engines can be an insecurity issue. You need to know how everything works and that you are capable of doing it all yourself. But once the mystery's solved you're left with choosing your own half-assed library or something that can take you to the stars.

Similarly, people who take the time to write a word-processing application first will be better novelists because of it.

Bad, misleading comparison.


Word Processor -> Novel

is not the same as:

Game Engine -> Game

At first it does seem right, but not when you think about it.

And I shall prove it:

Some Book Genres:

-Horror
-Reference
-Romance
-Comedy

ALL written using text, and practically, via a word processor.

-All with different content
-No matter what word processor you use, very similar results

Conclusion: The tool does not effect the outcome by a signifigant amount.


Some Game Genres:

-Classic 2D Adventure Game
-Tile Based RPG
-Massively Multiplayer Online First Person Shooter
-Flight Simulator

ALL written using resources, but with many different styles of logic and features.

-All with different content
-The engine features determine the types of games you can make

Conclusion: The engine you use, must have the capable features for your game.

Summary: for writing books, almost any word processor will serve. But for games you need a very specific tool to create the kind of game you want.

If the ONLY game genre in the world, was the Doom3 type First person shooter, then we ALL would use the Doom3 engine, and make different stories/maps/content for that game.

But when it comes to games, different engines are needed to accomplish different types of games, and sometimes an existing game engine does not meet your needs. Which is why if the developer is serious about getting what s/he wants, they will write thier own.

Quote:Bad, misleading comparison.

Yes I see. I'm starting to lean to both sides of this argument. It seems very clear to me now. We should develop an engine that makes games that simulates developers making engines that develop games for simulating programmers that develop word processing applications for writing novels that are about overly defensive engine programmers that make game engines which build other game engines which make games to simulate a good round of golf. Or we could just make the golf game. Or just chuck it all and go play an actual game of golf.

Or just join the Marine Corps and blow things up for all of the hardship caused by trying to develop your engine/game/whatever.