So, to give you guys a basic idea I want to make a 3D free-roam action/adventure RPG (ah-la OOT/MM, Assassin's Creed2 ect.) And my only experience is making crude models in Blender and messing with Game Maker. That being said, I talked with some people already and have come to the fact that I need to create my own engine/get a open source one and expand greatly upon it. I was also suggested 3D Studio Max for models. I expect the actual making of the game to take at least 5 years, it is probably going to be little more complicated then OOT/MM. So, by this point I'm sure you all know why I am here; I need suggestions on how the hell to get started.

Quote:That being said, I talked with some people already and have come to the fact that I need to create my own engine/get a open source one and expand greatly upon it.

How did you (or they) come to that conclusion?

To be more specific, why is it a given that you'd need to use an open-source engine (as opposed to closed source), and why do you think you'd need to 'expand greatly' upon it?

Quote:Original post by jyk

Quote:That being said, I talked with some people already and have come to the fact that I need to create my own engine/get a open source one and expand greatly upon it.

How did you (or they) come to that conclusion?

To be more specific, why is it a given that you'd need to use an open-source engine (as opposed to closed source), and why do you think you'd need to 'expand greatly' upon it?

The main reason being I cant edit a closed source engine, if I realize I want my game to do something the closed engine cannot I'm out of luck, But if I make it by scratch or use a open source that can be edited directly, then I could simply code in that missing feature.
I thought I would need to 'expand greatly' on one because I do not really expect an open source engine to let me do all the things I want to.

Quote:Original post by wicked357
since you plan on releasing the game legit

I am not entirely sure about releasing it as some kind of indie game to appear on Steam or whatnot. The entire idea out of this is to create a game that lets me make my own sort of Zelda-esque universe for people to enjoy, I would imagine most of my money from this would come from donations. However, if it really does turn out to be THAT good then maybe I would consider hooking up a sequel or expansion or something on Steam.

EDIT: Also, I have a pretty defined idea of what kind of features I want in, so I would be happy to answer any kind of question

Quote:The main reason being I cant edit a closed source engine, if I realize I want my game to do something the closed engine cannot I'm out of luck, But if I make it by scratch or use a open source that can be edited directly, then I could simply code in that missing feature.
I thought I would need to 'expand greatly' on one because I do not really expect an open source engine to let me do all the things I want to.

Keep in mind that in order to edit and expand an open-source engine, you have to be able to edit and expand an open-source engine. This is no small task if you have little or no programming experience.

Now you said you're looking several years ahead, so maybe you're already factoring in the time needed to develop the required programming skills. Be aware though that that can take a while (years even).

In any case, I wouldn't assume that a closed-source engine wouldn't meet your needs. Unity, for example, allows you to essentially program your game in C# or &#106avascript, while at the same time taking care of most of the details (rendering, asset management, input, entity management, etc.) for you. Also, I believe with some Unity licenses you get access to all or part of the C++ source, so if you got to a point where you really needed to make modifications, you probably still could.<br><br>If I were you I'd start playing around with Unity (or a similar engine) a bit and see where it takes you. You could also try some other engines/libraries (Ogre, Panda3D, etc.), and just see what feels most comfortable.

Ok, and when it is time to learn how to make/edit an engine where should I start? Also, are there any tutorials or anything that specialize in things like RPG's as apposed to the 1000+ FPS tutorials I've see.

EDIT: Also, I've seen an engine called Torque and it looks neat, anyone have a opinion on it?

No offense, but I don't think you really have any idea what you're getting into here. The type of game you're talking about here, created from scratch and done in 5 years, is going to take a team of a few dozen professional developers. For something like that to be created by by a single hobbyist working in his or her spare time... simply isn't realistic.

Which isn't to say that you can't or shouldn't try. But it'll be much more beneficial to you to be realistic from the start about what's involved. My advice? Learn programming, then learn how to apply that programming to basic game development. Assuming you're working on this regularly but in your spare time, that'll probably take you at least 6 months to a year.

As your knowledge develops, the ideas you have for your game are going to evolve. You'll (hopefully) begin to realize which ideas aren't possible, which are possible but not practical, which can be done better or differently, etc. You may very well reshape your ideas into something more realistic which could be completed as a long term solo project or with the help of a few friends. If your ideas are still on a large scale, then you'll be much better positioned to begin working on them and to start assembling a team to make them happen.

I'm going to back up Speedo_ here. I currently work for a company which has a dozen people working on the lighting models for a game engine.

"Assassin's Creed" had a team of 150 people. AC2 **tripled** the size of the team to 450.

Nintendo don't make a big thing about the size of their teams, but you can probably draw some conclusions from the fact they spend something in the order of $100M a year on R&D..


So. What do you need to do?

Go and learn either C++ or C#. No, really. You won't make AC2 in anything less. Not yet anyway.

Then go and write some simple games. Tetris, for example or Breakout -- to get used to render/interact loops. One of those tank-vs-tank 2d games for the maths and writing graphics code. Write a text adventure game to get used to the idea of puzzle systems. I wrote a kick-ass dominoes player to learn about AI..