UDK or Unity? The best game engine for beginners?

For Beginners

Started by Chris941 June 15, 2012 01:21 AM

60 comments, last by Kavin Kumar 11 years, 1 month ago

797

June 15, 2012 06:14 PM

I disagree with your assertion that programming is "the best way to make good games"; players generally don't care how games were made as long as the games are good. If your goal is simply to make a game (or games) and you can do a good job of that without doing lower level programming, then you should go ahead and do so.

Obviously the players don't care how games were made, but they care the quality of the game. With programming you can "configure" all of the characteristics of the game.
The programming provides the possibility to make it better than its already defined.

Just for curiosity, which games are made without programming and has AAA quality?

I was talking about "hardcore" games, not casual games...

Sorry for misunderstanding

6677

1,054

June 15, 2012 09:03 PM

How about the Irrlictgame engine? I haven't tried it myself, but maybe it should be considered in the comparison.

It is completely free, for all features.

And Open source, however its basically rendering only. I wouldn't call that all features. Limited/no physics. No audio. Does have a large selection of file formats though. If you can provide your own physics (ODE and bullet wrappers available for tighter than normal integration) then its probably really good. Theres an external plugin Irrklang for 3d sound but I guess OpenAl would work fine seeming as IrrKlang is non-commercial use only.

My New Blog

jbadams

26,386

June 16, 2012 01:13 AM

Just for curiosity, which games are made without programming and has AAA quality?

I'd guess there are none (other than perhaps the rather dated example of Myst, which was developed with the Hypercard authorware system), but we're not talking about AAA development here: the OP is a beginner and is getting into indie development. As such, the methods and requirements of AAA development don't really apply.

- Jason Astle-Adams

Washu

7,836

June 16, 2012 01:22 AM

the OP is a beginner and is getting into indie development. As such, the methods and requirements of AAA development don't really apply.

Don't apply AT ALL.

Seriously people, get out of the mindset that "just because AAA games do it, I must too." This applies to everything, including what engines you use, what languages you use, and whether or not to use regenerating health.

As far as Unity vs UDK goes...

I've always found UnrealEd to be fairly easy to get into, but the Unity editor is also quite trivial to get into as well. They both have some decent tutorials, however I believe the projects that come with unity are both more complete and generally easier to follow. MY recommendation then would be to use Unity.

In time the project grows, the ignorance of its devs it shows, with many a convoluted function, it plunges into deep compunction, the price of failure is high, Washu's mirth is nigh.

timothyjlaird

604

June 16, 2012 01:41 AM

I haven't used Unity or UDK (not quite satsified with my grasp of 3d graphics theory yet)...but I would presume which engine you choose would depend on what kind of game you are trying to make and what your actual requirments are. So what are they? What kind of tradeoffs are you prepared to make?

I think learning the fundamentals of OpenGL or Directx...which is what these engines run on...would be the best way to start. Then you'll be much better prepared to purchase an engine that fits your application.

Chris941

144

Author

June 16, 2012 03:21 AM

I would presume which engine you choose would depend on what kind of game you are trying to make and what your actual requirments are. So what are they? What kind of tradeoffs are you prepared to make?

For the game I'm starting off small I wanted to create a catapult type game where the main objective is to destroy the other castle, but with customizable catapults, unlocks, hidden secrets, unexpected events and so on so forth (for example: you fire into a lake next to the castle and the loch ness monster comes out and destroys the castle, but now YOU have to destroy the monster, etc etc)

For trade offs I'm not sure exactly what you mean

And to everyone, thanks for all these comments and the ones to come! They are great to read and I'm learning quite a bit from them!

Chris941

144

Author

June 16, 2012 12:00 PM

So from what i read, Unity is the suggested engine and at least a little bit of coding would help? After watching a demo on Cryengine 3 , i decided to download that but alas, my laptop couldn't handle it...i was running at 2 (8 at the most for 2 sec.) fps!

DeafTV

1,705

June 17, 2012 02:44 AM

So from what i read, Unity is the suggested engine and at least a little bit of coding would help?

Yes, in order to create a game you must be able to program and have a pretty good amount of skill in the language you are using.

Fly Safe 7o

Chris941

144

Author

June 17, 2012 03:00 AM

[quote name='Chris941' timestamp='1339848048' post='4949775']
So from what i read, Unity is the suggested engine and at least a little bit of coding would help?

Yes, in order to create a game you must be able to program and have a pretty good amount of skill in the language you are using.
[/quote]

I have many questions on just how I would use it though, but there's another topic for that.

jbadams

26,386

June 17, 2012 06:40 AM

@Chris: I think you might be suffering from a bit of "decision paralysis": you're finding lots of different options, finding lots of information about them and spending a lot of time trying to correctly choose between them. Really, all of the options you've encountered are good, and without any experience you're not yet well equipped to decide on any of them as "best" for your needs.

I would suggest you pick any one of the options you've been considering and just get started with it. Jump in to the provided tutorials and start learning how to actually make games, not just by asking questions and reading information, but by actually going through the process. Your experience with any one of these engines as well as with game-making in general will still apply if you later decide to try another option, but you're unlikely to get very far unless you actually start using one of them.

Personally, I would suggest you get started with Unity, because:

You already have it downloaded and installed,
It's very beginner friendly (perhaps more-so than the other options),
It has LOTS of tutorials and sample projects available, as well as a very active community to help you get started.

I hope that's helpful, and good luck!

- Jason Astle-Adams

UDK or Unity? The best game engine for beginners?

This topic is closed to new replies.

Popular Topics

Recommended Tutorials

UDK or Unity? The best game engine for beginners?

This topic is closed to new replies.

Popular Topics

Recommended Tutorials

Reticulating splines