Hi everyone,

About me

I'm new to game development. I did look into Unity and UDK a few years back but never really did something. I'm a web developer who currently studies physics/math.

My Skills

Since I'm a web dev, I do have some coding experience in the common web dev stuff. Since I'm studying physics, I do know python (use it for scientific stuff). I also know basics C++/C#. So I'm not a coding noob and have the skills to work myself into a new langauge, framework etc. I do not know any 3D Modelling and stuff and don't plan on learning it. It would be way too much to learn.

My Motivation

So what is my motivation to start developing games? I just think it would be a nice hobby - I'm not planning on living from it. I guess I'm just a geek who likes to do technical stuff. Also I'm currently getting to know the history of my village/area.

Since I live in europe, there is quiet a lot of history to discover. E.g. you can find all these old churches, old cities, castles, toll-towers (where one had to pay a fee to pass, liek customs). You also have all these myths of witches and ghosts etc. Since I love RPGs I though, I could connect these two hobbies and start developing my own (mini) RPG. BUT! I'm not naive, so developing an RPG won't be the first thing I do. That's just a motivation, a long-term goal.

In the beginning, I think I'd do "case-studies", like just trying to make a very simple AI, use existing AIs, create my own little Physics Engine, use existing ones. Stuff like that. And the I'll see where I go, if I really approach such a huge project as an RPG.

Engine-Requirements

So what do I want the engine to have? Overall it should be simple to use - with that I don't mean Drag'n'Drop-Logic-Builder stuff. I mean, that it has a clean documentation, a decent community and a decent codebase and a decent architecture. It would be nice it it were opensource, but it doesn't have to. It should be cheap or free. It should run on Linux since I don't plan on working on windows. It shold work well with big big maps - so no loading screen etc.

It's really okay, if ione has to sully one's hand - I want to learn how all these things work and not just Drag'n'Drop a game together. So I'm not afraid of a rather steep learning curve.

Having Cross-Platform support would be a nice to have - but yeah, not that important.

Outro

I'm kind of "scared" of getting bad skills when using a easy Engine like Unity. I want to have good performance. I think one should only use the easy stuff if he has mastered the hard stuff - e.g. learning PHP by start using a framework might work, but it probably sucks, one should start from scratch to have a better udnerstanding what task the framework actually simplifies. So an Engine which does takes a lot of work form me but also kind of forces me to understand what I'm doing would be nice. (of course, I won't start with OpenGL and build my own Engine :P) I hope I was able to make that point clear.

Just recommend whatever you want, but please tell me why. I currently have Unity vs. Torque 3D in mind - but it I bet there are a few more which I should consider.

Thanks :)

Edit: Oh and I don't think I need a visual Editor for my world - guess it would be fun to try to build one on my own. I think a rendering lib like Irrlicht would be fun to start. What do you think?

(Crap, I missed the part where you said you need it to run on Linux. Never mind...)

Okay thanks I'll look into that :) Oh, you know - I actually like if there are several options for one thing, e.g. the editor. I think for irrlicht there are several terrain editors etc. you just can "plug in".

I also just read that Mgic Leap will support Unity and Unreal Engine, so that's actually a point for Unity, hmm... Despite the fact that it probably limits myself etc. hm

Given that you know C# and Python, you might want to stick with the reference-based, managed memory language C# for now, as it presents the least surprises for you now. That points squarely towards Unity. I wouldn't worry too much about limits; you have a whole new world of games and game development to explore, limits is the least of your worries now. Given the big community of Unity, there must be something they do right :P

If you ever feel limited, or adventurous, you can always have sip of Unreal, see how it feels, at a later time. Nobody says you must pick your final choices at day #1.

Web dev? Don't worry, I got your back man!

https://playcanvas.com/

A web based game engine. Fairly beginner friendly, pretty powerful for a web based game engine too. It's also open sourced.

@Alberth

Sure I don't have to pick it now, but I want to pic a proper choice for the beginning - although the important part is: Just do something. Because of that (just do something) I'll probably go with Unity. Main Reason is, that a good Friend of mine has a HTC Vive, so'll sit together and play around with Unity and the HTC Vive. (or hwoever it is called :P)

But I'm quiet sure I'll try to go more low level in the future, something like Irrlicht :)

@Tangletail

Thansk for that. :)