Learning DX11, I made an engine and MFC GUI for it. It is mostly a model viewer.
Now I decided to move to games.
Probably it will be FPS or some open-world game (I am working on that :) )
I want to make a decision of distribution platform to move.
Target platform will be Windows 10, x64, DX11. Probably in some future, XBO (I love Windows :) )
No support for ARM, x86, PS*, mobile, Android/IOS/Linux is in plans.
No Unity or other big middleware.
Right now, I am redesigning my engine in order to add support for: levels, GUI, physics, …, and have 2 choices:
1. Implement most of the functional in clean WinAPI, and in next iteration think how to distribute a game, with probability of throw away all the GUI/WinAPI and rewriting some subsystems.
2. Use UWP for GUI, game loop, and design next version of an engine with that in mind.
I am in research right now and I want to clear some questions for me:
1. Piracy.
a. As far as I know, there is no such thing for XBO. (I failed to find XBO games on thepiratebay)
Is this correct?
b. For PC with Universal Windows Platform, it is not clear.
Is UWP enough to deal with piracy?
c. I can see a lot of Steam games that are cracked. Because of that I made a conclusion not go to Steam.
Any thoughts?
2. UWP Limitations:
a. How is it impact development time?
b. How painful is it to follow all Microsoft guidelines?
c. Does anyone of you ship UWP game?
3. UWP and Performance:
a. Should I be concerned of impact in comparison with simple WinAPI?
4. Overall suggestions?
Thanks in advance!