Quote:Original post by JBourrie
First, I'd like to point out that I get the feeling this guy is doing it for educational purposes. That being said...
Often "Not Invented Here Syndrome" is blamed, when in reality the learning curve of a full game engine is harder then just writing your own from scratch that fits your needs without the fluff.
Use the right tool for the job :)
Point taken. I agree that If none of the existing projects out there suit your needs, writing yor own might be the best solution. That seems to be the case in Rumble Box, and I agree with your decision - you couldn't find a preexisting solution and you didn't need many of the features they provide.
Also, "not invented here" was probably not the right phrase in my post, reinventing the wheel is more appropriate.
As for how long it takes to learn an existing engine, here's someone who made a simple game in OGRE in 2 days. Considering it was his first 3D game, how long would it have taken to make it from scratch? It's true not everyone will be able to pick it up in 2 days, and it'll take longer to learn how to use the more advanced features - but it's not that tough to get started.
I still think that if you want to spend your time making a 3D game, rather than a full fledged engine you're better off using one of the available ones - especially if you're going to need some of the features provided. If a complicated scene graph, model and texture loaders, skeletal animation, an octree or BSP, sky box/plane, particle system, etc. (which have all had extensive testing/debugging/peer review) are needed - the time taken to learn an API that already does it for you is going to take less time than writing it all yourself.
It comes down to what the OP's team wants to get out of the project - if it's a engine with a rich feature set, I think they'd be better off using an existing project (unless they're doing it because they enjoy the process of creating an engine). However, if they're more interested in making games rather than engines, I'd suggest taking a look at what's out there and evaluate how they want to spend their time.
just my 2 cents