As others have pointed out, why reinvent the wheel. For 2d platformer there are the HGE or Löve engine. Both are very good. Just recently checked them out.
Write Games, Not Engines
As others have pointed out, why reinvent the wheel. For 2d platformer there are the HGE or Löve engine. Both are very good. Just recently checked them out.
So my advice to you, if you’re trying to write an engine, is: Don’t. No matter what your reasons are — it doesn’t matter if you’re writing an engine so you can write your dream game, or if you’re writing an engine because you think it will be a good learning experience, or any number of similar reasons. They’re all wastes of time.[/quote]
So writing a game engine isn't a good learning experience? Yes, it might be not the best learning experience about "how to make good games". But it certainly is a good experience in more general meaning.
It sounds really mean - I don't care how good reasons for making an engine you have, you definitely are wrong and I am right when I say that you shouldn't even try to make your own engine. No matter how much you in fact want to make an engine and not a game because you feel more like a programmer and not game maker or whatever.
[quote name='phantom' timestamp='1301252808' post='4791043']
Write Games, Not Engines
As others have pointed out, why reinvent the wheel. For 2d platformer there are the HGE or Löve engine. Both are very good. Just recently checked them out.
So my advice to you, if you’re trying to write an engine, is: Don’t. No matter what your reasons are — it doesn’t matter if you’re writing an engine so you can write your dream game, or if you’re writing an engine because you think it will be a good learning experience, or any number of similar reasons. They’re all wastes of time.[/quote]
So writing a game engine isn't a good learning experience? Yes, it might be not the best learning experience about "how to make good games". But it certainly is a good experience in more general meaning.
It sounds really mean - I don't care how good reasons for making an engine you have, you definitely are wrong and I am right when I say that you shouldn't even try to make your own engine. No matter how much you in fact want to make an engine and not a game because you feel more like a programmer and not game maker or whatever.
[/quote]
You took that quote out of context. Here is the entire quote:
[font="Times New Roman"][color="#FFFFFF"]So my advice to you, if you’re trying to write an engine, is: Don’t. No matter what your reasons are — it doesn’t matter if you’re writing an engine so you can write your dream game, or if you’re writing an engine because you think it will be a good learning experience, or any number of similar reasons. They’re all wastes of time. You can sit down and write a game without writing a pre-written engine, and in fact this is very often the better approach, regardless of why you want to write an engine. The entire development process goes much more smoothly if you are focused on writing a game instead: a game is much easier to identify requirements for, much narrower in focused, much more rewarding when finished, and much, much more useful.[/font][/quote]
...which clearly states exactly what the entire article is trying to get across: write games, which you can then refactor into oh, say, an engine! Instead of writing an engine upfront thinking that is "how it's done" and then working around the horrible quirks that are a result of a poorly designed engine. Or hell, you can just skip the entire thing all together and use something that already has been written. Point is, there is no reason to write an arbitrary engine to fit some imaginary requirements (and they are just that, imaginary, until you know what that particular genre requires of a game engine!) when you could be spending time writing a game instead! If all you want is an engine, fine, go ahead. We're not stopping you from wasting your time. But why not spend it wisely where it matters? Experimenting, researching, writing games. The "engine" will come naturally after you've done those things
But the whole point of creating things is to learn. You should only use an engine if you can code your own. This is almost the same as saying, just use Game Maker instead of learning c++ and OpenGL/Window system because it is easier.
Write Games, Not Engines
You might want to give that a read...
Hi, I read through that article and I understand it completely. I've been wasting my time trying to figure out the ugly innards of OpenGL 4.1 and Direct X 11 with no real sense of achievement.
I didn't understand the last part of the article however. Do I choose a pre-existing engine such as UDK or Unity and write a game or make a game from scratch building on the foundations of the game engine as needed?
