Hi,

Firstly i would like to say hi to you all, i have been silently stalking this website for a while now, and found many interesting articles and topics.

I am a 2nd year Bsc Computer Game Development student (about to go into 3rd year come September), and for our dissertation we will be have to make a game (in a group), the scope is pretty open, we are able to use any engine, no theme, any genre. I got the go ahead from my lectures to create my own 2D game/game engine from scratch (although i will be using SOME middleware such as FMOD). I am really excited to do this project, but I am slightly worried, from what i have heard is that most, even 2D games, take about 2+ years to make. I understand the more complex the game, the longer the development. Am I right to be concerned with the amount of work?

Just a little information about the project and a small bio about myself, We will be starting it in June/early July leaving a year to complete it, I will be the main programmer of the project, although others in my group also have programming experience. The language of choice is C++ (although I am proficient in java too). We will be using DirectX9 (because that's all the books on 2D engines I could find did) but I would prefer to use openGL because of the cross-platform-ey-nuss (that’s not a word is it?) (can can't seem to find any good books on the subject, let alone, a good section on 2D graphics, if anyone knows any please can you leave a link? thanks). We also have access to quite a lot of industry standard software (thanks to the uni).

I have also seen a few posts on this forum saying "make a simple game such as pong first"; I have made a few of these simple games, including asteroids, pong, minesweeper and a nifty particle system.

We will be using Scrum (using Jira to track the sprints), visual studio 12 pro, and for a math's library, its looking like XNA MATH is the direction we are going in

We are only in concept stage at the moment, so many things can change.

Also does anyone advice towards what genre to stay away from, we have a concept (which we all REALLY like) for a RTS game but the IA of an RTS kind of scares me (although we do, do an advance AI module next year), but I'm sure we/i can work something out.

Also does anyone have any advice about the order of development of the game engine? I would assume, from the books i have read, it would go something like:

1. Some Graphical output
2. Input
3. Level editor (i know there are some free ones online, which we might use)
4. [Some awesome mechanic]
5. More advance graphical (lighting, Fog of War etc)
6. Polish input / mechanics

No doubt I am forgetting something, and will run into roadblocks, but would like to get them ironed out ASAP. Does anybody have any alterations to the order/ any advice?

Many thanks,

any answers will be appreciated.

TL;DR

Any advice on making a game engine?

I have also seen a few posts on this forum saying "make a simple game such as pong first"; I have made a few of these simple games, including asteroids, pong, minesweeper and a nifty particle system.

If you've made some simple games already you should have enough of an idea of the kind of challenges and solutions you should be anticipating in order to make a generic engine. If you don't then I suggest you make some more 2D games of increasing complexity until you feel confident that you can tie the common threads of each game into something more generic and reusable.

I personally wouldn't do something like this for a dissertation project as there's easier projects that don't have as much uncertainty and potential to blow up in your face. From my experience (and I walked away with a 1st Class Hons), choosing something simpler with more "wow" factor that you know you could finish in time and to spec is a much safer bet than an ambiguous and more problematic project as a 2D engine.

Hey,

Thanks for your reply. From what i have learnt from those simple games, i find i can easly transfair accross, i just wanted to step carefully :) just so the project didnt "blow up in our faces". I too am heading for a 1st, and i am confident i can do this project :). I appreciate your advice, but i have always been the ambisous sort, thus why i wanted to do this.

we are aware of the risk, but as i said, we really want to do this project

thanks :)

Also does anyone advice towards what genre to stay away from, we have a concept (which we all REALLY like) for a RTS game but the IA of an RTS kind of scares me (although we do, do an advance AI module next year), but I'm sure we/i can work something out.

Developing nice AI is a pretty big job and also puts time pressure on you to finalize game mechanics early so the AI tuning can begin. Either you lose a lot of design iteration opportunity, or you are likely to end up with a half-baked AI. That's why my gut feeling says to avoid that. But maybe your concept would be suitable for a multiplayer-only RTS? Coming up with a basic multiplayer engine design is also a bit of work, but it shouldn't be as big of a roadblock as AI in a single-player only game could be. And also unlike with the AI, you can choose to dodge most of that work and mitigate risk by using an existing engine that comes with network functionality.

Hey thanks for the reply,

Yeah, i dont want to come up with some half backed AI. When we where coming up with the idea (of the RTS) we realised it was perfect for multiplayer, though we would like some story, designs are yet to be finalised. But having it multiplayer are a strong possibility.

Thanks again :)

some really usful stuff

Hey thanks

Lots of those things have been decided (although bare in mind things can change),

We are using SCRUM (using JIRA to track our sprints, burndowns etc), most likley using Visual Studio 2012 Professional ( we get it free via our uni), I was planning on using XNA Math Library,

Thanks for your words, ill take it under my wing

words

yeah sorry, i meant to put that in the italic bit but forgot, ill update now. I didnt really see anyother forum that this could go in, but hey-ho.

Being limited to xbox/windows doesnt end at XML Math, in my orignal post, i am (most likely) using direct x 9. Not because i hate openGL but because there seems to be a lack of books that cover 2D graphics (well, ive glanced at some that skimmed it, pretty much just "this is how you put a triangle on the screen").

We where going for Age of empires 1 look (but not the same theme, art style, etc). I was just planning on cheating a bit, just polling if the tile was populated with a building (i.e. impassible). I also thought about something like what you described, but never really explored it, I'll give it a thought :)

Thanks

i have heard is that most, even 2D games, take about 2+ years to make. I understand the more complex the game, the longer the development. Am I right to be concerned with the amount of work?

This really depends on how many hours per day you will work and how many problems you run into.

You will save a lot of time sitting in front of the computer by spending a decent amount of time with a pen and notebook planning everything thoroughly. If you can target possible bugs and solutions before development begins you will have a better time programming and some good feeling "aha!" moments.

I have read that people say they can complete the bulk of their code in a few months and then spend almost a year or two afterwards tweaking everything to be perfect. A good planning stage will help. Try to tackle everything you can think of.

How many people are in your group? Splitting up coding/artwork effectively can really help. A big group can be both a blessing but also a headache when disagreements arise.