Hello all!

okay so im looking into game engines for my business/dev partner to use. Hes in college for computer science/java programming and even though he can program in the C family, he feels most comfortable with java. Since i know HTML5 and some web-oriented languages, i decided id be best suited for graphic design and storyline.

Either way, ive been looking all over, we need a good 2d game engine. I took a look at Slick2D, JGame and some others, im just wondering if i can get help as to what commercial programmers are using these days?

I also took a look into GameMaker Studio/8.1(since i can play with small mockups and then give him directions for programming) but im scared an engine thats so easy to use, especially for beginners(i made a mockup in 15 minutes without using any of my coding abilities), is just too good to be true. Plus ive never heard of any commercial company using such an engine.

So, i figured i would once again come to gamedev for help, can anyone shed some light? If it helps, its a 2D Platformer that isnt at all graphics demanding. Some physics will be used, but not much. Multiplayer is a future thought, but im sure if i dont have an engine that supports it, we can just impliment it later, however all the help i can get being an indie developer is always nice! No 3D is necessary, animations will be done in flash!

@jbadams your awesome. Wanna work on goobert with me? XD

I told my partner what was said and gave him the link to here so he had info. I like gamemaker a lot, its easy to understand and use for me, and he can impliment his java programming easy as well.

Additionally I saw construct 2, which is used for a LOT of commercual games that bo doubt kade the creator enough to buy a little more than one dinner. The issue is, I can't find anything that says construct 2 can even support an addon/applet for java. now, id be ok, understabding html5 to a degree but I'm not programming so that would be useless. Do you have any insight on that?

He wants an open source option for editing purposes. If you buy the full version of GMS(a whopping 799$) I wonder if they give you the source code...

I would definitely recommend libgdx for java. It's a nice api that offers a lot of functionality. Naturally you'll need to learn how it works and I dunno how much experience you have with actual game development, however, I do think it's a good start to use libgdx nonetheless.

There are lots of tutorials available for beginners.

As to using flash for the animations, I'm not sure about how you'll handle that part within libgdx. I'm sure there are ways, but you could just split the animations up into a sprite sheet and animate it from there using a texture atlas. Alternatively you can buy spine2D and use it for animations(fantastic software).

As I said, it all depends on your experience.

Also, a little friendly advice:
Dunno if you've developed before, but when you start using a new api or develop your first games, don't try and overdo it!
There's quite a lot of learning and programming to be done before you get some results, taking on to big of a challenge in the beginning can be discuraging!

I would definitely throw out a few simple games before starting on anything larger.
I'm saying this because you used the term business/dev partner

Hope I was of some help!
Cheers and good luck! :)

Haha yea. Personally ive made several games. Icon Universe was my favorite. Its still in development but it works the same as neopets or gaia online would, a web based rpg where you level and dress an avatar.

Either way, hes never done it before, which is why I wanted to use GM:S. we can make world mockups and use our documentation as a reference to how the game should look at the end.

Personally, ive been using graphpaper to sketch out levels with puzzles nd how I expect them to look, and handing them off to him to be made. We have everything like mechanics/movement, enemy ai, world lhysics, enemy properties, storyline, design documents, all down and ready. So were in the programming stage of it all and the game is... intermediate to make. I feel the unique idea of using blobs of goo as tools, combined with our storyline should make an amazjng game.

Basically I just want to get all the help I can, ive devoted myself to graphic design and marketing so I need for him to be able to pull his weight.

So I guess I'll look into libgdx and maybe look into taking out flash animating. As far as game maker studio does anyone have any idea on how well it works with flash? Like are they fruendly or want to kill one another?

Having worked with Slick2D, I feel like I should point out that it isn't an engine, just a library. If you decide to use it, expect to write a lot of code. Another bit of advice I can give, regarding Slick, is that Slick's support of the Tiled software is less mature than that of libgdx, which I have also worked with (very) briefly. I have not worked with GameMaker, however, so I defer to the above posts, but everything I have heard about it, lately, has been positive.

Weve decided to use gm:s free until we hit a big enough point that the game is in steady development, theres a playable demo, and were getting a lot of positive feedback. At that point we will pay the 100$ for a commercial version and eventually the 800$ one to use for mobile games etc. Not even sure if we'll ever need that version haha.

Anyone ever play with JGame?