Favorite Game Engine?

[Sylar]

For those who have experience working with Game Development, what is your favorite engine to code on? Or did you create your own game engine?

I would love to see some examples of work if you have them!

I personally lack game development experience, but I was very interested in HeroEngine last summer when I almost started to develop a MMO with a friend

 

[RivaCom]

I'm assuming from other posts that you thought about the hero engine due to SWTOR? I tickered with it for a bit, it had a great world builder that was collaborative in real time(ie two builders could work on the same area), and having the netcode for a MMO already setup was very nice. But it lacked a lot of in-depth graphical stuff.

Right now I think Unity is pretty high up on the pole only due to it's cross platform operations. UDK is very close though and is still probably one of the nicest looking engines to develop for. The recent update to UDK4 has them streamlining various things such as asset stores similar to what Unity has done.

 

[Sylar]

Yes SWTOR was the source of my exposure to Hero Engine. Interesting. I really wanted to mess around with it because, as you said, they had an MMO setup default. Are the graphical flaws something that could be fixed through development? Like making your own graphics and whatnot. Or is it more of an engine problem?

I have heard really good things about unity, I'm just afraid to try it out due to the fact that it looks like it has a high learning curve.

 

[Avex]

Unreal Engine is my favourite, followed by CryEngine and Unity. All have their pros and cons.

Are the graphical flaws something that could be fixed through development? Like making your own graphics and whatnot. Or is it more of an engine problem?

If you're good at graphic design, you can easily use your own graphics and make it look as "realistic" as you can, or make it look like anything you want really. It all comes down to you how you want the graphics to be.

 

[RivaCom]

Yes SWTOR was the source of my exposure to Hero Engine. Interesting. I really wanted to mess around with it because, as you said, they had an MMO setup default. Are the graphical flaws something that could be fixed through development? Like making your own graphics and whatnot. Or is it more of an engine problem?

I have heard really good things about unity, I'm just afraid to try it out due to the fact that it looks like it has a high learning curve.

It was more of the graphic limitations it had. However I do not know if they have released new code behind the hero engine or if it's still running on the same framework that SWTOR was using.

As for unity. Very easy to pick up and mess with. Little more difficult to customize features if your not familiar with JS or C#. That's where Unreal would fit better as their visual flow programming is easy enough for anyone to understand and mess with.

 

[Sylar]

Hm alright then. Awesome! I think I'll mess around with Unreal as I don't have any knowledge of C#, but I do have a solid knowledge of JS. Thanks for the recommendations!

 

[Avex]

Hm alright then. Awesome! I think I'll mess around with Unreal as I don't have any knowledge of C#, but I do have a solid knowledge of JS. Thanks for the recommendations!

Personally the blueprint system in Unreal confuses me to an extent of desk flipping, although that's not to say you'll encounter the same confusion. I've seem some great games made with just the blueprints and little manually written code.

 

[RivaCom]

Personally the blueprint system in Unreal confuses me to an extent of desk flipping, although that's not to say you'll encounter the same confusion. I've seem some great games made with just the blueprints and little manually written code.

It's definitely a step up from their old method, but it's still just connecting mind maps and giving them values. It will take a bit to get use to but is still faster then learning c# or JS on the fly.

 

[halcyon220]

id Tech 3 has the best coding support I've ever seen, as well as easy to use radiants.

I spent many hours making crappy mods for Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory haha.

But sadly nothing came of them. But It was still a great learning experience.

 

[AmenoKaji]

I'm a fan of the Unreal engine. I have been trying to learn it in my spare time but sometimes I just forget about it. It hands down has to be one of the easiest game engines I have messed around with, and it seems to be the strongest at this point. As much as I like the cryengine the games made on it always seem to be riddled with bugs and performance issues and it requires a lot of effort to work within the game. Right now i think Unreal's engine is just that perfect balance of highly detailed workstation, graphics and simplicity of just making anything without knowing what you're doing. I watch their twitch tv show every chance I get since I am following the development of the new Unreal Tournament game.

 

[Testament]

Ever tried Unity? Isn't it the most famous game development engine for amateurs? I'm not sure. It is simple enough to pick up and there are a LOT of tutorials on YouTube. Unity's own tutorials are kinda difficult to follow. It requires a bit more knowledge in C programming, though.

 

[RivaCom]

Ever tried Unity? Isn't it the most famous game development engine for amateurs? I'm not sure. It is simple enough to pick up and there are a LOT of tutorials on YouTube. Unity's own tutorials are kinda difficult to follow. It requires a bit more knowledge in C programming, though.

Not really a beginners engine in terms of learning game development. Unity is famous for it's asset store and cookie cutter scripts that allow you to accomplish some basic tasks to get games up and running quicker without tons of time being dedicated to resources outside your comfort zone. However Unreal has quickly moved over to asset stores as well and easier scripting interfaces so. Each would probably be great atm.

 

[PingPongCall]

Frostbite is my favorite platform to work on by far. It's got a pretty wicked learning curve but once you get the hang of it, it's by far the simplest. If your looking for an all in one package though, unity is really the only way to go.

 

[AnonLu]

For my uses, Unity. GameMaker is even quite useful as well.

 

[Belovedad]

I really like Unity. If you have some coding knowledge and common sense then it will be really helpful for you. I don't think it's that difficult to learn to do basic stuff but as you progress, it gets harder.

 

[Kelly1]

I usе thе соrrесt tооl fоr thе jоb.
Prоtоtyping with а smаll budgеt аnd limitеd timе - whiсh еvеr еnginе I'm mоst fаmiliаr with thаt hаs thе bеst оvеrlаp fоr thе fеаturе sеt.
Mеdium tеаm with аn оkаy budgеt - Unity. Smаll еnоugh tеаm sо thаt thе mеrgе соnfliсt issuеs dоn't сrееp up but still еnоugh еnginе fеаturеs tо mаkе mоst gаmе typеs.
Lаrgе tеаm - Unrеаl, сrysis оr Sоurсе dеpеnding оn thе typе оf gаmе I'm mаking аnd thе skill оf thе tеаm. аnd if I nееd 64bit wоrlds оr hаvе thе budgеt tо dо thе еnginе соnvеrsiоn mysеlf (аnd mаintаin it аftеr еnginе updаtеs.) аnd thе skill оf my nеtwоrking tеаm аnd hоw muсh nеtwоrk lоvе I'll nееd.

 

[overcast]

I think Torque 2D Engine is one of my favorite engine so far. It is free and open source. You can extend it with the paid options. I have found that those games with the options for the free extensions are lot better. They don't charge any royalty like Unity. So that is itself can make some good game environment for anyone. I think Torque 3D is also good but they have some limitation for importing it into the paid project.

 

[thart]

I have to admit that if i was planning to make a game with lower requirements, the source engine would be my first choice. especially since it was supported Mac. something that bugs me is that glitchy. i hate getting stuck in the corner of filing cabinets and soda machines in CSS.

 

[Makef0rt]

Considering this topic was started in 2017, there have been some changes, but in general there is pretty much only 1 engine that keeps surprising me. And that would be Unreal Engine.

 

[BeardedMamba]

I'm using Unity, since it's a cross-platform and applicable for mobile and PC games. It's easy to use too, drag and drop and scripting. I haven't tried other game engines yet, but Unity is easy to use, so I'm not planning to change anytime soon.