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 Posted: Mon, 30th Jan 2012 12:32 Post subject: The platform |
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First thing we's have to decide is the platform.
I'd like to develop for a mobile platform, then potentially port to others. There are a few reasons for this, but the main of them are:
- indie quality games are the standard on the mobile platform. If we create a light game on the PC, then it's just "another student project". If we do the exact same on a mobile platform, it will be standard business.
- if we intend to follow up with something more serious, experience in mobile will definitely be good, as it's a platform where it's easier to achieve
- 2 d is standard on the mobile platform
- i'd like to learn something new (perhaps others would, too)
- we can get the free game on the market
Let's decide on the platform, then we can move on. What would you like it developed on?
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| Posted: Mon, 30th Jan 2012 13:09 Post subject: |
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Android, with self written engine and tools 
Android dev with Java?
you also mentioned MonoDroid, but I don't know how stable that is and especially how fast it will perform compared to Java. Maybe we'd need to go even deeper... C++ on android maybe?
Tools for PC with C#
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| Posted: Mon, 30th Jan 2012 13:14 Post subject: |
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MonoDroid doesn't have good performance yet, that's for sure. Startup times in particular are said to be long.
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garus
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| Posted: Mon, 30th Jan 2012 13:23 Post subject: |
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snip
Last edited by garus on Tue, 27th Aug 2024 21:24; edited 1 time in total
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garus
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| Posted: Mon, 30th Jan 2012 14:14 Post subject: |
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snip
Last edited by garus on Tue, 27th Aug 2024 21:24; edited 1 time in total
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| Posted: Mon, 30th Jan 2012 14:50 Post subject: |
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I can tell you a bit about engines I've worked with, maybe that helps with the platform selection.
Unity is a good engine (supports all platforms). Most of you know C#, and that's the primary scripting language there. It's free for indie games, however it's 1500$ for larger titles (plus another 1000$ for iOS or Android platforms). You won't learn much as far as low level stuff goes, but it will allow you go get a game off the ground really quickly. You don't get the source code so you will likely need to jump through hoops to figure out some things under the hood as the project grows. What is also good about Unity is that you can develop the game right away and choose the platform later.
UDK is also a great engine, but it's only PC/Mac/iOS. It's more featured than Unity and in general better for larger projects. It's hard to get started and it's not exceptionally user friendly, especially from programmers point of view as you need to learn their shitty UnrealScript (although they said they will replace it with a C++-styled language soon). Also no source code, and it also seems to serve as a beta for actual Unreal engine as many new features are quite buggy.
Recently I've been looking into Torque, which is probably your best bet. It's a cheap 180$ license (you only need to purchase it before you actually publish the game, you can use demo until then). It's not as featured full as Unity or UDK, but it does give you access to complete source, which was the main selling point for me after getting annoyed by limitations in Unity/UDK. You'll still get to work with a lot of the low level stuff if you wish, but you also have a good framework to use as a starting point. It only supports PC/Mac/Linux/iOS.
On the other hand you might just want to develop your own engine if you're more interested in learning than actually publishing a game. And it's also the most fun.
So I'd also vote for PC, or web based platform for now (Unity or Torque). 3D web based games also seems to be quite popular recently.
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garus
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| Posted: Mon, 30th Jan 2012 15:05 Post subject: |
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snip
Last edited by garus on Tue, 27th Aug 2024 21:24; edited 1 time in total
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| Posted: Mon, 30th Jan 2012 15:45 Post subject: |
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Emulator is fun, if you happen to have a 20GHz Octocore ...
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tonizito
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| Posted: Mon, 30th Jan 2012 16:29 Post subject: |
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| PumpAction wrote: | | Emulator is fun, if you happen to have a 20GHz Octocore ... |
Well, I'd like to able to play this on my PC since I doubt it will run on my "Droided" Nokia 1616. 
| boundle (thoughts on cracking AITD) wrote: | | i guess thouth if without a legit key the installation was rolling back we are all fucking then |
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LeoNatan
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| Posted: Mon, 30th Jan 2012 16:34 Post subject: |
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iOS, obviously. With little effort you are on both the iPhone and iPad. You get a simulator that works very well in VMWare even in 3D. Much much better development tools. One target to target. No need to consider plethora of devices, versions and bugs. And a huge market - one free popular release and you can have a paid follow-up that will pay.
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| Posted: Mon, 30th Jan 2012 18:06 Post subject: |
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Develop on unity. Deploy everywhere.
Sense Amid Madness, Wit Amidst Folly
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| Posted: Mon, 30th Jan 2012 18:14 Post subject: |
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If PC, I'd say XNA and yes, even if it will be an unpopular game and disappear somewhere.
So I'm in for any of the two
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garus
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| Posted: Mon, 30th Jan 2012 18:35 Post subject: |
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snip
Last edited by garus on Tue, 27th Aug 2024 21:24; edited 1 time in total
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| Posted: Mon, 30th Jan 2012 19:16 Post subject: |
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Although Natan makes sense, I'm with Garus on this one.
I'd really like it if it were mobile, but I'll go with what the majority wants.
The only problem I see with PC is, to be somewhat of a good game, it really has to be good, whilst it's easier to design a good game for a mobile platform, as simple games are kings on mobile.
Aside from this, if we learn how to properly program for a platform, we could grow to create a real competitive game on that platform. We can achieve this with a small team for the mobile market, yet hardly for the PC market.
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LeoNatan
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| Posted: Mon, 30th Jan 2012 19:23 Post subject: |
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Then we part ways
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[sYn]
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[mrt]
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| Posted: Mon, 30th Jan 2012 23:02 Post subject: |
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Android sounds fine by me, but here's my take on it. I see at least two major hurdles with the tin-can sweet-tooth:
1. Not everybody owns a pet droid
2. Even if everyone had one none would be one and the same which would cause unnecessary delays adapting to specific hardware instead of spending that time developing the game and fine tuning it later.
Maybe we should develop on PC and then once we are happy with what we got we port the engine to the droid. That way everybody can participate.
Also learning new platforms tends blind you from the real difficulty you actually have to face and you spend alot of time figuring out trivial things that you never gave a thought about before.
teey
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[sYn]
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| Posted: Mon, 30th Jan 2012 23:45 Post subject: |
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| Posted: Mon, 30th Jan 2012 23:56 Post subject: |
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Alright, I have been reading up on it as well, and as for development, and the fact, that we are experienced in this field, Windows Phone would be a more easy choice for various reasons - but even fewer of us have that, than Android phones.
So you have convinced me, let's go with the PC as a first project.
XNA framework and own engine? How does that sound? Or do we go with something like Torque 2d?
Or do you want to risk making a 3d game as a first project? (I'd rather not).
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garus
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| Posted: Mon, 30th Jan 2012 23:59 Post subject: |
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snip
Last edited by garus on Tue, 27th Aug 2024 21:23; edited 1 time in total
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| Posted: Tue, 31st Jan 2012 00:12 Post subject: |
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| garus wrote: | So it took [mrt] to convince you? 
Let's take XNA + C# and own simple engine (2D). We can borrow physics engines and some side libraries if needed. |
I've been developing on windows all my life, and wanted to try out something new. But that can happen later, AND I said I want to keep this a democratic process - so if most people want something, I surely won't stand in the way. Try to convince them at first, yes, but if that doesn't succeed, then I'll completely stand behind the common decision.
That being said, if we go with XNA - which seems like a natural choice, then I want to borrow as few libraries as possible. Building even a 2d engine is tricky, and it won't be fast, but if we are to learn from this experience, we should, imho, build most stuff ourselves.
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garus
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| Posted: Tue, 31st Jan 2012 00:46 Post subject: |
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snip
Last edited by garus on Tue, 27th Aug 2024 21:23; edited 1 time in total
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| Posted: Tue, 31st Jan 2012 01:05 Post subject: |
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i would like to see it platform independent
exclusivity is so shitty
i'm so tired of seeing it done to games with consoles already
but what are the options? html5 and unity?
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| Posted: Tue, 31st Jan 2012 01:10 Post subject: |
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Thing is, Shole, even if we develop with unity, technically it would be portable, but you can't really make a game, that's small and plays just as good on a PC (KB+mouse) as it does on a phone (touch screen). Not even mentioning the fact, that some game concepts that work on a PC won't work on a phone. And the reverse. We don't have the time and experience to do something multiplatform for our first project. Stick with one, make it good.
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