   Which way to go?
  Hey there,I've become intent on making a 3D game for the first time and I'm trying to figure out the best way to go about it.I thought about using something like UDK, but I've been checking it out today and I realized that working with something like that would drive me insane. I know I will run into so many problems that would simply come down to RTFM and figuring out how they decided to do something instead of figuring out how to make something on my own.The other option I'm considering is making something from scratch with SDL + OpenGL. I've made 2D games with SDL before but just software rendered, no OpenGL implementations. Writing a 3D renderer doesn't worry me that much because I'm pretty sure I have more than enough math knowledge to handle it (studied some projective geometry which might be put to use!). What worries me more is stuff like file-types / data structures for levels, models, making an animation system etc.A basic tile map is the most advanced data structure I've ever written to a file so I have very little experience in that area. I'm a horrible graphics artist so at some point I'm going to have to solicit the help of someone who's better at that stuff and that means being able to handle data formats their tools of choice spit out etc. I know you can handle a lot of that stuff with libraries, but still, there's a lot I would have to learn and I don't want to get in too far over my head. I know there's XNA but I don't know much about it other than that it uses C# which I haven't tried. Would it be a better option?Thanks for any advice :)/teo   
  I have used UDK and I found the video tutorials to be quite helpful. The tools are really good and for a lot of applications it is a good tech. There is also Unity which might also save some work but I personally haven't really used Unity that much.SDL+OpenGL is rather low level and it you might find that it is more work than you really want to do.... XNA is pretty good (I like C#) but there are some limitations...Really it all comes down to what you really want to do... What platforms do you want to support? What kind of speed do you require? What is your objective in making a game? The question you ask is like "I decided to make a sculpture and I was wondering if I should use clay, scrap steel, or wood  what would be best?"  and it really depends on what you are more comfortable working with and your desired goal!I hope this helps.... My main advice would be to try all of them, pick one, and stick with it. Either way you will certainly learn a lot!   