   Game Development - Engines?
  Hello there everyone.A group of my friends and I have long been interested in both gaming and computers and decided it might be an exciting idea to begin creating an RPG of our own. We've done a lot of research on this and figured our best bet would be to use an engine. I figure that the Torque Game Engine Advanced / Torque3D would definitely be the best bet.However - we are not really certain where to begin. What would you say are the first steps in a project like this? Before anyone tries to rant at me, we understand the work, time, and money that will need to be put into this. :) We just need some help with getting started.Any assistance is greatly appreciated!Thank you.   
  What do you want to hear?If your team has solid skills in programming and modeling and is motivated enough: Just start! You'll make mistakes, throw lot of things away, but you'll also gain experience in game developing.Don't make too high demands, like don't expect it to be the next Diablo 3.I guess a lot of people will tell you not to use Torque. Try irrlicht (free game engine) or have a look on ogre3d (render engine).   ;  Traditional software projects start with requirements analysis and specification. Since we're talking about a game, you'll want to put this stuff down in a design document. I wouldn't specify this down to a very low granularity, though - as a first step, figure out enough to write a playable prototype, which will help motivate you and show whether the game's gonna be any fun. Especially in a project such as a game, and given that it's a new project type for you, I think you'd be better off with an iterative approach to development (if you're big on formality, or just want some more direction in the project management department, try out Scrum/Agile). Picking the technologies you are going to use should actually be a last step based on your requirements, but in reality you will have to adjust your requirements to account for the tech since you are not going to write a professional graphics engine from scratch overnight.   ;  We're definitely motivated - no doubt about that. Modeling and programming is also covered. So, with these skills all it would take is the engine to set things into motion, correct? Now, you said a lot of people would recommend I stay away from Torque... any specific reasons?   ;Quote:Original post by EpsilonEridaniWe're definitely motivated - no doubt about that. Modeling and programming is also covered. So, with these skills all it would take is the engine to set things into motion, correct? Now, you said a lot of people would recommend I stay away from Torque... any specific reasons?To be honest, I don't know, I never used it, but lots of people say it's hastily cobbled together.   ;  Here are my few cents on Torque:We're using TGEA (not T3D) for our hack'n'slash game and I have personally been using the tech (before known as TGE) since 2004. It's definatly not as clean as it could be, but when I purchased it there wasn't much competition in that price range.Today I wouldn't want to use anything else, but that's more because I know it like my backyard and am actually productive with it. If I was starting out today, I probably wouldn't have chosen it. The community has not exactly grown, the price range has been much increased and many of key community members are gone.I hope you find the engine you're looking for. TGEA/T3D are definatly not as bad as some people claim it is, and in the end that's not what's going to make or break your game. I'd buy TGEA if you like the demo of it, but would wait until T3D matures.   ;  I see. No worries.Since this is our first real project - we're looking for something that will give us a hand along the way. Have you ever played around with that program called RPG Maker? It has a lot of things built in to make the actual development a lot easier. We're looking for an engine that, well... won't make us have to code everything, pretty much.Do you know anything like that?   ;  As far as I understand, Game Maker isn't much of an engine but a game maker package. You won't (and can't) get dirty with coding, but I guess it is nice to make prototypes in. But you're limited if you ever want to stretch it.Have you considered C4/Unity? I hear alot of good opinions of both, but was never really impressed with the former. The latter is just slightly out of my price range, and I prefer to have the source code.Torque definatly has the nicer demos (especially now with T3D) but rendering efficiency isn't its strongest card. I don't know how it compares to the other engines in that department, though.   ;  I'm testing out evaluation versions for the engines you mentioned above.While doing some searches on Google I ran across something called RealmCrafter. Have you heard of it?   ;  If you really want to get started in game development it would be far better to not use any game engine, far too many details will be hidden from you. At least that's what I think.   