Good engine for making dungeon crawling game

[Karagee]

So I have some game ideas which you take control as the dungeon master and you will be able to create the dungeon freely. After few days of setting up your defense, adventurers will start coming and they will be controlled by AI. Once they die you'll get resources and points.

The art most likely 2D, take JP dungeon crawling for example.
(Please note that this is for personal project)
After some digging, it seems that unity is a good choice. I could be wrong since I'm new to "make game community", so I want to know the pros and cons using the engine. Let me know what you think

 

[Kinderalpha]

Before I write a novel on dungeon crawling and choice of engine, can you clarify if you mean a 3D space or 2D space? 2D most likely being top down sprites and tiles while 3D being 3D world and models. My answer very much depends on this and im not sure if that's what you meant by 2D graphics

 

[Karagee]

Before I write a novel on dungeon crawling and choice of engine, can you clarify if you mean a 3D space or 2D space? 2D most likely being top down sprites and tiles while 3D being 3D world and models. My answer very much depends on this and im not sure if that's what you meant by 2D graphics

I'm planning to make a mixed perspective like Sakura Dungeon from https://f95zone.to/threads/sakura-dungeon-v1-0-5-winged-cloud.997/ for the adventurer perspective and a top down overview for the dungeon master.

 

[Winterfire]

I have seen people do that in Ren'Py and even RPG Maker.
It is a relatively easy thing to do, much like a VN, almost any game engine will do... Just use whatever you are comfortable with.

 

[Kinderalpha]

Depends on your existing skill set but I'd recommend unity. If you have programming knowledge already, but don't have knowledge of RenPy, RPGMaker, or Unity then I'd recommend just picking up a graphical library for whatever language you're proficient in and do that. You're gonna spend more time learning how to use and then get around features in something like RenPy to achieve what you're doing then you would just programming it from he start. I think your idea is outside the scope of RenPy or RPGMaker in my opinion. It's not a visual novel, and it's not an RPG. So don't use engines not built for your project. Unity would be worth learning in the long run, imo.


It's kinda up to you, we can't tell you what the best option is. It varies based on your pre-existing skills and experience. It also varies based on the scope and features you seek, and how rich you want your mechanics to be.

 

[Karagee]

I have seen people do that in Ren'Py and even RPG Maker.
It is a relatively easy thing to do, much like a VN, almost any game engine will do... Just use whatever you are comfortable with.

I see, I'll try using both of them. I'm pretty sure Ren'Py used weird python language while RPGM is a different new language but pretty easy to learn nonetheless, any tool required for these sort of thing?

 

[Karagee]

Depends on your existing skill set but I'd recommend unity. If you have programming knowledge already, but don't have knowledge of RenPy, RPGMaker, or Unity then I'd recommend just picking up a graphical library for whatever language you're proficient in and do that. You're gonna spend more time learning how to use and then get around features in something like RenPy to achieve what you're doing then you would just programming it from he start. I think your idea is outside the scope of RenPy or RPGMaker in my opinion. It's not a visual novel, and it's not an RPG. So don't use engines not built for your project. Unity would be worth learning in the long run, imo.


It's kinda up to you, we can't tell you what the best option is. It varies based on your pre-existing skills and experience. It also varies based on the scope and features you seek, and how rich you want your mechanics to be.

Ah... I see, it's true since Unity is the most common engine I've seen for a long time. I think I could manage make it like a VN using unity take Fate grand order as an example. I guess I'll choose unity then, since it have lots of space for improvement to be added later on.
My skillset is oretty much average, C++/C# and python are my strong point. As for others it's quite rusty

 

[Kinderalpha]

Ah... I see, it's true since Unity is the most common engine I've seen for a long time. I think I could manage make it like a VN using unity take Fate grand order as an example. I guess I'll choose unity then, since it have lots of space for improvement to be added later on.

If you don't know how to program or program in C# I'd go with RenPy. You're looking at a larger learning curve from RenPy to Unity and if you're thinking of making it similar to a visual novel then don't repeat what's been done. Use an engine that already provides that. With Unity and programming in C# you're gonna not only need to learn syntax, unity, and monobehavior but also programming patterns, design, and data structures. In my opinion I think it's better to invest your time in learning unity if it's something you are thinking about long long term. But this is gonna provide the slowest result and going to be the most difficult

 

[Karagee]

If you don't know how to program or program in C# I'd go with RenPy. You're looking at a larger learning curve from RenPy to Unity and if you're thinking of making it similar to a visual novel then don't repeat what's been done. Use an engine that already provides that. With Unity and programming in C# you're gonna not only need to learn syntax, unity, and monobehavior but also programming patterns, design, and data structures. In my opinion I think it's better to invest your time in learning unity if it's something you are thinking about long long term. But this is gonna provide the slowest result and going to be the most difficult

I know how to do C# since I've used to do crazy group project for college task, it's pretty much burned into my brain. As for Ren'py doesn't it use Python? I took a peek last year but never went really deep into it, it used weird Python iirc

 

[Kinderalpha]

I know how to do C# since I've used to do crazy group project for college task, it's pretty much burned into my brain. As for Ren'py doesn't it use Python? I took a peek last year but never went really deep into it, it used weird Python iirc

It uses Python but RenPy is an API for visual novels so you're calling functions provided by the RenPy framework to accomplish certain tasks, and that is kinda like your scope.

 

[Egglock]

In theory this can be done in Ren'py. Though I personally wouldn't choose Ren'py. The engine is mainly targeted towards vn development. Don't get me wrong it's still possible to do it with Ren'py, it'll just be more planning and coding.

If you already understand C#, than I highly recommend Unity. As there are far more tools in Unity that will assist you during your development. The workflow and pipeline is much more manageable. Though my opinion might be a bit bias considering I have no experience with Ren'py.

If anything, try the two engine and see which one fits best with your workflow, and needs.

 

[Droid Productions]

Sakura Dungeon was RenPy, so it's obviously doable. Unity would allow you to do the dungeons in realtime 3D, but that would significantly add to the art and coding burden. If you have no experience in coding, Renpy's likely your best bet, use pre-rendered backgrounds to represent the dungeon (as Sakura Dungeon did).

 

[Karagee]

Sakura Dungeon was RenPy, so it's obviously doable. Unity would allow you to do the dungeons in realtime 3D, but that would significantly add to the art and coding burden. If you have no experience in coding, Renpy's likely your best bet, use pre-rendered backgrounds to represent the dungeon (as Sakura Dungeon did).

Huh? It's RenPy? It was put as others so I didn't know. I do have experience with coding but never for games. Anyway, thanks for pointing that out.