Recommendations for a game engine, please?

papel

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Game Developer
Sep 2, 2018
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Just read your post about the "list of engines" and I see you have strong feelings against Unity. I get it. The company hasn’t been winning any popularity contests lately. But as an engine, it has a lot to offer—an enormous community, tons of plugins that make development easier, and it’s pretty newbie-friendly.
The thing is that I prefer stuff to be done with the "right" tool, or in this case, the least complicated one. Sure, you can make pretty much any kind of game with Unity, but the question is why use it for a VN. Put it another way, why use a whole ass swiss army knife if all you're going to do with it is pass some butter on a toast?

If you need a plugin to make the bare minimum of a VN work in the first place, the engine isn't ideal for that in the first place, in my opinion. Somewhat ironically, vanilla RPG Maker works better for creating a VN than Unity, because all you need is an event that automatically triggers on the first map, no plugins needed.
Quantity and quality of tutorials is an understandable point, Unity really does have that in spades.
 

kinrean

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May 12, 2018
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Why ? Python is one of the four languages used to develop games with Ren'Py. Ren'Py even natively come with a method to add statements into the game language.

What you said can also be said about Unity: Adding things like libraries can do this, can do that, is pointless. If you work on it, everything can be done, but that doesn't mean that it's good.
And what to say about Unreal, that is nothing if you don't firstly write the most basic code ?
i think i miss spoke on good, i should say easy. the reason for using a engine should be for easy and don't need to do more work then you need to.
 
May 3, 2018
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Unless you're using Unity to render 3D scenes in real time, I wonder why you'd choose Unity to make a visual novel, given the number of alternatives besides RenPy.
I agree. It's a bit like using a jackhammer to drive in a nail - you can make it work, but there's a ballpeen hammer right over here that will do the job you are wanting to do with 1/10th the effort.

And that's really the best take-away for people: Game engines are tools, and depending on what you are wanting to do, you should select the right tool for the job.

If you've already mastered a game engine and using it is like breathing air for you, then sure, I can see that the learning curve may not make using another engine attractive for a new project.
Just read your post about the "list of engines" and I see you have strong feelings against Unity. I get it. The company hasn’t been winning any popularity contests lately. But as an engine, it has a lot to offer—an enormous community, tons of plugins that make development easier, and it’s pretty newbie-friendly.
I used Unity WAY back when it was fairly new - Unity 2.0 release was when I started messing with it, Unity 3.0 was when I got serious with it.

And even before the whole debacle of the company proving itself unreliable with licensing . . . the company proved itself unreliable with features.

I stopped using Unity because hardly any feature seemed to come out of beta or experimental. It's got a problem with there being far too many ways to do any given thing - one feature would still be in beta when they'd announce a new feature to do the same thing in a slightly different way, and a year later both features wouldn't be in any form of a finalized form.

I'll admit I haven't looked at it in like 3-4 years, but last I checked Unity was a boneyard of depreciated features still laying around.

One thing with RenPy that is a liability AND a strength is that all the coding and development is done by one guy, Tom. It does what it does very well and always has a clear goal and direction. It makes visual novels (and other stuff if you are clever and don't mind Python).

Sure, if you’re looking to make a visual novel, Ren'Py is the go-to choice. But learning Unity, Unreal, or other more versatile engines could be useful, say, if your ambitions grow and you want to add mechanics beyond just VN.
This I agree with. It's like programming languages. Once you become a proficient developer in one engine, learning another doesn't take nearly as long.

If someone is making a traditional visual novel, not using RenPy is madness for the added extra work they'll have to do in other engines.

Same way if someone wants to make a photorealistic realtime game with all the prettiness - not using Unreal is just asking for frustration.

I've been messing with Godot for the past year, and it is a breath of fresh air. It's so fast and snappy to work with. And I've only used it for 2D game dev so far, but man, the fact I can just play the game without waiting for the compile build that Unity does? Magnificent.
If you want to think i am stupid that is fine but that does not make renpy easy or good for people who don't know or new to coding.
OP said they are a programmer, so I don't think Python is going to be a stumbling block for them with RenPy if they choose to go that direction.

Relying on WYSIWYG editors or visual scripting like in Unreal is a handicap to ambitions IMHO. Take it from someone who spent YEARS trying to avoid coding . . . just learn to code. There are so many GREAT courses and tutorials online now for any language.

It can be very discouraging to have ideas for a game feature and not know how to implement it, but once you know coding, that stops being a roadblock and instead becomes a logic problem - you just list out what needs to happen in order, and then talk to your rubber duck.:unsure:
 

Insomnimaniac Games

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May 25, 2017
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i think i miss spoke on good, i should say easy. the reason for using a engine should be for easy and don't need to do more work then you need to.
As far as I know (please, if this is wrong someone more knowledgeable correct me) displaying an animation in renpy can be as simple as
Code:
image animation = Movie(channel="movie", play="images/animation.webm")
There are probably many other ways to do this, this is just the one I've seen used before. (From memory, so things might be wrong)
 

Winterfire

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Sep 27, 2018
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Relying on WYSIWYG editors or visual scripting like in Unreal is a handicap to ambitions IMHO.
Not true. wysiwyg editor is by far the best way to build anything UI related. There'll still be coding involved (their behaviour, values, ...) but assembling how it looks on the screen? Coding the position of each element, among other things, is just a time waster. Especially if you need to change something.


As far as I know (please, if this is wrong someone more knowledgeable correct me) displaying an animation in renpy can be as simple as
Code:
image animation = Movie(channel="movie", play="images/animation.webm")
There are probably many other ways to do this, this is just the one I've seen used before. (From memory, so things might be wrong)
That's correct, but there other ways (Cutscenes, Live2D, shaders, atl, ...)
 
May 3, 2018
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Not true. wysiwyg editor is by far the best way to build anything UI related. There'll still be coding involved (their behaviour, values, ...) but assembling how it looks on the screen? Coding the position of each element, among other things, is just a time waster. Especially if you need to change something.
Okay, yeah. Forgot about UI. WYSIWYG is definitely better for building UI.

But my point wasn't that WYSIWYG is BAD, it's just that if that is all you know how to use, you're handicapping yourself by not knowing code.
 

kinrean

Member
May 12, 2018
158
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As far as I know (please, if this is wrong someone more knowledgeable correct me) displaying an animation in renpy can be as simple as
Code:
image animation = Movie(channel="movie", play="images/animation.webm")
There are probably many other ways to do this, this is just the one I've seen used before. (From memory, so things might be wrong)
that should be right, , if playing a video is enough for you that is fine , but what if you want more control then playing a video file?
i am saying renpy is bad at animation not can't. as there is many other animation tool one can have for other game engine.

again renpy is for vn , i am not saying it should have a full 2d animation tool like other game engine. and that is the point, it is not make for complex game or have complex animation tool. and you guy keep trying to make it , just because it can play a video file it mean is a "great" animation.
 

kinrean

Member
May 12, 2018
158
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OP said they are a programmer, so I don't think Python is going to be a stumbling block for them with RenPy if they choose to go that direction.

Relying on WYSIWYG editors or visual scripting like in Unreal is a handicap to ambitions IMHO. Take it from someone who spent YEARS trying to avoid coding . . . just learn to code. There are so many GREAT courses and tutorials online now for any language.

It can be very discouraging to have ideas for a game feature and not know how to implement it, but once you know coding, that stops being a roadblock and instead becomes a logic problem - you just list out what needs to happen in order, and then talk to your rubber duck.:unsure:
yea OP did say but if i remember right is after a few post. and there for i recommend him to use unreal or godot ,
and i never say python is bad (maybe miss spoke) i am just talking about renpy animation . learning more is always good but making game alone is hard enough so have to up to the person what is their choice.

we can only make a better choice if we know more.
 

Insomnimaniac Games

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May 25, 2017
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that should be right, , if playing a video is enough for you that is fine , but what if you want more control then playing a video file?
i am saying renpy is bad at animation not can't. as there is many other animation tool one can have for other game engine.

again renpy is for vn , i am not saying it should have a full 2d animation tool like other game engine. and that is the point, it is not make for complex game or have complex animation tool. and you guy keep trying to make it , just because it can play a video file it mean is a "great" animation.
But if you're making a VN, even a sandbox one, is there really a difference between an in engine animation with Unity/unreal, and displaying a webm made in blender? And with that question, I'll bow out and let people way more knowledgeable about renpy continue the discussion. Hope you guys can reach some sort of understanding! (Or at least agree to disagree somewhere along the line)
 
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May 3, 2018
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You guys are making me want to try out Godot.
Why not? It's FREE. And only a 60 MB download.

that will have you make and export a game. You'll only be out an hour and half and you'll definitely know by the end if Godot is something you'll want to keep using or not.
 

kinrean

Member
May 12, 2018
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i find it funny that when you have high expectation for a game, people will say renpy is just a vn game engine.
when you have no expectation for renpy people will say renpy can do alot of thing.

in the end renpy can't do what other engine can do, and these that say that renpy can do alot , that is not renpy that is the person hard work , not renpy.

and all this talk that renpy can do, but none of you guy talking about what other engine can do.
 

epic garmond

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May 26, 2024
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Hello, try using godot. Unity seems to prevail since it uses modified C# API among other perks though. You must try what you can