Comments on: Are You a Game Developer or Game Engine Developer

By: Bindesh Kumar Singh

Bindesh Kumar Singh — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 06:47:13 +0000

I think a game is nothing but a specifically stripped game engine. I was building games but soon realized that each game would require huge coding with some basic common routine about sprites, fonts sound etc.

So i developed whole game engine with focusing my games and running them simultaneously. So i built game and released it to a competition. Now taking engine for new games is quick.

Making Engine and making games are common upto the basic routines. Then we should focus on game not just engine because up-gradation never ends.

Example every game needs particle effects, font system, collision, sound, sprite loading etc. So these basic coding go for engine.

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CoffeeCup » Teh Links Compilaysheune #2 — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 13:58:30 +0000

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By: GameProducer.Net » What’s Your Game Business Model?

GameProducer.Net » What’s Your Game Business Model? — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:41:01 +0000

[...] the past I wrote an article about being game developer versus game engine developer. (See also part [...]

By: chaos

chaos — Thu, 24 May 2007 15:25:49 +0000

This distinction is important. Especially for hobby and independence game developers. Because engine people seldom finish games. A game person would do anything to get the game out of their head into a computer. If there are engines available, they use them, efficiently, with minimum fuss.
In a professional team you need to know, who is who. Never let the game logic be programmed by an engine enthusiast and try to not put the game focused person to program the perfect sky.
Graphic, sound and library programmers need to be engine focused. Game logic, AI, UI and Tools programmers should really like to participate in game design. Because you have to. In these you can open up new creative possibilities for the game designers. If you are ready to think about the game, not the technicalities.
Engine people are often deep, they are perfectionists in detail and can endlessly obsess about them. Game people often are more broad, they have to take the whole game into consideration.
Mostly people have a natural tendency to one and not the other. In one of the companies I worked, they wanted to put me in R&D, an engine job, because I am a scientist and somebody has to write the math library. But I didn’t want to, I am a game person.
In modern game developement with a lot of engines available (Unreal, Farcry …) the need to develop an engine dimishes. More and more middleware gets bought and used, it saves time and money and lowers the risk. And you do not need the hard to find specialists.
So having finished a game and knowing how to use third party tools looks equally good on a resume, like having programmed an engine. Sometimes even better.
For tools you can use as a hobbyist or indie (not as links but google will tell you these) : ogre, nebula engine, irrlicht, torque(not free), panda 3d, sdl (in any flavor), blitz basic (not free), game maker (not free), rpg maker(not free), ode and hundreds of others.
The good part is, you do not need to know everything yourself. Most people talk only of the graphic engine. But what is with sound, pathfinding, UI framework, network, input, math (especially the collision stuff), databases and physics ? Can you do these too, alone ? Nothing of these will have anything to do with the game, these are basic, generic modules. But without these, there is no game.

By: GameProducer.Net » Are You a Game Developer or Game Engine Developer? (Take 2)

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 17:05:33 +0000

[...] wrote about the difference between creating the game engine, and creating games. The article got some good comments and questions, and I decided to write bit more about this [...]

By: Tuna

Tuna — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 18:26:41 +0000

Here’s an analogy which I think will clarify the post a bit.

Take the example of a construction contractor and an architect.. The contractor actually builds the house, he doesn’t necessarily design the house or say what materials are used. That job is usually left to an architect, or land developer.

These jobs are very well defined, and I think the same applies to game developers and engine developers. Some people however do both, which I think is where the line can get pretty blury.

By: Raydric Spellthorn

Raydric Spellthorn — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 13:24:17 +0000

When im interested in creating an engine…. i create an engine to my game. My game needs X, Y and Z, then i will build an engine that have X, Y and Z to supply my game needs.

For example, if i was going to build one FF remake, what should i do? i would use an ready-to-use framework as Pop Cap Framework(that haves only the basics: image, sound, music, and GUI) and then build an engine that have all the code necessary for fight systems, map editors, and scriptting, inventory manager, party leader swapper, and things like that. Then…. every game that the mechanism sounds equal to FF, i can use that game engine..

I recommend for people to see what the game needs, use one basic framework/engine and then build mechanisms based on what the game needs, and only….

By: Jake Birkett

Jake Birkett — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 11:39:58 +0000

After developing a few mini-games and commercial games in BlitzPlus I ended up with a code library that was a sort of game engine/framework anyway. Then when I moved to BlitzMax I duplicated and improved the game framework and made a mini-game to test it, but it took me 3 months! Then I made a couple of games with it and the engine improved naturally some more. I actually sell the game framework to other BlitzMax developers and some of them have used it for their own commercial games (less than 5% though as most people never finish anything). The joke is, it’s made more money than most of my commercial games put together! So anyway I guess I’m saying that engines are important but it’s best to make them along with a game and keep improving them as you need to otherwise you’ll never get a game out there.

By: Jean-Claude Cottier

Jean-Claude Cottier — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 08:35:53 +0000

I agree with your post juuso. I am a professional engine programmer but when I work on my own project I try to not touch the engine side (it is hard but otherwise my progress is close too none). It is massively time consuming to develop a game and too many people spend too much time recreating the wheel. In fact when you start having a working version of your game, you have probably only done 50% of the work. Finishing the game to good standard is about 50% of the work: polishing/balancing/tutorial/installer/frontend/testing….

I could almost say that none of the indie games (succesfull or not) requiere a home made engine. You can obviously spend more time on 1 area and improve it but at the end of the day all the game engine are doing the same things at the end. Even a game like Gish could be done with any game engine (obviously you need to concentrate your work on the physic area/deformable character).

By: ZeHa

ZeHa — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 18:54:23 +0000

I also think that Juuso should point out the advantages of creating an engine as well. Of course he’s right, some people waste their time with developing an engine, because they’re not doing too well in programming, and they should rather concentrate on a fun game.
But if you’re a good programmer, it can have many advantages and the only big disadvantage will be the time and effort you have to put in it.

In my case, I’m trying to develop a new game engine that’s versatile and scriptable with Python, so that I can create several games out of it by just scripting and (hopefully) without touching the C++ code anymore. Of course that’s the perfect case and I shouldn’t focus too much of it, since it could be that it will never get finished – I’m aware of that ;) and of course the games won’t get completed too soon, but during the time of engine development, I can also get new ideas for the game and won’t implement them directly, which is a good thing because I will tend to overthink that idea a little more ;)

So, in my opinion, one should really decide what he wants to do and maybe take an existing engine – but he should also think about all the advantages he might get when he builds his own engine (of course with a realistic effort-estimate and a healthy relation to “is it worthy”).