The key thing Jonathan says at the beginning; do you enjoy writing a game engine? But in the end you will learn quite a lot, and plus you don't have to worry about subscription fees/royalties, but it will require lots of time obviously for most programmers.
It's a big undertaking - but worth it. But it's also worth noting that an engine can go from something you write in a weekend, to something you spend the best part of a decade on. So it really depends on your requirements, patience, and interest.
You really don't have to worry about subscriptions/royalties unless you make 1 million + a year. 99% of people making games will not have this happen, and if they do they are gunna be set to make their own engine next time if they really cared about what they had to pay.
Years ago my GPU failed and I was left with Intel's iGPU. The only modern and interesting game that run well was The Witness. The game performed way beyond what it had but it did.
People tend to overcomplicate everything, A. If you’re smart and a half decent programmer likely over 90% of 2d indie games could be written with a custom game engine if people just wrote the damn code to make the game and stopped trying to make generic reusable engines with overly complex ECSs etc, just write it, make it work, then optimize it, then move on. Sadly most people just get stuck on even getting started when in reality most of the graphics and simple physics are the least of your headaches.
There's a trade-off with this. If you are just doing things that an engine supports then it is cheaper and easier to use that engine. If you need something not supported by that engine then you either need to implement it in that engine, use a different engine, or write your own. Sometimes extending an engine can be easier than writing your own, sometimes it can be harder. It is also harder to make a change late into development as you are already tied to the way the engine does things. Thus, it is a good idea to have a high-level idea of the features you want in a game so you can quickly prototype and evaluate various engines.
I'm developing a top-down 2D shooter/platformer hybrid, inspired by the Metroidvania genre, with unique hierarchical gravity and color-based gameplay mechanics taking place on a spherical world with a simple solid-color low-polygon type art style, all built entirely from ‘scratch’. Admittedly, I'm not deeply familiar with engines like Godot, Unity, or Unreal, but I feared they would require significant arm twisting to accommodate such a unique concept. I think an interest in doing this is what really drove my decision, however. Working on this project has been a joy-a blend of nostalgia for creating my own games in the 90s, the engineering challenge it provides, and the satisfaction of having such a unique creative outlet.
I would love to write a simple 3D game engine and maybe someday to create LIVE interactive 3D game engine so game developers, animators, sounds engineers, etc. can collaborate in REAL TIME, since computer performance has increased, and everyone have high network bandwidth there is a possibility to make LIVE interactive 3D Game Engine for Team Collaboration and integrated version control system like Perforce into the game engine.
I'm working on a little something with the intention of learning the ins and out of GPUs, and it's illuminating. I definitely see the benefit of "reinventing the wheel" for certain people looking to learn specific topics. If you just wanna make a game? Go with a pre-built engine. Personally I'd go with something lighter than Unreal or Unity if you are making a tiny/simple game.
Currently building my own now. I dont know if i will ever use it commercially and im not banking on the project financially but it is a very interesting project to work on and i have learned so much already
There are more game engines now than ever before but practically speaking, the reasons not to use a 'general purpose' game engine are dwindling all the time. The main reason to build a purpose-built engine for a game is efficiency, but that demands that you actually know what you're doing enough to outperform the general-purpose engines. Most programmers today are simply not capable of that. Another reason is good old fashioned novelty of seeing how 'low resource' you can go, but again, that becomes a matter of being interested in the game engine itself, which most are not.
Economically it doesn't make sense to write your own game engine. The knowledge of how to write a game engine was never meant to be widespread, kinda like literacy and numeracy during the Bronze Age Collapse. Only a few people know how to do that and that's fine. As our civilization slowly collapses because of the primacy of the short term economic incentive to not "reinvent the wheel", the knowledge of how to write your own game engine will be lost and new devs will not be able to maintain the massive amount of complexity accumulated by past generations.
Here’s the thing. I can get it if it’s for educational purposes to see how it works. Would it not be just doing math others have already done before otherwise?
@@brahillms1374 Sure you might have to do some math others have done before you but it's not a crazy amount of it and you will typically use a math library, as a plus you get an engine you can customize however you want
@TheExtremeCube an engine like Godot is an interesting middle ground, where it's a complete engine, but also open source and free to modify any way you want.
Im making an engine to learn and for a portfolio piece to get a job after uni. If in the future, i want to make a game then ive already got something which is completely free and isnt bulked down by things i dont need.
If I were to have the option to write my own game engine, I would. We need the knowledge that is equivalent to 3 college courses of calculus physics though, which I don't think many people have.
Most of 3D graphics math is freshman year linear algebra, i.e. something former schoolchildren manage just fine. And the simplest collisions do not require even that.
and here we are today with unity&unreal used by so called developers that can't comprehend advanced engine techniques, yet these engines are providing them... and what we as end users/consumers gets, awesomely bugged experience with fps drop
When a dev is writing a highly specific game engine for their own game, they aren't competing with Unreal or Unity, which are very generic, designed to meet the needs of many kinds of games, with stricter handling of edge cases, etc. When you know exactly what you need, you can skip implementing everything else. The Unreal and Unity suppliers, on the other hand, don't have the luxury of assuming the things: they have to strive to please everyone, which is a nearly impossible job to do.
The key thing Jonathan says at the beginning; do you enjoy writing a game engine? But in the end you will learn quite a lot, and plus you don't have to worry about subscription fees/royalties, but it will require lots of time obviously for most programmers.
It's a big undertaking - but worth it. But it's also worth noting that an engine can go from something you write in a weekend, to something you spend the best part of a decade on. So it really depends on your requirements, patience, and interest.
You really don't have to worry about subscriptions/royalties unless you make 1 million + a year. 99% of people making games will not have this happen, and if they do they are gunna be set to make their own engine next time if they really cared about what they had to pay.
Years ago my GPU failed and I was left with Intel's iGPU. The only modern and interesting game that run well was The Witness. The game performed way beyond what it had but it did.
People tend to overcomplicate everything, A. If you’re smart and a half decent programmer likely over 90% of 2d indie games could be written with a custom game engine if people just wrote the damn code to make the game and stopped trying to make generic reusable engines with overly complex ECSs etc, just write it, make it work, then optimize it, then move on. Sadly most people just get stuck on even getting started when in reality most of the graphics and simple physics are the least of your headaches.
There's a trade-off with this. If you are just doing things that an engine supports then it is cheaper and easier to use that engine. If you need something not supported by that engine then you either need to implement it in that engine, use a different engine, or write your own. Sometimes extending an engine can be easier than writing your own, sometimes it can be harder.
It is also harder to make a change late into development as you are already tied to the way the engine does things. Thus, it is a good idea to have a high-level idea of the features you want in a game so you can quickly prototype and evaluate various engines.
I'm developing a top-down 2D shooter/platformer hybrid, inspired by the Metroidvania genre, with unique hierarchical gravity and color-based gameplay mechanics taking place on a spherical world with a simple solid-color low-polygon type art style, all built entirely from ‘scratch’. Admittedly, I'm not deeply familiar with engines like Godot, Unity, or Unreal, but I feared they would require significant arm twisting to accommodate such a unique concept. I think an interest in doing this is what really drove my decision, however. Working on this project has been a joy-a blend of nostalgia for creating my own games in the 90s, the engineering challenge it provides, and the satisfaction of having such a unique creative outlet.
I would love to write a simple 3D game engine and maybe someday to create LIVE interactive 3D game engine so game developers, animators, sounds engineers, etc. can collaborate in REAL TIME, since computer performance has increased, and everyone have high network bandwidth there is a possibility to make LIVE interactive 3D Game Engine for Team Collaboration and integrated version control system like Perforce into the game engine.
I'm working on a little something with the intention of learning the ins and out of GPUs, and it's illuminating. I definitely see the benefit of "reinventing the wheel" for certain people looking to learn specific topics.
If you just wanna make a game? Go with a pre-built engine. Personally I'd go with something lighter than Unreal or Unity if you are making a tiny/simple game.
How about Godot?
Currently building my own now. I dont know if i will ever use it commercially and im not banking on the project financially but it is a very interesting project to work on and i have learned so much already
There are more game engines now than ever before but practically speaking, the reasons not to use a 'general purpose' game engine are dwindling all the time. The main reason to build a purpose-built engine for a game is efficiency, but that demands that you actually know what you're doing enough to outperform the general-purpose engines. Most programmers today are simply not capable of that. Another reason is good old fashioned novelty of seeing how 'low resource' you can go, but again, that becomes a matter of being interested in the game engine itself, which most are not.
Economically it doesn't make sense to write your own game engine. The knowledge of how to write a game engine was never meant to be widespread, kinda like literacy and numeracy during the Bronze Age Collapse. Only a few people know how to do that and that's fine. As our civilization slowly collapses because of the primacy of the short term economic incentive to not "reinvent the wheel", the knowledge of how to write your own game engine will be lost and new devs will not be able to maintain the massive amount of complexity accumulated by past generations.
We truly are living in lucky times :')
The informations out there, you just need to find it but most people don't want to cos it's a lot of work which is understandable.
depends on how you define game engine, but sure. modern commercial engines can accommodate almost any game.
I love the hyperbole. It’s not that serious
Here’s the thing. I can get it if it’s for educational purposes to see how it works. Would it not be just doing math others have already done before otherwise?
@@brahillms1374 Sure you might have to do some math others have done before you but it's not a crazy amount of it and you will typically use a math library, as a plus you get an engine you can customize however you want
@TheExtremeCube an engine like Godot is an interesting middle ground, where it's a complete engine, but also open source and free to modify any way you want.
Im making an engine to learn and for a portfolio piece to get a job after uni. If in the future, i want to make a game then ive already got something which is completely free and isnt bulked down by things i dont need.
Probably not but I do think a lot of solodevs could get away with using a framework instead of a full blown engine
If I were to have the option to write my own game engine, I would. We need the knowledge that is equivalent to 3 college courses of calculus physics though, which I don't think many people have.
Not really, people usually don't write their own physics today, just integrate an existing physics engine like physx or jolt
Most of 3D graphics math is freshman year linear algebra, i.e. something former schoolchildren manage just fine. And the simplest collisions do not require even that.
making a physics engine is still pretty fun though, even if it's not going to as powerful as the large engines
@@TheExtremeCube first game "Crysis" have own physics engine. One programmer make ☝
and here we are today with unity&unreal used by so called developers that can't comprehend advanced engine techniques, yet these engines are
providing them... and what we as end users/consumers gets, awesomely bugged experience with fps drop
yes, i got $0 and no one cared but yes
No, why compete with things like unreal or unity. Waste of time and effort.
When a dev is writing a highly specific game engine for their own game, they aren't competing with Unreal or Unity, which are very generic, designed to meet the needs of many kinds of games, with stricter handling of edge cases, etc. When you know exactly what you need, you can skip implementing everything else. The Unreal and Unity suppliers, on the other hand, don't have the luxury of assuming the things: they have to strive to please everyone, which is a nearly impossible job to do.