[Discuss]Make a Game using an Engine, Does it belong to you?

[vitinho444]

Hello guys.

Im always checking for new engines, so i can have a touch with a few and be experienced, so in the future... who knows.

But when i use some engine or wrapper to make a game...And i get close to finish it.. i just have that feeling that the game is not mine you know... that feeling it was too easy... that feeling that if the game gets popular people will say: "oh look that guy who develop a game nice work" "oh he used a "game maker" engine, even i could do it.. bahhh" and that makes me wonder even worst things...

When i see games like WoW, Silkroad (I play it and i like it very much, but dont compare to wow), LoL, that MMORPG's that are famous, you don't know what engine they use.. because probably they made their own.. and that makes the game 1000000000000000000000000000% theirs... But using an engine for my games.. makes me feel that the game was 10% made by me, and 90% by the company who develop the engine...

Is there some advice you can give to me regarding this? Do you feel the same way? What should i do..?

Thanks a lot for your support, and sorry for being to cry baby on this subject...

[Jackolantern]

I used to feel that way a long time ago, and honestly it is one of the reasons why so many new coders (not saying you are one, but it is just an observation) always want to create an engine first, and not games.

The thing is, programming is extremely hard. Starting from only assembly language, today's games would be 100% impossible for even a team of a 1000 people to make in 1000 years (ok, maybe they could do it in 1000 years, but you get the point). Even using a language like C++, you are leveraging thousand of man hours to create binary code that does something meaningful. Want to use something like .NET or Java? Now you are probably using thousands of man years. The moral is that all modern programming takes advantage of mountains of work done by our coding forefathers. To show respect for the time they spent in 110+ degree rooms passing boxes of punch cards back and forth to make our hobby/careers as pleasant as they are today, take full advantage of everything that makes your work easier! You better believe they did as soon as something new came along. My grandfather was a programmer at Oak Ridge Military Complex in Tennessee

There is no such thing as cheating in software development. Most people can't do it, even if you set the Easy Dial all the way up. Heck, games are getting so complex that even many AAA studios are using engines produced by other companies. Look at the Unreal Engine, Crytek Engine, etc. We have professional studios releasing games made by Unity, a tool that almost everyone has access to. It is all about the end product, not the means to get there!

[Callan S.]

Unless you design your own computer first, you're cheating!

that feeling that if the game gets popular people will say: "oh look that guy who develop a game nice work" "oh he used a "game maker" engine, even i could do it.. bahhh" and that makes me wonder even worst things...

And yet do they ever actually go off and do better, or just type more complainy posts on forums?

There are alot of people who simply try and gain social position by putting down peoples efforts. That's their thing.

You will have to figure out some process by which you seperate the chaff from people who do give you feedback that you can be open to. Generally I think someone who atleast says something like "Oh yeah, I love blasting stuff and this game has blasting stuff. But in your game I kinda don't like the ..." is more worth listening to, because they have said they actually enjoy part of the game.

Think about it - did shakespeare invent the english language? No? Then his works are only 10% his! Boo on Shakespeare!

It's not who owns it, but what you do with it...

[Jackolantern]

that feeling that if the game gets popular people will say: "oh look that guy who develop a game nice work" "oh he used a "game maker" engine, even i could do it.. bahhh" and that makes me wonder even worst things...

And yet do they ever actually go off and do better, or just type more complainy posts on forums?

There are alot of people who simply try and gain social position by putting down peoples efforts. That's their thing.

Most definitely! If they put down others who are accomplishing and creating things, it makes them feel better for the fact that they are only consuming.

Unless you design your own computer first, you're cheating!

Get me my BeagleBoard! We have work to do!

[Callan S.]

Get me my BeagleBoard! We have work to do!

Beagleboard?! Beagleboard!!!??!?

In my day we got a shovel, went out and mined ore from the earth and smelted it, to start building our computers.

And we liked it!

[Jackolantern]

Mining?! All you need is some hydrogen and you can fuse whatever you need! Silicon can be a bit tricky though...

[vitinho444]

Wow this is not Indie-resource.com anymore, this is Indie-Inspirational-Store.com now

Thanks a lot guys. I will have your comments in my mind when im using engines.
I made a simple one in c++ (2d) but ofcourse, no one except friends, would play the games i make with that thing xD.

Im only 16, and now i understand more of the "old" people work so we can have languages like this of today.

[Jackolantern]

Nice! If you like learning about how we got to where we are today, you might like watching the video about the history of programming I linked here