Umm... help me find a Game Engine?

[Hmph]

C: Hi there!

*awaits reply*

Q: How are you today? ^.^

*awaits reply*

A1: Awesome!
A2: Aww, keep smiling okay?
A3: Aha... yup... k... Hey I-.... yup.... Oh you don't say... ^^;

So here's me, no experience with programming and all that jazz, so please, if you're gonna get all impatient talking to someone who's totally lost to your geniusnesses, I would suggest you ignore this thread thingy.

On a brighter note, please feel free to use any jargon that I won't understand. I'll try my best to make sense of it. A guy's gotta start somewhere right? ^.^

And down to business... where to start... I would like to create a game, it will be quite in depth as far as gameplay goes, so I WILL need to learn alot of programming stuffs I know.

So I'm told, I gots ta get a game engine to make a game?

What I would like to know which one I should get.

I'll try to answer as many of the questions I think you might ask me haha! ^.^

I don't have money to invest in the game engine or servers or anything. Need freeware

Game type will be a MMORPG (end result), different game engines support more players or some such right?
I'm not fussed about having heaps of people playing the game for the time being, just want to start working on it. So no need for servers and stuff yet I think...

Texturing and stuff will be quite basic), not really caring about massively realistic dynamics and high end graphics. Hoping that the end result will run on basic computers (sorry I can't define basic computers, as I don't know much about them). But I would like to have some goodness like reflections on the water's surface and stuff, shadows... texturing and rendering are not my strong points. Would like to be able to use normal maps and bump maps and stuff

I will be making all my assets and animations using Maya, so I would need to be able to import them... Can I make the rigs and animations in Maya though?

Textures will mainly be images I make in PS, I'm sure that wouldn't be a problem...

So yeah, basically I need a game engine that I can make a world on.

Will need some basic physics dynamics possible too, collisions and gravity and things.

Also, if I use a game engine to make a game and then I need to change engines to allow for more players or something, will I have to start from scratch with all the programming stuffs? Or will I be able to recycle it all?

Yes I realize what I want to do is virtually impossible and usually requires many people and lots of moneys.

Yes I know I am insane.



So can anyone point me in the right direction to get started?

Thanx.

Hmph.

[JohnLeeroy]

You probably wouldnt know how to use the functionalities of an engine if you don't have a good knowledge of code. I'd recommend building your own. This means you have to handle rendering, collision, gameplay, AI, and whatever you need.

I recommend downloading visual studio express 2010 C# and XNA 4.0. XNA makes coding game easier and you can port it to WP7 by just switching build settings. Check out AppHub if you want more info.

If you don't want to get too heavy into code, go look at Unity3D. It has a free version that lets you drag and drop objects onto the world. You can script functionality into objects or use their existing object attribute list.


As for making such an awesome game, that sounds great but highly unrealistic. If you want to make a serious game, make a design document for it. [link]

[bithub]

There are game engines out there than require no programming at all to create a game. I suggest taking a look at Torque. It is a 3D game engine that only costs $99 for a license. It has full scripting support, so I think you can create a game without much programming. I've never used Torque, so I can't comment further, but it is very well known and proven engine.

[Hmph]

Thanx for the input peeps, I've got Unity 3.3.0 to start playing around with for now, wanna look into Torque aswell, and I have had a few people suggest unreal too. Looking at other peoples work is one thing, but doing it yourself is another story.
I think compatibility with different operating system type things is quite important, umm... looking at the visual studio and XNA atm, it seems they only run on Windows, does this mean that if say I create a program using this software, it will only be compatible with Microsoft OS's? Also I noted the One Month Trial period, renewal registration etc aswell as packages requiring paid subscriptions therein... don't know how deep into it I could get in a month and not looking to invest money into a project at this point.

Umm yeah, time for some Unity mind !@#$ing!

[VirtualAce]

I've never used Torque, so I can't comment further, but it is very well known and proven engine.

Torque also comes in managed flavor as TorqueX. Both do require some amount of programming knowledge. I've had minimal experience with Torque and only evaluational experience with TorqueX.

[JohnLeeroy]

XNA and Visual Studio Express will require you to register your email and make an account with Microsoft but it is still free. Most compilers and IDEs that you develop on Windows will only run on Windows machines. Mac OS doesn't support .exe

If you wanna do a good example Unity project, check the link below
link

[Hmph]

Wow awesome thanx!

I've just started playing around in Unity a bit. I tried importing one of my character models from Maya, and something went horribly wrong, I think it was to do with my weight maps and the use of influence objects, but I think I'm getting ahead of myself there so I'll leave it for the time being.
I've just made my first fps controls for the camera and am playing around with the variables there. So excited that I got it to work haha! Hoping I will soon be able to figure out how to script an animation too. I figure it should be something along the lines of making a walk cycle and importing that scene file to the input of whatever button is moving forward, and then also adding the script to the character as I did with the camera. ... >.< ... and as I want a 3rd person perspective I suppose the camera will be parented to the character aswell... Haha, fun stuff. Just wish I could learn faster!

[Hmph]

That tutorial is proving really useful for me as far as learning curbs go. It says it takes about 4 hours to complete, I'm about 3 hours in and I think a little under 1/3 complete haha.
It's good to see how many assets are involved. It's starting to give my own work a little perspective.

[Hmph]

Script... It kinda makes sense... It's like speaking broken English; using abstract terms in place of whole sentences, in the wrong order. >.<
I think if I use it enough, some of it should commit to memory.
I encountered a problem earlier with case sensitivity, took me aaages to figure out what I did wrong. But then things like spacing don't seem to have any effect between phrases (for lack of a better word). So I guess whatever I consider easier to read the script is how I should write it.
I think It's also possible to script an entirely original game using only Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V. Lol. But the time it would take to find the individual components might take longer than figuring out the main body of the language.