Possibility to create a good game engine

[sarah22]

I'm the only one who programs on my game engine. I'm working for minimum of 40hours and maximum of 100 hours a week.

I'm using OpenGL as my 3D API and I might use havok or maybe physx in the future. Sounds would be OpenAL. And for networking, I don't have any idea yet.

Do you think I can create a good game engine with this for 2 years? or should I get a one man who can help me program but it is really hard to find here on my place. So far, I'm working for almost 2 weeks now and I'm on scene graphs already. Frustum, scene graphs, terrain, and etc. I have many books here that might help me so I think it will lessen the time by 0.0000001%. lol

So, what do you think guys? I want to learn most of the things happening on a game engine. Do you think it is worth it working for it for 2 years?

[Cactus_Hugger]

I'm working for minimum of 40hours and maximum of 100 hours a week.

I hope that you're either
1) getting paid for that.
or
2) ... wtf. 100 hr / wk? Either you're lying... or I'm going to show you some fresh air and sunshine. I physically cannot program 100 h/wk. My mind needs a rest after 8 hours or so... but even if you could... why would you want to? I love programming as much as the next guy, but I need to eat; move; sleep; party; eat chips & salsa; dance; watch teh tv; ensure that the world hasn't blown itself up... yet; work on my world domination plans; etc.

[sarah22]

I'm not lying really. I can do 100 hours a week maximum. It ranges between 40 to 100. I'm a normal person. I play sports, eat, go party and breath. It depends on the situation but I do it because I love learning. I may sound lying to you but I'm telling the truth. Why the hell would I lie. I don't benefit anything doing that.

[MK27]

I have not been doing this lately, but when you 1) live alone 2) are working on a sufficiently large project that interests you enough, I would bet it is not so unusual*. There is nothing unhealthy about it. I still also managed to "go party" and make into the gym. And probably irritate everyone at cboard.

Think of it like the marines

I think you will have a hard time finding someone to co-code with, but on the other hand, lots of people want to be game programmers. You can always think about a smaller project (having something finished is very satisfying**), but on the other hand, if you still intend to be programming in two years, it is, as my mother likes to say, "the difference between 6 and 2 threes".

*maybe not one hundred hours, but certainly 70-80. I think most university students will admit that the last month of semester can get that way sometimes, depending on your course load.
**sometimes I load my little GUI text/man page viewer up and just stare at it, maybe caressing the screen slightly, for a while. I am perfectly fine in the head.

[Salem]

100/7 = 14+ hours per day, every single day. Allowing 6 hours sleep, that gives you 4 hours per day for everything else. That's barely enough to do the essentials of wash, eat, buy essentials.

100/6 is nearly 17 hours a day, which is basically get up, code (no eating or anything), go to sleep. On the remaining day, you do everything else.

Yeah, you might hit it once, but you'll be a wreck after it.

> So, what do you think guys?
Put down the compiler, step away from the keyboard.
It seems to me you're just hacking code without any real idea of where you're going. Continuous time-consuming rewrites because you discover some fundamental flaw along the way seem inevitable.

Do you have any kind of design for this?
Because you can reject a bad design in about 5 minutes, but it might take you a week of intense coding to find the same thing out the hard way.

How big is this compared to the last thing you wrote (10x, more? or less?)
IMO, you should only double the project size in one step (if you only wrote 1K last time, then don't try 10K this time).
Some problems don't expand linearly with the number of lines of code (for example, the number of bugs in the code).
Other things emerge in large programs which can simply be skipped in small programs (like the need for version control).

[Cactus_Hugger]

Originally Posted by sarah22

I'm not lying really. I can do 100 hours a week maximum. It ranges between 40 to 100. I'm a normal person. I play sports, eat, go party and breath. It depends on the situation but I do it because I love learning. I may sound lying to you but I'm telling the truth. Why the hell would I lie. I don't benefit anything doing that.

I didn't mean to insult you - I was merely putting forth that many people divide their time quite differently.
If you did 100/hr a week (and don't slack on the weekends), assuming 8 hours of sleep and 15 minute meals (you're a fast cook... or you don't cook at all.) and a 15 minute shower (I prefer longer showers... perhaps this is why I don't finish code?) each day, that leaves you with 43 minutes of activities other than coding, per day. Just sayin'.

Edit: Salem beat me to it. :-)

[valaris]

Do you think I can create a good game engine with this for 2 years?

Probably not. Nothing competative, but the learning you will get from doing this will be invaluable and hopefully fun.

[MacGyver]

Originally Posted by Swiney

Hi ,
Post your gamer griefs and rants on the [REDACTED].

This is his third attempt out of three posts at advertising a website.

Spam bot or idiot? Take your pick.

[Salem]

> Spam bot or idiot? Take your pick.
Fixed.