Choosing a Game Engine

More than frames per second

Noam Gat4/12/2014

@noamgat

Hello!

Noam Gat

CTO @ Tacticsoft

Past - JoyTunes, Omek Interactive, OGRE

It is the glue that puts things together.

- Game engines and frameworks are not exactly the same, but I will treat them equally here.

What is a “Game Engine”?

What is the best Game Engine?

The conversation is often about certain aspects of the decision

- Features (2D / 3D, “AAA Quality”, etc.)- Pricing- Platform Support- Ease of use (For whom?)

Good Criteria… BUT

These aspects are more about ruling out irrelevant options than picking the most fitting one for a specific project.

Lenses for the Decision

Lenses for the Decision

#1: Lens of the Workflow

+ =

#1 : Lens of the Workflow

It is a technological decision that applies to the entire team.

Ask yourself : What will every role’s day

look like with this engine?

#1 : Lens of the Workflow

- How do the artists get their assets into the product?

- Can the game designer prototype new ideas without programmer’s help?

- Tailor the selection to your team!

#1 : Lens of the Workflow

The game engine is one piece of the product tech stack. It should be chosen with the rest of the pieces in mind.

The combination will determine how comfortably your team can collaborate.

#1 : Lens of the Workflow

Look out for tools that complement your engine and make life easier for everyone.

#1 : Lens of the Workflow

We are not alone. Don’t be afraid to look outside of game-dev for solutions.

Lenses for the Decision

#2: Lens of the Community

#2 : Lens of the Community

Sooner or later, you will run into challenges.

Ask yourself : How quickly and reliably will you get

answers to your questions?

#2 : Lens of the Community

Before you choose a game engine, you might want to check

- The amount of activity in the engine’s forums

- Discussion about the engine in other forums (StackOverflow etc)

- Facebook groups- Premium support by the developer?

#2 : Lens of the Community

Bonus : If you pick a solution with a strong local community, it may make it easier to find future talent.

Lenses for the Decision

#3: Lens of Similarity

#3 : Lens of Similarity

Most game projects do not involve technological breakthroughs.

Ask yourself : What is the biggest tech challenge you

face? How did others solve this?

#3 : Lens of Similarity

Search for the games that are the most similar to what you are doing. Can you find out what engine(s) they used?

- Game-Dev community not very open :(

- Search for post mortems and GDC talks.

Lets share!

“What is the best Game Engine?”

Our current stack is

- Art : 3D Studio Max + Photoshop

(Exporting FBX and PNG to)

- Client : Unity (With many plugins)

(Using BestHTTP Pro to communicate via Rest API with)

- Server : Python-Flask + PostgreSQL

(With SQLAlchemy for ORM, hosted in the cloud)

“What is the best Game Engine?”

The fact that it is good for us does not mean that it is good for you.

Ask the right questions, find the answers that answer your demands.

Thank You!

(Also, questions?)

@noamgat