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What Game Engine Should I Use?

A topic by Snow140 created 41 days ago Views: 249 Replies: 18

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Snow14041 days ago

Hi! I am working on CLIPS (https://snow140.itch.io/clips), a point-and-click horror game with mini-games and a deep story. Recently, I switched the project from C++ to Godot, but I have since been looking back on if I made the right decision. Godot is a great game-making tool, but I need to get the one that will help me work smoothly and quickly with little error for this large project.

I would love if you could comment what game engine you recommend, but here are some things to keep in mind:

It must be free. This game is made with a budget of $0.
Preferably open-source. I find these game engines the best usually.
Must use code. I do not like no-code engines.
Language restrictions. I would not like to learn a new language, and if possible can it only use:
- Python
- C++
- JavaScript
2D. I would like it to support 2D.
Built-in-features or plugins. Could it support a built-in lighting, dialogue, or saving methods? It could also use plugins.

Thanks!

Jeroen P. Broks41 days ago

When it comes to a 2D game library that can be used in both C and C++, perhaps SDL2 can be a good choice. My own game engine is also built entirely on that.
There are very good tutorials out there to get on the move with SDL2, and it's completely free and open source.
Now I've never explored lighting effects, but it has a few quick dialog boxes supported. Of course SDL2 is set up to give you as much power as you want, so you may need to get a few things up yourself to get it fully to your liking.

Of course, when it comes to switching engines, you must really be sure doing that halfway a project is a good idea, as it can bring you a big crapload of work. I have no experience with Godot. All I know about Godot is its existence. I've always tried to be as self-reliant as possible, so I only rely on 3rd party code when I really have to.

Snow14041 days ago

Thanks for the reply! I don't really need that much control, and I want to get this done really fast and efficiently, but thanks for the suggestion! As for switching halfway through a project, it shouldn't be that much. I've manly been working on game design, not game development. I've only really got a basic template, so not a lot of progress :)

SNIPER41 days ago

Unity or unreal. I don't recommend unreal for 2d (or at all, but others do). I think if you could get away with HTML/JS/CSS, but unity is probably best.

Snow14041 days ago

Thanks for the suggestion!

SNIPER41 days ago

Welcome! :D

Snow14041 days ago

After researching game engines a bit, I found RenPy. I thought that might be helpful with the built in features. Does anyone have expirence?

Jeroen P. Broks41 days ago (1 edit)

I basically hate Python for big projects, most of all due to the identing rule getting very much in my way in large complex projects.
Now I have tried a few game engines for Python in the past. The big letdown with loads of Python stuff is that it's very dependency based. Which makes Python programs mostly very terrible for distribution. Which is fine for distribution on Linux I guess, since Linux users are used having to install tons of dependencies. On Mac and Windows I guess, it's a less good idea.

Now RenPy is most of all focused on Visual Novels. Since I don't do Visual Novels myself I have no experience with RenPy, all I know is that it's specifically for VisualNovels and that it's based on Python. I've played a few RenPy games. I was never sure if RenPy is just full of limitations or if people never really explored what it can do, to be honest. In other words, many games just looked the same, just having a different story. Same kind of thing I've seen with games made in RPGMaker.

Now I did see someone recommend Unity and Unreal. I've no experience on either, but I do know that Unreal uses C++ and Unity uses C#. Now C# is not really that hard to learn, especially when you already know C++. I do know that Unity in particular is a popular engine and I've played many games written in Unity, from both amateurs and pro. I know you prefer not to learn a new language, but it can still be an engine to check out.

Snow14040 days ago

Unfortunately my computer is not the best, so a huge engine like unreal may crash it. I also want this game to easlily run in Browser, which I am not sure Unreal can do.

I am hesitant to use Unity, because it is not open-source, which is what I prefer, but after all the suggestiosn I think I will check it out.

About how all games look the same, I think most games don't push it to it's limit, I see a lot of customization styles. I just chose this because I am skilled at Python more than any other programming language.

I will take your feedback into consideration, however!

Jeroen P. Broks40 days ago

In the end it can always be a good idea to try a small nonsensical project first, to see if an engine/library got what you need.
And when it comes to Unity being close-sourced, yeah, I too don't like that, so I think you got a valid point there.

Snow14040 days ago(+1)

Yeah, that’s what I did for Godot. It worked, but I didn’t know if it was built for the kind of game I was making, or if it had tools for that.

redonihunter40 days ago

Look at similar games and what engine they used.

Most of the stuff you mention is in renpy, but not the 2d thingy. Assuming you mean actual 2d engine capabilites with objects and lighting and bells and whistles. You can make images appear and move a bit and if you are skilled you can do mini games and of course a point and click game. But it is optimised for visual novels that look like visual novels.

Snow14040 days ago (1 edit)

Thanks for the feedback! The most similar game I could find was:

https://cosmicvoid.itch.io/devils-hideout

…and I think it’s made in ren’py? That’s what made me consider it.

redonihunter40 days ago

While you can make renpy do those things if you bend and twist it, this game does not look like renpy. And at 13 MB the demo of this game sure is not renpy. The options file in the demo makes me believe, this is c++ with libraries or something and not one of the common game engines.

The benefits of renpy are qol like roll back and save games. And configuration for text speed, auto play, skip already read text and so on.

A non exhaustive list of engines is here https://itch.io/game-development/engines

Godot point & click

https://itch.io/games/made-with-godot/tag-point-and-click

Compare to Renpy point & click games

https://itch.io/games/made-with-renpy/tag-point-and-click

And many games do not tell in the metainfo what engine they use.

Snow14040 days ago

Thanks!

Snow14040 days ago(+1)

After looking them over, that really did put things into perspective. The Godot games look higher quality. That comparison really helped!

redonihunter40 days ago

Hmm. I wonder why this seems so. I can come up with two points that might contribute to this impression.

Bending and twisting renpy to do things needed for a point & click are possible but quality might suffer, because the engine is optimised for other things. Also the tag point and click might be misapplied, because technically you point and click in most games that can be played with a mouse.

And renpy is used by many hobby developers with less experience in coding. So the average level of professionalism might be lower, which might be also visible in the usage of assets and "quality".

Overall I would assume that godot is more suited for a general purpose 2d game. The vast majority of the point and click renpy games do tag visual novel as well...

Snow14039 days ago

I see... that does make since. So that might also make ren'py good for a large project when you don't want to waste time, but the game might run slower. So that of course brings in the triangle of development: Time or money or quality, and you can only you can only optomize two.

Godot saves quality and money, but might take time. Ren'py saves time and money, but could suffer in quality. I just need to figure out what I value more...

redonihunter39 days ago

My main point is, renpy is optimised for visual novels. A point & click game is not a visual novel. If you use an engine optimised for one thing to do another thing, this might show somehow, or make certain tasks extra difficult.

But this goes in the other direction as well. Visual novels made in other engines often lack a lot of the quality of life basic features one expects from a visual novel. Like rollback - scrolling back to previous text. Or configurable text speed. I curse every time I play one of those and the dev did not put any thought into making text speed configurable.

For a point & click a thing like rollback is usually not needed at all. You do not even have an interface with those text boxes. Many point & click also have an avatar running around on screen. I do not think I ever saw a renpy game re-creating that feature. If you want to see renpy games that "break" with visual novel mechanics, see some sandbox and management games. Maybe adventure too. And of course the point & click ones that are not tagged visual novel.

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