Should you make your own game engine?

[@UncleKalle]

I think that everytime a game engine (and the tools like map builders etc) were built, it was out of need. Programmers used the tools they had, being it the language they programmed in, or the books, that taught how to realise certain concepts. New programmers nowadays should do the same. Take the tools you already have and when running into problems, solve them.

[@sagitswag1785]

Sometimes fixing a problem means you use a different tool entirely. And sometimes you are solving some problem as an exercise to be better at solving actual problems. When you learn math, you don't start by using a calculator.

[@rmt3589]

This is an awesome video, and one I will rewatch. I did use Unity for a bit, and still have a couple skills I need from it before uninstalling it. I had hit the point a couple times where I would "test" my games for hours instead of working on them, though none were publishing ready. Rn, I'm working on making my own engine, but have Godot set up as my backup plan. Not that I would discard my engine, but where it goes to the backburner because I want to make a game instead of making tools. I do plan on finishing my engine, and making my dream game in it, but I'm aware I'll need a point to actually make games eventually. My plan is to habe rhe frameworks and apis linked, then make games using those without it being a full engine, then generalizing/refactoring those games to be tools in the engine for future games. Kinda like packages in Unity. Overall, I'm even more excited for my engine now! Would go work on it right now, if it wasn't almost 6:30 in the morning, and I wasn't already exhausted from streaming. Thank you so much!

[@ChrisBillows]

Appreciated this. It helped explain the trade offs involved in with building your own system and using the frameworks and engines that are available.

[@balorprice]

This was a great long-form chat, really nice 360 view into the pitfalls you can fall into approaching the problem from either side too dogmatically. Of course, I'm doing it all wrong but I kinda knew that already :D

[@HomeTeamGameDev]

Thanks! It's a huge topic, wasn't sure if it'd make for a video that's overly long just by trying to decently cover enough angles on it. It's reassuring to hear it worked alright at this length.

[@owdoogames]

I’ve always wondered how I could go about wryinmyowgaenji

[@harrypeng9028]

Love your videos on YT and Udemy! Keep it up Chris!

[@HomeTeamGameDev]

Thanks Henry! Will do!

[@jbq]

Dammit, you’re right. I’ve been trying to avoid learning C# for Unity/Godot because I am so worried about Rust being the future of gaming and learning that first.

[@SynthByte_]

i love the advice to look at other engines because how do you expect to learn how something works if you don't have experience using similar tools you want to create.

[@goosewithagibus]

I hate black boxes. That's the main reason I make my own engines (porting my 2D colony sim to a 3D engine rn). It's literally infinitely more enjoyable.

[@llamasarus1]

That's why I use engines who's source code is available then it's no longer a Black box

[@etherweb6796]

So Unreal engine was built specifically for Unreal, however it was clear that it was designed to be extensible from the beginning. Unreal itself was more of a tech demo than anything else.

amazing video!

[@PharmacyBrain]

Great video. Unity is about to increase the personal license to 200k in late 2024 with the release of Unity 6. After that, it's a runtime fee OR 2.5% whichever is lower. Unreal is free until you make over a million, then 5%. The royalties really aren't bad at all. You'll be cursing a lot more at Steam's 30%. The engine fee is nothing and only kicks in when you're making a real income. Plus I bet you can deduct it on your taxes, so reduce it by 24 to 30% whichever tax bracket you fall in. I definitely fall in the category of person tinkering with technology more than games. I've made numerous projects and quit once I had all the mechanics working and it was time to really flesh out the game, add levels, the story, etc. Those are questions I really struggle with answering. For me, I'm going back to Unity to make an actual game. Learning C++ and game engines is valuable, but has to be a long-term goal. Not a task that needs to be finished before making and shipping a game.

[@TheUncutAngel]

.....I'm subscribing only because you talk like I type.

[@maxmuster7003]

We need bootable Games that run without an OS. So close all Gates and never pay this Corona Bill again and format the drive with the Windows concentration camp now.

[@thefakewitchdoctor]

Couldn't agree more