Suggestions for a good 2D+3D Engine

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by Raithwall, Jul 2, 2009.

  1. Raithwall

    Raithwall Member

    May 30, 2009
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    Cooking for the U.S. Army
    Ky
    Ok, this should be my last newbie post for a while. Also, I'd like to thank all the people who've helped me in the past. Ok so now on to business, I'm making a turn based game and need a good engine to help speed up development. The game will include 2D characters combating on a 3D battlefield, it may also include mutiplayer online elements. 2D characters will have about 15-25 animations per-character. The 3D battlefrield uses mainly GL_TRIANGLE_STRIPS right now for the grid the characters move between but, may incorporate more complex objects (basically a FFT like game). So given the above info what's the best game engine to pull it off? I'd make an engine myself but I don't have the time (hell my girlfriend alleges I've started talking Obj-C in my sleep that's pretty bad as it is LOL:D) nor the comprehensive know how right now. Well once again thanks and peace out.
     
  2. yourofl10

    yourofl10 Well-Known Member

    Dec 11, 2008
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    Unity 3D, but it's really expensive.
     
  3. BoiledGoose

    BoiledGoose Well-Known Member

    I'd second Unity. If you're already set up as an Apple Dev, email them and ask about a 30 day trial. As long as you are halfway familiar with JavaScript or C#, 30 days is plenty of time to know whether it's worth the investment (it is).

    Unity Indie + iPhone Basic will set you back $600.
     
  4. 93i

    93i Active Member

  5. Mal

    Mal Member

    Jun 26, 2009
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    As Unity got 2nd'd, I'll second Shiva :)

    Both engines should allow you to get on the 3D iPhone development ladder a bit quicker. Shiva is cheaper than Unity, but of course the main cost will be your time.
     
  6. TheBunny

    TheBunny Well-Known Member

    Nov 8, 2008
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    MMO Mac Lead ZeniMax Online
    Baltimore
    SOI2 would handle this game easily and is FREE
    has Lua and you can lay out scenes in blender.

    http://sio2interactive.com/HOME/HOME.html

    BTW Unity is good also...

    All of these have a learning curve.

    Depends on your needs.
     
  7. jaguard

    jaguard Well-Known Member

    Feb 13, 2009
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    There's also edgelib, which might be cool, since it uses traditional approach (c++, no world editor, no objective c), supports windows (visual studio! Oh!) and plenty of other mobile platforms. Impressively, Star Defense was built on top of it.
    Costs a lot though.
     
  8. Mal

    Mal Member

    Jun 26, 2009
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  9. kohjingyu

    kohjingyu Well-Known Member

    Mar 20, 2009
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    Student/Developer
    Singapore
    If you want 2d, I say choose Cocos2d. It's open source, free and has some examples that show what it does.
     
  10. 99c_gamer

    99c_gamer Well-Known Member

    Mar 23, 2009
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    if you're already drawing a battlefield with trianglestrips is sounds like you're half way there. what else do you need it do to?

    an FFT style game doesn't need complex physics or 3D collisions.
    For what you need to do the amount of time making your own engine versus learning someone elses is probably about equal.
     
  11. Raithwall

    Raithwall Member

    May 30, 2009
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    Cooking for the U.S. Army
    Ky
    Thanks everybody. In the end I've decided to go with SIO2 which seems reasonably easy to learn, not to mention free. To 99c_gamer. I've done a few rough battlefields using a template provided by Jeff Lamarche @ IphoneDevelopment ( by the way a really good site for OpenGL ES development via OpenGL ES From the Ground Up). But, I wasn't sure if I could use the template for apps commercially. So basically even though I know how to use triangle strips/fans, I still don't have the all-in-compassing knowledge of how to build an engine (I've been programing for only 2 weeks sigh...:(). Again thanks for all the help.
     
  12. ddn

    ddn Well-Known Member

    Jun 19, 2009
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    Programmer by day but at night also programmer.
    Look behind u!
    Why not team up with a more experienced programmer and share the developement of the game. Learning to program even a modereratly complex game isn't an easy task mastered in weeks.

    -ddn
     

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