So the question of the week: WHICH ENGINE IS THIS PROJECT GOING TO RUN IN?
All of the preplanning for the game hinges on which workflow the rest of the project will be performed in and this question is not flexible once it is made!
As the 5MMG team is beyond novice at any sort of programming code, the built-in features of the engine matter. In addition to that, existing community, add-ons, and current knowledge will all be necessary to continue with the effort successfully.
There are an embarrassment of options available and so here are some of the reasons considered for WIP1.
- Ren’Py (and Sub Instances designed for other engines such as NaniNovel, Monogatari, etc.)
- Gamemaker Studio
- Godot
- Unity
- Unreal Engine
The considerations for the game in development are:
- Game is narrative-forward and needs to be able to handle branching dialogue and options.
- Game has an inventory – will need to display the inventory and information about items picked up which act as environmental storytelling and in some cases clues for further progression.
- The intended camera style is a fixed 2.5D when not 2D front-on. This means that playable areas (player will have a sprite moving around in levels) need to have 3D capabilities to allow for the Z-axis of camera movement and paralaxing.
- Game will need some limited interactivity for NPCs. There is no combat in this game, but talking with the NPCs will be part of challenges, in addition to finding ways to subvert them.
- Game needs to support UI markers for updates, and other in-game notification of new information available.
- Game needs to have the option of a Map that shows discovered/undiscovered locations as well as key items, locked doors, and other points of interest.
- The engine needs to be able to generate mostly static and mostly flat images, but some animated sprites using Spine or 2DLive Cubisim rigs.
The reality is that if not for the inventory, and the intention of walking around to discover objects, most of these things could be accomplished in Ren’Py which has a robust existing infrastructure, community, and knowledge base regarding visual novels.
To integrate the levels of GUI/level design intended it would be necessary to hire a programmer as the dev does not have a sufficient background to implement the solutions they are hoping for.
On the other side of the scale? Unreal is an incredibly strong tool with robust support, add-ons, user knowledge, and existing documentation. It handles multi-object 3D the best out of any of the engines under discussion. It is also the same as using a nuke to kill an ant. The problems needing to be solved by the small game being planned for do not require the robustness of this engine and nor does the project call for it.
Gamemaker Studio is primarily a 2D engine with 3D capabilities. It was in the running to be the engine that the project would be designed on based on the amount of tutorial and community assistance available for it. However, a lot of inspiration was taken from the camera solutions in Eastshade Studio’s ‘Songs of Glimmerwick‘. Thus, over to Unity the decision went. 3D is not the initial and intended use-case of Gamemaker Studio even though it is theoretically possible. However, lowering the barriers for success is going to be the key to finishing and polishing a playable demo.
Godot is an option for future projects, but more practice in coding/programming is required. The community is open and welcoming, but there is less documentation/add-ons/existing solutions for that engine.