Heart and Soul - Engine Advice Please ^^

[-Silver-]

I'm very serious about entering into the Indie Game industry, and am intending to create an Action-RPG game with heavy character and world customization (think Fable) with the backdrops and environments being hand-painted. As a result, I'd like the art style of the game to speak volumes and be given the center-stage it deserves: high resolution support.

My question is: Are there any affordable engines that provide 1680x1050 support, or something similar? I'm only experienced with RMXP, and know enough that it isn't an option in the stock program. Indie Game Maker has the benefit of providing easy ports to the 360 (a real bonus), but I've heard mixed reports so far regarding its capabilities.

Any recommendations and advice regarding engines would be greatly appreciated! Information about IGM and whether it could display hand-painted environments in large resolutions would also be appreciated.

Thanks for reading ^^

I know how far an image can go as well, so I spent the day knocking up a quick concept to go with this post. Bear with the trees, it's a quick image to give you an idea =P

Spoiler

 

[Daxis]

Well it sorta depends. If you're looking to make a 2d game, then there are one or two platforms to choose form.

I've heard that Express Game Maker has some very good features and has a good and powerful engine. I'm not too sure about the specifics, but it should be coming out soon. It's slightly similar to rmxp in maps and maybe other aspects, so if that's what you're looking for, col

Stencyl boasts itself to be able to make any type of 2d game, and the testers really love it right now. Resolution is perfectly changeable, I believe. IT's in closed beta, although you could request and invite, and open beta seta around fall 2010. Additionally, some okay games have been made real easy and fast, although the community's quite small.

If you are looking for a real and true professional system and are willing to spend several hundred in cash, as well as have the ability to program, make music/art, and all that jazz, look to Torque 2D.

 

[mawk]

that looks really nice. would definitely be interested in a game that looked like that.

you're right to be skeptical of IGM; Enterbrain's development strategy for its lest few -Maker programs seems to be to surreptitiously add a number of problems, which they then fix in the next release to drum up more buyer anticipation. here, those problems are mainly in the user interface, but in case that wasn't enough they also made displaying text hilariously roundabout (you have to prepare the text to be shown in a completely different section of the editor, then choose the premade message you want to display) and restricted the usable sound formats to only .WAV (which is fine for sound effects, but if it's used for music as well it'll drive your filesize up by a lot.)

I'm not sure about its capabilities in terms of hand-painted environments and large resolutions, but I would probably discourage you from using it. there are a couple other programs for making action games that I would recommend instead.

Construct and Game Maker are both very good for any 2D action game. they're both very accommodating in terms of backgrounds, resolution, and layers, and you'd definitely be able to use painted backgrounds and such. they're a lot more versatile that IGM or the RM series, but that also means there's a bit more of a learning curve, and more emphasis on knowing how to code. Game Maker uses GML, a unique language similar to C, and Construct can be coded with Python. there are enough basic tools that you won't need to painstakingly script every aspect of your games, though.

I'm not really sure which of the ones mentioned so far I'd recommend; you'd probably get a better impression by just downloading then and giving them a try. sort of a tall order, but it might be fun.

 

[-Silver-]

Thanks for the informative replies. Just what I was hoping for.

So IGM is hit and miss, and usually the latter. Whereas Torque 2D seems to be the most powerful, resourceful, and platform supportive engine available. There's a hefty price tag, but that's to be expected.

Thanks again for the feedback. I'll start in-depth designs with Torque in mind now. :heart:

 

[Anaxim]

Out of personal experience of working with Torque 2D, I'd hardly recommend it.

Flipside, I will support Andrew's recommendation of Construct. Being a user of it myself, as well as a frequenter to the IRC channel, I can safely say that the engine is versatile, easy to learn and good to use. Only one serious game had come out of it, so far, but some of the work I've seen on it is splendid. As far as support and learning go, the forums are responsive, but small. The real support gem is the IRC channel, accessible via a Mibbit widget from the forum toolbar (in case you lack a proper IRC program), which hosts an above decent number of experienced Constructors willing to aid. Occasionally, the devs also make an appearance and fix a bug or two, or tell someone how to do something correctly.

As far as your requirements go: Construct allows to create an ARPG all too easily, and supports resolution changes. And in effect it utilizes Dx9 as a base engine for games, so all sorts of higher end options are also present.

Give it a go, it's free anyway.

 

[Citizen86]

This might be a bit of a thread resurrection, but I find it interesting. BTW, that image looks awesome Silver!

Did you ever decide on an engine to use?

Not sure if you saw, but ALL Torque engines are $99 now, with source included. Torque2D with source is $99

I've been looking at Construct as well. Seems pretty cool, I will have to try it out and see how it works though and if it can fit in with what I want to do.

So... Let us know Silver :biggrin: