Unity, Game Maker Studio, or...?

[Lheticus]

"Twelve Gods, he's asking for game advice AGAIN after all this time? I thought we finally got rid of him for good!"

AHA! This time it's not about what game I should PLAY--I want to know what would be best for me to MAKE my first game! So, I've heard of two seemingly plausible options so far, Unity or Game Maker Studio (or Studio 2, whatever's actually current I guess.) The game I intend to make will be a card battle game based around a TCG I've created. I'm thinking something that at least has a "story mode," something where your player only moves around between areas and challenges people, not one where they actually move around--I want to keep it as simple as I can.

HOWEVER! I don't intend to stop there. I want to make more games after this, so honestly I think the option that would be best for me is the one that provides me with the best learning experience that will enable me to branch out later. What say you, oh wise Giant In the Playground forum-goers? Unity, Game Maker, or something else?

[Lvl 2 Expert]

For this project in itself Game Maker, RPG maker XP (used for many Pokémon fangames) (or a newer version), Clickteam fusion (used for Five Nights at Freddy's) or a suite of other packages seems suitable. Especially as long as the environments you're walking around in are 2D the game is not doing anything these packages can't handle. Unity as far as I understand is more of an alternative for something like the Unreal developer kit. It comes with more costs, especially if you want to publish your game, but it's a lot more powerful engine as well, and support professionals are available. If you're planning on doing this as a day job it's probably worth it to have a project in a professional developer kit on your resume. If your plan is to make this game as a hobby, and maybe down the line others like it, I'd say the consumer options are probably better.

As to what kit I'd recommend, I don't have enough experience with any of them. I played around with Game Maker a little, but that's like a decade and a half ago, so that isn't representative for the current project.

[deuterio12]

Unity is free and has plenty of tutorials and good reputation. So if nothing else you can try it out first and see how it clicks for you before trying to throw money at the others.

[KillianHawkeye]

Well before we can answer, you have to tell us a bit more. For instance, do you know any programming? I'm pretty sure you won't get far with Unity if you don't know the difference between a boolean and a floating point number, C++ style syntax, or the basic workings of sub-routine functions.

Game Maker should be pretty friendly to non-programmers (at least, if it's anything like it was 10 years ago), but you still need to understand basic logic and such. And if you do know programming, you can do even more with it. Not sure what kind of programming languages it supports these days, though.

I don't think I'd suggest RPG Maker for a card game, which isn't to say that it couldn't be done, just that you'd be ignoring huge swathes of what comes built into it and have to come up with everything else yourself. That's just not the sort of game you're meant to make with that engine.

To be perfectly honest, though, making a computer game by yourself is not easy. In fact, it's the exact opposite of that. There are so many aspects to consider. The inner workings of the game engine, the gameplay (which at least you've got if you're basing it on an existing card game), the sounds, the music, the graphics. Solo game development is truly a multifaceted task, and it's a lot more involved that what people initially expect.

So, if you think you're up to it, good luck!

[Lheticus]

Well before we can answer, you have to tell us a bit more. For instance, do you know any programming? I'm pretty sure you won't get far with Unity if you don't know the difference between a boolean and a floating point number, C++ style syntax, or the basic workings of sub-routine functions.

Game Maker should be pretty friendly to non-programmers (at least, if it's anything like it was 10 years ago), but you still need to understand basic logic and such. And if you do know programming, you can do even more with it. Not sure what kind of programming languages it supports these days, though.

I don't think I'd suggest RPG Maker for a card game, which isn't to say that it couldn't be done, just that you'd be ignoring huge swathes of what comes built into it and have to come up with everything else yourself. That's just not the sort of game you're meant to make with that engine.

To be perfectly honest, though, making a computer game by yourself is not easy. In fact, it's the exact opposite of that. There are so many aspects to consider. The inner workings of the game engine, the gameplay (which at least you've got if you're basing it on an existing card game), the sounds, the music, the graphics. Solo game development is truly a multifaceted task, and it's a lot more involved that what people initially expect.

So, if you think you're up to it, good luck!

I took a few programming classes in college and I read a bit of, and still own, C++ for dummies. I'm not daunted by the prospect of learning C#. It really is seeming like Unity is the way to go. And frankly I'll probably get help on the music and graphics.

[Ostara]

I like the Unreal engine now that it's gone free to download and install, but that's because I feel like it's better laid out than UNity, though unity has way more online tutorials.

[danzibr]

I only have experience with Game Maker (well, and RPG Maker). I found GM intuitive, versatile, powerful. Problem is, it has super limited 3D capabilities. Like nonexistent.

To my understanding, go Unity for 3D and GM for 2D. And Unreal for...?

[Alent]

These are the platforms I've considered for my own work, I dunno if it'll help at all:

For 2D you have a few good options. My personal feeling is that if you're going to do a 2D game, HTML5 is where it's at. Gamemaker and HaxeFlixel are also solid options. For 3D, Unreal is king and Unity really just needs to go away and take the asset store with it.

Straight HTML5

Pro: The more modern rendering capabilities of HTML5 are rather impressive. Canvas has finally caught up to Flash and ThreeJS has a Minecraft tech demo which actually performs better than Minecraft itself. (Admittedly not a very high bar) Even working with just HTML elements, you can do fun things like 3D transforms (http://hclaw.org/FakePolygons/), which for OP's TCG could actually benefit the card presentation. Effectively has portability to anything and everything that can surf the web. Tools exist to take a webpage and compile as a smartphone app, as well.

Con: Javascript. You may not want your code to be open source. Javascript. Did I mention Javascript?

Gamemaker

Pro: Well supported 2D development platform with abundant tutorials.

Con: As has been pointed out, not very many 3D effects. Cannot compile for Nintendo platforms.

HaxeFlixel

Pro: Like Gamemaker, but free. Some very good tutorials for all the things you'd need with graphics/game loop/etc. Lets you publish to anything. As far as I'm aware there is a (possibly not yet published?) toolchain for compiling HaxeFlixel into WiiU and Switch. Out of box it'll compile your app to HTML5 canvas, Android, iOS, Windows, etc.

Con: Tutorial support is hit and miss, if your question isn't covered, be prepared to make a lot of trial and error experiments. Textboxes are freaking weird because Haxe is a fork of Flash AS3 which is a fork of ECMAscript 3. Less 3D support than Gamemaker.

Unity

Pro: Free, Lots of tutorials, C#.

Con: There is a growing number of people who will not play your game if all they know about it is "it uses unity". The 3D shaders have strange problems and many games just find the exact same assets look better in Unreal. Supports 2D via billboarded polygons. 300+ meg boilerplate for an empty executable.

Unreal

Pro: Powerful, best 3D engine on market, Free license below some respectable profit figures. Good tutorials (although not as thorough as Unity's)

Con: No C# support, Supports 2D via billboarded polygons. 300+ meg boilerplate for an empty executable.

Edit:

Hnn... I just noticed the original discussion was basically over before the spambot tried to advertise something. Whoops. I need more sleep. :smallsigh:

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Hnn... I just noticed the original discussion was basically over before the spambot tried to advertise something. Whoops. I need more sleep. :smallsigh:

Yeah, but yours is the post this thread needed, so thanks anyway.