Thinking on going serious commercial project.What challenge in BGE?

Hi all,

Im using blender for modelling quite for a while and currently making a game in AppGameKit with exported model from blender. The game now need a final touch so im thinking to start gathering sources/infos for next project. Coding everything will take time so i had looked in GameGuru and also familiar with basic of BGE:)

Im planning to make a “cutdown version” horror game like Silent Hill, maybe more on running to safe yourself+puzzle elements.Im thinking on going BGE because of its good lighting and ability to use normal map without shader programming. I will limit myselft to Logic Brick as simple as possible(Im doing modelling myself also). And also, the fact that BGE have a good pathfinding system.

Ok,what trouble will i get into with BGE until publishing?

Thanks

Being honest;
Whichever game engine you choose it will take you about 5 years to go from no experience to publishing a finished game.
That’s an incredibly optimistic scenario though. Most game devs will still be working on their never ending dream project after 5 years or will give up the first time they get a bad review.

My tips if you want to succeed:
~Start on a team project. Learn some skills get some good feedback, maybe even finish a game. Joining the modding community is a good way to get experience and learn the limitations of modding.
~Make lots of demos and short games. Don’t get tied up in a multi year project that doesn’t get finished.
~Get people to play your games, if your game isn’t playable you won’t get any feedback.
~Make games that other people want to play. If you’re making a game for yourself you have a market of 1. That’s OK, but if you ever want to make any money it will probably involve making some big design compromises to keep players happy…
~Learn how to do everything yourself. If your programmer leaves the project, you’ll be dead in the water, unless you can program the project yourself. A gamd without sound is not a game. If you can’t find a sound engineer, learn how to do it yourself.
~Learn to code. Go to Code Academy, sign up and start learning python right away. You won’t regret it.

Thank for the advice:) Im aware of all the points given. But my question is more specific on choosing BGE as my core engine and logic brick for game mechanic.

But yeah…the sound part is giving me trouble. My current project hire someone to do it for me.

I think you limit yourself too much.

While the BGE logic is designed around logic bricks, there is nothing wrong to use custom bricks (Python controller). The “Python only” and “Logic Bricks only” approaches are illusions and either show lack of understanding or the willingness to accept the available options. Imagine you restrict yourself to use just red color and nothing else.

Use what fits your situation most. If it is static and easy to setup … use logic bricks. If it is dynamic … use a custom brick. If there is no brick that fits your needs … create a custom brick.

Ok thanks. I think from ur answer bge is capable to create a commercial project and it do needed a custom brick if i hit the ceiling of my need.

How about publishing then?

Im not rushing, i can also do coding in other engine. But BGE Visual Quality and other feature that can speed up developement is unmatch for now. So im gathering some infos first. Thanks again

The bge typically requires that you play the .blend with the blenderplayer.

This means you need to deliver

  • the blenderplayer for the desired target platform and
  • the .blend to start the game from and
  • all asset files (textures, sounds, other .blends …)

Be aware on windows the blenderplayer needs certain libraries.

To make that step easier you can export to runtime. This bundles the blenderplayer with the start.blend into an executable application file and places it together with the libraries into a folder for easier delivery. You need to manually add the asset files.

Attention: In that case your start .blend has to be published under GPL due to the fact that the blenderplayer is GPL. The other assets can be published under any other license.

With Blender you will not be unable to publish on PS4,XBOX, mobile and recent VR devices. Also you will not be able to integrate some features that are required on some platforms like Steam achievements or Steam cloud…etc.

If you are “Thinking on going serious commercial project…”, my advice is to learn more about game marketing first. Because going commercial means your game will be only 50% of the job, the other is marketing.

Good:) Thanks. Maybe i can start drafting and slowly learn python scripting.

im sorry but i just got a great laugh out of that. honestly i think lighting and default shaders are the bge’s biggest weaknesses. its easy for sure, buts so limited.

right now theres no decent dynamic shadows, lights are limited to 20 before you start eating up gpu. and as far as i know, the bge doesnt have light instancing, so that means adding the same light twice doesnt work. also lights still use gpu power on inactive layers.

i havent used pathfinding yet, but from what i can tell, its pretty basic.

i dont know how much of this goes for the upbge, since i dont use it.

logic bricks are very limiting, and slow, compared to python. python is slow compared compiled code like C (insert flavor here). if you want to go commercial, use a high end engine.

however, if you looking for a very easy and very flexible platform at the great cost of features, the bge is the way to go. otherwise look else where if good graphics is needed.

Thats maybe true from your perspective, thats why im gathering information about it for decision. But most programming engine i use dont come with shadow system and need to be added via shader.From the information i gather made BGE is best for now. But otherwise, i still believe in BGE since if its not, it will be drop out of blender and suprisingly we have this dedicated thread for BGE.Its a matter of accepting the weaknesses and find a work around(any tool do i think).Thanks

dont get me wrong, i love the bge, i just dont think its quite up to snuff with todays expectations for pc gaming. mobile maybe, but its not compatible with mobile. kind of a catch 22.

compared to having to write your own fragment shaders all the time, yeah, bge kicks ass.

it sounds like you arent familiar with unity5 or ue4. im dabbling in unity, however still a serious newb at it. from the tech demos ive seen, it looks crazy good. GI, realtime reflections, dynamic shadows, etc

its really up to you, but the bge is definitely a great learning platform, but dont expect AAA stuff without fight.

“BGE lights” still uses Forward render, that means its limited to the number of lights on screen. So you could use 3 points system and do respawning from different location.

You are quite true on this one also.

I will add that it is true that it requires time to learn, but money and resources are also a must.

And also there is no such example of somebody being a programmer, texture artist, modeler, and sound creator. A well planned narrative based game would require a team. The game engine solo with using may be a few copyright content without much attention is the only way to go with it, otherwise only very basic games using what ever is free, and copyright free is the key to content, which that is also limiting.