[Jayextee]

Alright, I'm sick to death of being tripped up at every turn with Sonic hacking and I want to make a Sonic game. Want to. I can write music, draw pixel arts, animate, make levels that don't suck. I should be making a kickass Sonic game.

Instead, I'm having to learn all about the bizarre ways in which graphics are handled/split/stored, music is converted, and various snippets of ASM can and will make life totally and utterly fucking nightmarish. I don't have time to learn all this, I want to knock together graphics in a graphic format, music in a music format, and cobble them all together with a tool made for it. Also, a free one if at all possible because I don't have the money either.

Now, I reckon there should be a topic on here dicussing engines. I DON'T SEE ONE. So help me out here. What's out there, and what are the pros and cons?

I'll start off (kinda) by telling how I've been looking at E02 by Stealth.

To be honest, I was kinda impressed when I played around with the template Sonic game. It handles right, and good, and fast. It has perfect physics, and I have no problem with that. It exports for Wii and PSP (amongst others) which is a plus, too. Seems to be badass-scriptable, which is only ever good if there are decent examples - which the template game is. Whee, awesome.

Except it only supports 256 colours (not such a bad thing really) and I can't actually make head nor tail of where I'm supposed to be starting with this thing; which surprises me, because I thought I knew my way around SonEd2.

Of course this is just my limited experience dicking around for two hours without a clue, and I'm known to be an idiot who wants results NOW rather than pecking slowly at a "hello world" until I've grown a beard and FINALLY made a purple Sonic with an air-dash. I do want to know which engine is for me however, because I'll settle for a little less on the physics end if it means I can throw my existing skills into the mix instead of getting frustrated that they're not relevant yet. But I don't know jack about fangame engines, and I bet I'm not the only one.

You guys do; so if you would, pros and cons of your chosen engines, please.

(Note to mods: I thought long and hard about this topic, decided it would be helpful in the long run if it meets its desired purpose. However, feel free to chuck it in the trash at your discretion. It's all cool, brah.)

[Lapper]

Mercury's one (Aesthete), when it comes out.

It's 99% accurate and all that (judging from the test release) ...but it's Game Maker.

But from what I can see so far it looks like it will be pretty easy to use. All other engines lack in the physics department, or are not very user friendly at all.

Am I doing this right?

This post has been edited by Sonica: 01 April 2012 - 02:37 PM

[Jayextee]

It's a start. Is Game Maker itself free? I have no idea.

Also, of Game Maker itself, didn't I hear in your Sonic 4 topic that it really starts to chug when there's a lot going on?

[Lapper]

Um, no it isn't free. I've had it for so long I forgot I actually bought it all that time ago.


And, in a Sonic game you don't need a lot going on, really, apart from what's being show on screen, you can deactivate anything not in the view, so only the objects actually being used... are used. And that usually isn't much.

[Aerosol]

Game Maker is "free", but its advanced features are not. I don't think Mercury's engine will be shying away from those advanced features. There's Sonic Worlds, but MMF isn't free either. There's also Sonic Construct Worlds, but only Construct Classic is free. Construct 2 requires a purchase.

There's also E02, which is entirely free, made by our very own Stealth. You should check it out.

EDIT: Oh, you already did

This post has been edited by AerosolSP: 01 April 2012 - 02:43 PM

[Sparks]

I find for some reason a lot of people using an older build of Sonic Worlds, unless Worlds Delta isn't out yet. I haven't checked lately.

[Jayextee]

As per my OP, I'm looking at E02 right now. It seems badass, but confuses the hell out of me. I don't have the faintest idea where to start; even the 'getting started' documentation makes my brain start to curl in on itself and whimper; but to my stupid brain it looks just like an impenetrable list of what things are, and not a "this is how to get your horrible sprite running on shitty platforms" tutorial. I'm lost.

[Lapper]

Jayextee, on 01 April 2012 - 02:44 PM, said:

As per my OP, I'm looking at E02 right now. It seems badass, but confuses the hell out of me. I don't have the faintest idea where to start; even the 'getting started' documentation makes my brain start to curl in on itself and whimper; but to my stupid brain it looks just like an impenetrable list of what things are, and not a "this is how to get your horrible sprite running on shitty platforms" tutorial. I'm lost.

I was exactly like this, so I gave up. ;S

[Mr Lange]

Sonic Construct is for Construct Classic, so it is free. The problem is that Streak and I never got very far. He made the core movement and physics and a few basic things like springs, and I was going to port more of the engine from MMF2, but I haven't yet. We haven't even got moving platforms. So, until I do that, you would be working with a very raw engine, but still a really good one and with a free, powerful game making program.

[Lapper]

Oh yes I did forget about construct. That does sound rather good I must say.

[Jayextee]

Mr Lange, on 01 April 2012 - 03:11 PM, said:

Sonic Construct is for Construct Classic, so it is free. The problem is that Streak and I never got very far. He made the core movement and physics and a few basic things like springs, and I was going to port more of the engine from MMF2, but I haven't yet. We haven't even got moving platforms.

What could motivate you to develop it further, if anything?

Also, going to take a look at Construct Classic because there are other games I want to make that aren't Sonic. Thanks.

[Aerosol]

Someone with a promising project, and a willingness to work with what's available, I'm sure

[Jayextee]

Shit I'm tempted to just crank out a load of zone art, which seems to be a bit like getting the cart before the horse. I wasn't going to start anything until I knew I had a platform to work with.

[Lapper]

Jayextee, on 01 April 2012 - 03:20 PM, said:

Shit I'm tempted to just crank out a load of zone art, which seems to be a bit like getting the cart before the horse. I wasn't going to start anything until I knew I had a platform to work with.

I don't see why not. That's exactly what I did with Sonic 4 AYII. I was going to use mercury's engine, but thought, fuck it, and started to make my own that would work with my art. But it would have been fine, even if I has used Aesthete, just inject the art in.

This post has been edited by Sonica: 01 April 2012 - 03:22 PM

[Elratauru]

I'd recommend Mobius Engine because, well its our little community project, but It may take a while until the engine gets done little by little. E02 is pretty awesome too.