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[Survey]: How to choose a Game Engine

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Tatrion, Oct 13, 2014.

  1. Tatrion

    Tatrion

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    Hello everyone!

    I’m in a bit of a pickle. I was wondering if you guys could help me out by filling out a quick survey. I'm writing a paper on game engine selection for a university course and I'm very interested in the insights of the developers on this forum. The survey is about what you find important in a game engine, it shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes. Unfortunately I don’t have anything to offer in return, but I could share the results of the research with you if you’re interested.

    Survey link: http://goo.gl/forms/hmuhJtzAde

    I would really appreciate any help, thanks!
     
    Last edited: Oct 14, 2014
  2. me2also

    me2also

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    Just try an Engine.
     
  3. SteveJ

    SteveJ

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    Might be worth explaining what the survey is for?
     
  4. Tatrion

    Tatrion

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    Hah, you're absolutely right. Sorry for the confusion.

    I'm a graduate student at the Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
    I'm writing a paper for a course on game production. Using this questionnaire and other literature I hope to establish a guideline for selecting the right game engine for a given project.
    So I'm really interested in any insights of the developers on this forum.

    I'll add that bit of information to my first post, thanks for the suggestion!
     
  5. willemsenzo

    willemsenzo

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    I've filled in the survey but I didn't provide my email address but you can post the results here of course. :)
     
  6. Tatrion

    Tatrion

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    Thanks for your submission, I appreciate it!
    I'll definitely consider posting the results here if they turn out to be interesting enough.
     
  7. willemsenzo

    willemsenzo

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    Great I'll keep an eye on the notifications.
     
  8. JohnnyA

    JohnnyA

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    The survey seems a little bit off, you include "Size of the Community" in engineering but nothing to do with capabilities of the engine?
     
    Deon-Cadme likes this.
  9. MrBrainMelter

    MrBrainMelter

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  10. Andy-Touch

    Andy-Touch

    A Moon Shaped Bool Unity Legend

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    Hello! Will you be at Control Conference in November? http://controlconference.com/
    If yes, id be very interested in meeting up and talking about your research findings/helping out in whatever way I can. :)
     
  11. Tatrion

    Tatrion

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    I completely understand that grouping "community size" under engineering may seem odd. It is actually the result of assumptions made for this research. Within our team it has currently been agreed upon that, amongst the roles we have defined, engineers are most involved with the community. So the engineering section of the survey actually refers to the tasks of an engineer, rather than the engineering aspects of a game engine.
    Concerning the capabilities of engines: We very much wanted to include this in our research, however this is a fairly small project and I'm afraid the scope and time alotted do not currently allow for in-depth research on specific capabilities.

    Thanks for the comment!

    Hello! I'm afraid this paper is due long before the conference. I really do appreciate the offer to help though, thanks! And thanks for the heads up on the conference. Unfortunately, while it looks interesting, I probably won't be able to attend.
     
  12. JohnnyA

    JohnnyA

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    From my view a lot of things you listed are not that important in engine selection. Something like "ability to rapid prototype" is the kind thing everyone considers important in general, but not so important in picking an engine (ability to rapid prototype is more a function of the design and development process than the engine).

    There seems to be some major omissions:
    • Something about Cross-Platform Support or Deployment Platforms (surely in the top five reasons people choose an engine)
    • Something about proven ability to deliver (e.g. AAA or successful games made with the engine)
    • Something about a Visual behaviour designer (not so important for non-artists, but this seems at least as important than both the options you list in the design section)

    Because the survey design felt "lazy" (for want of a better word) I didn't feel like compelled to spend the time elaborating in the open text fields.

    Anyways sorry to be so negative, your replies in the forum show you care about your work, but that didn't come across in the initial post or survey.
     
    Ryiah likes this.
  13. zombiegorilla

    zombiegorilla

    Moderator

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    Fully agree. I answered it, but it really address much of what I would consider when deciding on a tech stack.

    Many times for prototyping, we don't use the engine/platform we are building in. (unless it is a tech proof of concept). In fact we were using Unity as a prototyping tool before we were using it as a game engine.

    In addition to JohnnyA's points, I would add that the context is missing. The nature of it kind of assumes indies or small teams, but doesn't say so, and includes the options for larger. For example, you lump "The license-cost and royalty fee" into a single response. Those really are two separate concerns. Our studio for example, license cost isn't much of concern as it is a small part of overall costs, but royalties aren't even an option. Also with larger studios, an engine like Unity will cost less, as it will be used across more projects. Stuff like that.

    It also starts with the assumption that an engine is critical to making a game. It might be better framed as "Tech used to make a game" if using an engine is one then the series of additional questions related to engines.
     
  14. zenGarden

    zenGarden

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    There is no right engine.
    Each user choosing some engine can be for many reasons :
    - specific features needed
    - tools
    - prices
    - store
    - community
    - platforms
    - language
    - docs
    - feeling at ease with the engine

    Engine A can do project X , but engine B is better in area F for this project and the impact is faster development of your game.
    This is not just take engine A for project X and engine B for project Z :)

    Don't loose your time , make games instead.
     
    Ryiah and Deleted User like this.
  15. Rasurfn

    Rasurfn

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    I am actually working on a similar survey/project for my school. :)

    Are you planning to share your results/findings?

    For my study, Im actually looking more into how people develop their skills prior to working in game development but I feel like your study (re: game engine decision) has some valuable info that might show correlation between skills development and game engine choice depending on the 2D/3D path.
     
  16. Tatrion

    Tatrion

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    Not at all, I really appreciate the feedback.

    It is fairly difficult to find literature to support the selection of game engine elements that should be discussed during the selection process. During the university course a great emphasis has been placed on the division of various tasks between the roles in a development team. In order to better relate to the discussed theory we decided to reduce the tasks of various development roles to basic elements that are shared amongst the majority of game engines. This has resulted in a list of elements that may indeed not reflect on the actual selection concerns of game developers. However that's exactly the reason why comments like yours are so valuable to us, as they give us insight from experience rather than literature. I'll be sure to keep your comment in mind while writing the paper.

    So thanks again!

    Thanks for the comment! As I mentioned in the response to JohnnyA, the elements listed are derived from literature and lectures and thus have a high risk of deviating from practice.
    Regarding the assumption that the engine is critical to game development: We are actually restricted to the topic of game engines and cannot deviate to other tools. I'll be sure to dismiss that assumption in the paper, though.

    Thanks for the elaboration on your concerns, it's very helpful.

    We'd be happy to share the results with you after we're finished. Would it suffice if I PM you on this forum? Alternatively you can fill in the questionnaire, leave your email address there with a comment that it's a fake-submission, and I'll contact you via email. We should be finished in about 2-3 weeks. Though, if you need results sooner, let me know.
     
  17. Rasurfn

    Rasurfn

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    Thanks and awesome! Ill go ahead and fill out the questionnaire and include my email address.
     
  18. Tomnnn

    Tomnnn

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    Just filled out your survey. Seems to cover enough questions to get you some valuable data. Good luck.
     
  19. Deon-Cadme

    Deon-Cadme

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    I have taken part in the process of picking game engines / tech on larger projects and the survey doesn't sadly even begin to scratch the surface. A skilled team even have the second option of combining tech into their own hybrid engine.

    The most important question is production cost and time but this is also where it gets muddy...

    An engine comparison for a generic title might only require an excel sheet with weighted questions that produce a final score. Another title might have specific requirements that instantly knocks the rest of the engines out of the ballpark no matter how it perform on the less important questions.

    I think the last excel sheet that I made with the other departments (me representing GD / secretary) had around 100-200 questions at the end. We still didn't pick the engine with the highest score but it really helped us get a much better overview. Why didn't we choose the winner? Because the 2nd (or maybe it was the 3rd) best engine had a lower production cost, overall for the title. We concluded that yes, it missed a major feature but the programmers were confident that they could reasonably fast add some tech to it that would meet our needs.
     
  20. Tatrion

    Tatrion

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    Thanks!

    Sorry for the late reply. I just wanted to say this is an incredibly helpful post. I really appreciate the effort to write this down.
    Thanks a lot!