• Posted here are tips from a guy who dev'd an engine over 5 years. In comparison - Braid, the highest rated XBLA game of all time took 3 years to develop by Jonathan Blow and artist David Hellman. Cave Story, the massively popular PC game now getting a Wii port, took 5 years to develop by Japanese artist Pixel.

    You're probably feeling inadequate. Why do these guys produce so much and you so much less? Maybe a few of my Laws will help you figure things out.

    First Law - Eradicate the idea that engines/frameworks are necessary forewords to game logic. An engine/framework NEVER demands content. Content MAY demand parts of a framework/engine.

    Second Law - They solve problems. Frameworks solve redundancy and inconsistency. When patterns are perceptible, Engines solve structural/management problems. Stop approaching games from an engine/framework pov; games are Game Logic with technical requirements.

    Third Law - Use Technical Specs to avoid bottlenecks, not to limit Game Logic. Game Logic is often radically different from what you anticipate, so a "Framework-first" approach locks you into a less capable sub-set of your programming language.

    Fourth Law - "Engine" is a high level concept built on top of many utilities. Combine frameworks for models, physics, sound, rendering, GUI, AI, camera etc with handlers/management tools and you have an "Engine".

    Fifth Law - Not everything has to "Run" in the "Engine". If your Engine is a composite of frameworks, your Engine should be dependent on low-level APIs. High level methods are a convenience, not be a requirement. This makes your API accessible and provides flexibility and internal knowledge required by programmers.

    I guarantee you that your approach should be less complex and more direct.

    Thanks,
    Pritchard