If you were to develop a game using a small but reasonable low budget between 80k-100K, do you think 3DGS is a good solution? What do you think are the advantages of the A6 engine for a professional title? Aside from no octree/lightmapping (not BSP) what do you see as the disadvantages?
Is there any reason you would not use A6 for a professional quality game which you sought to publish commercially If you've got a reasonable budget, is there a good reason to use A6 instead of another engine and hire a few programmers and use Irrlicht/Nebula/BV/Torque?


Bye!

some things to consider when chosing a game engine are...

1) target audience
2) type of game
3) talent of design team
4) technology requirements of the game

Could A6 professional be used for a professional title, sure, but it's not the best choice for all types of games.

Why would I not use A6 professional... If I wanted to create a game featuring the latest eye candy and graphics technology comparable to a AAA title, A6 is not the answer. Also, I've yet to be convinced that A6 is an option for multi-player gaming.

100 K is a high budget for the casual games market. You are very fortunate to have such a budget. Game studio is a very stable 3d engine, but have you considered a 2d game? Most of the casual games are 2d because it's much easier to distribute. The game might be a 10 MB download vs 50+ MB for a 3D game. Also many people who buy these games aren't serious gamers with up to date PCs.

As of this moment, 3DGS is a good engine, but there are slick engines in beta right now. Torque, and TV3D come to mind. 3DGS is really beginning to show its age.

If you are looking for a free 2D engine, go here: http://developer.popcap.com/
They are also a publisher, so they can be a potential publisher for your game.

The target audience has nothing to do with the engine as well as the type of game.

More important are talented people in your team - but not only graphics guys. It is very important to have at least two people in a team which have excellent knowledge of the engine you are using to really have a motor in your development. Imagine a programmer who drives the project and then he leaves or he is ill or whatever. So you have everytime a fallback person. You should also consider if you build a local team together in one office or if you are spreaded and you really announce hardworking weekends (from 8 AM to 3 AM) one or two times a month to compensate crunchtimes or if you take the risk to rely on a spreaded team. It is also a cost factor. Even if you have theoretically 100k euros... you have to pay software licenses (A6 team edition, Maya/Photoshop.. etc. licenses if you employees dont own them already legally), website hostage, office costs, charge for gasolina if your members come to you or so, hardware (you cannot work with a member who has a crappy PC from 1995 ^^), of course the money to pay your teammates, etc.pp.

It is also a difference which type of technology you choose. Let us say you want to develop your game with an open source engine like Ogre or Irrlicht just to name two major brands in the OS scene: you can enhance it if you have the skilled persons and behind them there is a very vivid community which pushes those engines forward. The risk of them is which leads us toward commercial engines. The are relyable.

Actually, gamestudio is one of the most used and developer friendliest engines on the planet. Ok, most people will come now and blame it, but we know the pros and cons and we debated long enough about it. So, if GS fulfills your needs, use it. When you started your project with it, finish it. It would be a horrible case when you switch the engine. YOu dont just have to port it, but you have to learn it. Learning curves and so on. If you have skilled people again in your team which know the other tehcnology - good. But also suboptimal.

I see no reasons why gamestudio isnt good enough to be used in a professional product. There are hundredthouasands of sold copies of games which are developed with 3D Gamestudio. So I think its reasonable - I say that also because I'm involved in such a project so my arguing is purposed by that fact. Nevertheless - it doesnt count for your (theoretically ) decision.

serious greetings
Christian

In addition, There has been a number of professional products released that used GS.

I think with good ideas and a little talent, the sky is the limit.

The biggest problem with released titles is the amount of time it usually takes to finish a product. Sadly, theres a lot of dreams, but a lot of people dont want to work hard to realize them

GS is a great application, and I think its perfect for independent developers!

Jason

i guess if you consider a6 capable to do what you want or need it to do, than its no question that 3dgs can do a lot.

atm. i am a bit unsatisfied, because i have a huge environment and at a sudden it is clipped away for no obvious reason. these are the moments when i think that a6 isnot the tool of choice because now i cant use a big model and well, its a bug and will be wiped out:)

considering you have a bunch of knowledge about 3dgs is another point to think about as a "yes"

If you already know how to use A6, then it's the way to go.
Otherwise you need to get used to the workflow anyway, so you can choose the msot powerful, easiest, fastest whatever engine.

One thing which impresses me is the fact that you can get and do some things in GS with only one or two lines - whereas you have to do MUCH more in other engines. This comes from the enriched toolset and commands GS offers as well (from a programmers POV) and you can easily add your own routines, etc by scripting and DLL.

"Also many people who buy these games aren't serious gamers with up to date PCs."

I realy have to beg to differ about this line.

There are more crap games being produced now then games that ran on them none up to date machines.

Building a game on a machine platform with limitations forces the developer to consintrate on the elements that will make the game FUN to play and keep the players focus and attention, not eye and ear candy of 'modern games' that seem to so often forget anything about the words, enjoyment or fun associated to a game.

One game I'm replaying now is almost 10 years old and it still plays better than many titles I've tried that are recent releases.




( Battle in the Hoth asteroid belt in Shadows of the Empire 1997 )