Best video game programming software?

So, what do you guys think?

I've ever only used RPG maker and yeah, it was quite fun and easy to use. However I wonder if something else might be more powerful.

so when it comes to this topic, it really depends on a few factors:

• Skill Level/Difficulty Curve/Ease of Use
  
• Flexibility
  
• Single-Focus or Multi-Focus?
  
• Cost of Software and/or License
  

These factors heavily influence what type of engine someone will use, or if they'll use an engine at all. Of course, you have the good ol' DIY option of starting from complete scratch with no engine and just a coding language and shell. However an engine really helps make things easier to learn and also speed up the process of things that would take far longer from doing everything yourself.

Personally, I've been trying to learn to use Godot because it's free, open-source, the main language is based on python, and it has options for 2D and 3D development. I'd say it's the best balance of flexibility, skill curve, multi-focus, and cost, from my experience at least. Unity is also an option but I heard some stuff a while back about them working with a bit of a suspicious company (one that worked on potentially malicious software I think?) so I personally avoid it. I also used to use Gamemaker Studio 2, until they switched to a software-as-a-service model. While it's easy to use as a beginner, it costs a lot (even back when you could purchase lifetime licenses, it was pretty steep for console release licenses), isn't very flexible (can only make 2D games last time I checked), and doesn't actually provide much for a beginner learning to code either. 

For single-focus engines, it's much more limited because they focus on only one type of game genre or style. RPG Maker would fall under this since it is primarily made for RPGs, same goes for Ren'py with visual novels. They're definitely the most beginner friendly for someone who just wants to make a fun idea they had or similar, but oftentimes aren't the most flexible. However, that doesn't mean they're bad, there's been some crazy good games to come out of these engines (such as OFF with RPG Maker). I have mixed feelings about RPG Maker since the newest releases are so expensive. Personally, with the cost, I feel it'd be better to make an RPG from a free engine and follow tutorials. However it's still a viable route for people starting off, or people who just want to make something fun in their free time!



Overall, for anyone trying to pick a game engine or a programming software or similar, think about your skill level, budget, and what you're trying to accomplish. Budget-wise one big consideration is that there will be more costs than just the engine, if you're willing to invest money into your game. For instance, if you're fully-indie and working on it yourself, you need to consider soundtrack (a good, flexible DAW to make music in can cost a hefty sum sometimes), art (what software are you using for your art? are you paying someone else to do it for you?), hardware (if you're making a console port, you might need to buy a specially made testing console from the company like with Nintendo), etc. If you're working on a small project or something for fun this might not always be a consideration. There's also plenty of free options for stuff too (art softwares like Krita, Blender, etc. and audio softwares such as LMMS, Audacity, etc.), so money shouldn't always be a discouraging factor!

@MumiMoondrops woah, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SUCH EXTENSIVE POST!!! this was super super informative!

i've heard good things about godot. actually, i think that's what others used in my game design class (unfortunately it was elective and i had only one year) while i did want to fool around with RPG maker which i got on sale.

i haven't made games in a while since i haven't had time, but i totally want to get back into it. especially pixel games; i love pixels.

you seem to know a lot. have you made any games? or do you just like to research this? :0

Totel wrote:

@MumiMoondrops woah, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SUCH EXTENSIVE POST!!! this was super super informative!

i've heard good things about godot. actually, i think that's what others used in my game design class (unfortunately it was elective and i had only one year) while i did want to fool around with RPG maker which i got on sale.

i haven't made games in a while since i haven't had time, but i totally want to get back into it. especially pixel games; i love pixels.

you seem to know a lot. have you made any games? or do you just like to research this? :0

I haven't made any complete games yet, but I have worked on several projects in my spare time! Video games are my special interest, and I have wanted to be a game developer since I was very young, so I've got lots of info on it. I do my best to research all I can on it because I personally find it very fun ^^

As stated before I don't have any finished public projects but in my computer science class before I graduated high school, I made a very rudimentary 2D Katamari clone for my final project. I also used to try to make fangames with Gamemaker Studio 2 as that was what Undertale was made with, but ended up not going that route. Right now, my main route is learning Godot with smaller little projects and then working on larger ones!

moondrops covered most of them! except for unreal engine but unreal is annoying.

My favorite engine is Twine just bc its really easy to use. It's for text-based games but you can toss an image in there lol. Also unity can be made easier to use with plugins like Fungus [i agree unity is kind of evil and being a weirdo lol]
Then for stupid tiny engines, theres ChoiceScript [for the choice of- games] and Inform 7 [meant for games where people type the answer and is annoying to work with but ive heard is more approachable for non-programmers]

I was taught how to use unity but I wasn't very fond of it. it has some versatility to it with the amount of addons and assets available (lots of very niche cases using it), but I found it difficult to organize a game project in and keep everything tidy and developer-friendly. I lost interest in it years ago moreso as certain features got dropped such as monodevelop support.

I'm leaning towards going forward with godot. its own scripting language is quite easy to understand and use, which is nice for me who's focused more on getting the most out of fairly simple code (and still has support for a bunch of other languages). it seems to have a smoother hybridization of 2D & 3D development environments too. 2D development in unity by comparisson felt a bit "hacky" to me.

I've dabbled with LOVE for lua before as well. I did not get deep into it but I found it quite simple and intuitive, and as lua is already quite a nice and easy language (especially if programming isn't your focus) it's worth checking out for 2D game development.