Hello, I would like to introduce myself. I am Carter Gabriel, an independent (solo) game developer. I am currently working on a 2D pixel art game that looks closer to something like the original Nintendo (very, very basic) than anything fancy like some amazingly drawn Super Nintendo art.
I have been developing games using SDL / C++ and then later moved to a higher level framework SFML.net / C#.
I absolutely LOVE working in C#, and ever since I discovered the glories of a managed language- I have disowned my use of C++ for game development. I felt the need to create my own engine using SFML, and got quite far.
However, I find myself often working for hours, sometimes even days, on something basic that I feel only gets in the way of making games. “Oh, I guess I have to optimize my render loop more.”, “Well, to do that I’ll need to revamp the entire player class.”, “Wait, how does this GUI library work? There’s no documentation!”, “Oh… the creator says this is a bug in SFML and not my fault? I have to do a workaround… Ergh!” Amongst learning stuff I feel as though I should not have to learn, such as the algorithms and math involved in creating a color wheel, or coding a class just to flip an image in SDL. Absolute silliness! In fact, although I seem to have a working game engine in both frameworks, I find myself always coding or rewriting the engine. Rarely the game itself.
Then I heard that Unity3D now has 2D support.
To speak of my game, it is similar to something akin to the physics and text-events of Nintendo RPG’s, like Dragon Warrior or Final Fantasy. Four directional movement, NPC’s speaking in text, and entirely tile based.
So here are my questions:
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Are the 2D plugins obsolete now? B y this I ask, 'Are there any significant advantages to using something else besides Unity’s default 2D features?"
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Is there anything in the asset store that is worth it for Tile Based Games? I do not have a problem making a tile based system, as it’s pretty simple…but why reinvent the wheel if someone else has an asset for it?
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Is Unity3D’s GUI any good? I remember back when I was around for Unity 1.0 and 2.0, the GUI was blasted constantly as the worst feature about Unity3D. However, my standards are very, very low. I am used to something like TGUI and hard coding GUI positioning, which is not very good itself.
Anything that is better than the above in features (all features are in that picture), will please me greatly- as long as the art is easily changed to custom art. -
Is the transition from PC game (performance) to Mobile game, a difficult one? I am extremely skeptical that one can simply hit “Build - Mobile” and the game perform just as flawlessly as it did on the PC. Obviously, the interface would have to convert from PC input to Mobile touch, but excluding this obvious work- is it a hefty undertaking to take a game and port it to a different O/S, especially mobile? As I said, I do not believe it can be as simple as hitting a single button and changing the user input interface.
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To anything that has used SFML or SDL to make games (or begin to make games) - what are the greatest benefits, in your opinion, when you switched to Unity? Would you ever think of switching back for some reason or some type of game? Or are you so sold on Unity so much that the thought of going lower level doesn’t even occur to you?
I figured I would give Unity3D a shot to see what all the buzz is about, and why so many people praise it as something so amazing for Indies. Yet, so many Indies don’t use it, so I am skeptical.
Thank you for any answers you are capable of giving.
