I’ve been doing a bit of research into project spark, and I can’t figure out if project spark allows for custom scripts?
Also, If anyone has joined the project spark beta, what are some similarities and some differences? Which one would you consider better?
I understand that Unity is 100x more robust than project spark, in that project spark has a lot of boundaries (from what I’ve heard, anyways).
does it cost money? what are its graphics quality? and Whens the release date?
also considering it has boundaries maybe there arent custom scripts.
Project spark is free… Link to an image of graphics quality below… The release date is sometime in 2014. Specific date is yet to be released.
There is no actual coding.
That kills it for me. I need to be able to code. I also just read that you can’t import your own 3d assets… While the graphics already pretty good, It will get bland pretty fast if every character is the same in every game.
So, this just seems like a sophisticated version of Little Big Planet.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s a great idea that they had. But I need to be able to code. There are just some things that you can’t leave up to the engine.
Project Spark is awesome - it’s not meant for professionals - rather, for youngsters that want to get that first initiation into creating something themselves
…That’s all it was ever demoed as.
This.
It looks like a good toy that introduces algorithms to children audience. Like it’s been said before - without actual coding it’s not a serious engine, rather something to play around and show friends that “I’ve made a game”.
But it’s interesting anyway. 
I think there’s some confusion. Project Spark is not a “Game Engine” but a limited gaming creation world. I applaud what they are doing which may get more kids into wanting to make their own creations. Make no mistake it looks fun and gorgeous.
Later once kids ( adults) get the itch, they may decide to do their own thing without restrictions that a construct like Project Spark has and that’s where true Middleware comes to play like UDK, Unity, CE etc…
The bar that’s getting raised however is that if UT and other engine shops are not strategic in their development priorities certain artistic levels may be hard to raise later down the road. Or may be too late if the masses take off in another direction towards another standard. Project Spark is not the first or last here to attempt this. And It’s success will spark, pun intended, more copycat software with even more bells and whistles.
Project Sparks demo art is beautiful. And yes some Unity indie devs will be jealous right off the bat (me), wishing they had some in-the-box content like that. IE upgraded Tree, Terrain sculpting tools without buying 7 packages from the “Store”. Not knocking the AS, my point is that if left static the content / tools we get in the 1Gig download will eventually get dated.
There really is no technical reason why 2nd or 3rd generation project sparks cannot even add true coding, especially if compiling in the cloud etc comes into fruition for something like this… god help us all if M$ decides to tread where no one has before and take this towards a Mobile edition. Actually they’d be incredibly short sighted if they didn’t have that on a sticky note on a wall in a planning room.
2014 will be interesting.
I just created several small worlds in Spark and played through some high rated community projects. Holy Cow! This thing has potential. I am seriously impressed about the ease of use.
Above it was stated one cannot code. That is not really true. One can create complex behaviour trees (even called Kode) with “When this then Do that” statements. Also, there is a page concept similar to a scene which defines which actions are currently valid. You can switch between pages by… I would call it “coding” now. These trees contain all kinds of logic which is assembled in a huge library of pre-defined building blocks, very similar to Unity components. There are triggers, ray casts etc. You can for example define that when I press space my character should jump, but only if he still touches the terrain. If he gets close to a magical stone it should highlight and unlock a treasure if he successfully completes a mini game etc. You have a dialog system. There is an asset store with many free but also many costly items which is constantly growing. You have buildings to place, terrain to create. The paint tool for the terrain is super cool. The materials seem to contain several sub materials which has the effect that depending on the topology of the terrain different materials are chosen, so that by simply drawing the tops will be green while the walls will be stoney etc. Also trees will be placed randomly. There is a water system, lots of plants and details. Physics seems great as well. Characters come with many predefined motions and behaviours to chose from.
I played a complete tetris game, a long dungeon game with enemies to battle and side quests to do. Levers to push, inventory to fill, coins to collect. Boss battles. Seriously. I wish many of the concepts will reach Unity. Unity gives you control over so many things but one can get lost in the details. Spark takes away some of the control but packages many things into more higher level features which dramatically speeds up your workflow.
I strongly recommend to check out the beta, play with the examples and see how they are done. It will amaze you.