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Author Topic: What is the best Game Maker and/or Engine for a 2d overhead Zelda game?  (Read 10646 times)

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What is the best Game Maker and/or Engine for a ...
« on: June 05, 2013, 02:16:34 pm »
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Hi I'm new to the forums, I've recently taken up the task of creating a 2d Zelda fangame.  After seeing some of the projects that are being showcased on the site I couldn't resist!  I'm just now starting and would like some advice and help finding the most Zelda friendly Game Maker and/or Engine.

The graphic style of the fangame will be identical to the 2d Overhead View that was used in the SNES classic Zelda: LTTP, except for the fact that I'll be using custom graphics to replace and update all the original sprites. I have done some research and came across Game Maker Studio and Construct 2. As well as the Zelda Engine Project for RPG Maker XP and the Zelda Classic Game Engine. Is there anything better out there I should look at?

I would like to add new features to the original framework, things such as new animations, new items/weapons, Character Events with expressive sprites.  Through the course of creating this fangame I would hope to learn a way to implement small mini-game(s) of sorts if possible, but it is not a requirement.

Thanks for any help and I promise I'll bring a good story for the entire community!
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Re: What is the best Game Maker and/or Engine fo...
« Reply #1 on: June 05, 2013, 04:39:08 pm »
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Well I guess it depends on your skill and what your willing to do to make such a game.

For instance I am making TLOZ: Chaos Rising in gamemaker 8.1 ( more or less a old version of game maker studio ) Using that means building the project from scratch, making everything yourself, thought there are examples that can be used to help you on your way.
Using something like Game Maker gives you the freedom to make new / extra items, everything you can think off ( if you manage to code/script it ), but it also is a huge amount of work. Some of the projects here are 6 years or older and not even near completion.

But if you use something like the Zelda Engine for RPG Maker then you already have a pre-programmed part of your engine, making it harder to implement extra original featers ( and giving some different game-play feeling ) but it makes it easier to actually finish the project.

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Re: What is the best Game Maker and/or Engine fo...
« Reply #2 on: June 05, 2013, 04:52:45 pm »
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Hey, welcome to ZFGC!  You definitely came to the right place!  Over the years, our members have developed quite a bit of engines for the use of the community.  You'll probably find it beneficial to look into some of these engines, see what they do, and try to adapt them to your game.
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i love big weenies and i cannot lie
Re: What is the best Game Maker and/or Engine fo...
« Reply #3 on: June 05, 2013, 09:50:11 pm »
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I recommend skynet if you're looking for some intimidating engines.
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Re: What is the best Game Maker and/or Engine fo...
« Reply #4 on: June 05, 2013, 10:39:20 pm »
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Thanks for the help.  As far as my skills go, I have good experience with RPG Maker XP,  pixel art, story-telling, very advanced with music composure, and while I have never attempted to create my own script in any game maker, I'm more than willing to learn any programming language in order to successfully integrate my fan game's custom graphic menus/huds/sprites/animations along with any new weapon/item/enemy attributes needed.

 Learning the art of programming these features with scripts is my current objective, thus why I am here pondering which game maker/engine to settle upon.  So far it seems to be between Game Maker and Project Zelda Engine but like MG-Zero mentioned there's quite a bit out there waiting to be discovered.  I'll do a thread and google search, maybe get those engines all on a wiki in the future.  But first I'm checking out Chaos Rising  XD
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Re: What is the best Game Maker and/or Engine fo...
« Reply #5 on: June 06, 2013, 02:54:53 am »
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My honest suggestion is to not use any established engine.  You would be better off in the long run to learn a real programming language.
Some suggestions: C++, C#, Python, HTML5 and Javascript.

Once you start getting grasps on the language of your choice, then you should look into APIs and make your own engine.
C++ has many options:
OpenGL
DirectX
SDL
SFML
Allegro
and many more

C# has similar APIs:
DirectX - using .NET
MonoGAME
Most any API built on .NET

Python is more scripting than compiled but has great options for beginners:
Integrates into Blender if you want to jump into 3D
PySFML
PyGame
OpenGL

HTML 5 and Javascript is great:
You can run the game across almost any modern platform as long as they run a current web browser, including mobile devices.  The entire platform is dependent more on the browser than the OS so it is extremely cross-platform and relatively easy to learn.

I don't have my list on hand but there are many free APIs to use with Javascript to make life easier such as:
Modernizer
Three
I know those off the top of my head.  There are many others to look into.  You can jump right into HTML 5 from the w3schools website which is a great free resource for learning many web languages.

Any way, my advice is to steer clear of engines and rapid application development programs.  It is much better to learn the "hard" stuff first then use the engines later.
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Re: What is the best Game Maker and/or Engine fo...
« Reply #6 on: June 06, 2013, 05:03:00 am »
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thanks man I'll remember that. So HTML and Javascript offer the most broad options in terms of cross-platforming which is definetely a plus. I'll really dig into this stuff to make a quality game.  I'll buy books, dvds, whatever it takes to truly learn this stuff.   Are API's generally open-sourced?  I'm not familiar with the term so I'll do some research.

I'd like to know how others feel about the programming languages that Theforeshadower mentioned.  I really want to make one quality game in my life and I'm ready to learn the ropes to do so.  A 2d customized Zelda LTTP like game seems like the funnest, easiest, and most appealing way to accomplish this.  Any other tips would be awesome!



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Starforsaken101

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Re: What is the best Game Maker and/or Engine fo...
« Reply #7 on: June 06, 2013, 11:44:57 am »
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I'll ++ what TFS mentioned about programming; he generally knows what he's doing and from a programmer's point of view, he's correct. A lot of jobs in the industry focus on C++ or C#. If you're looking to branch out into 3D eventually, Unity just released a free version. I believe it's free until you require making builds for stuff. Actionscript 3 is a decent language for mobile/flash games if you ever branch out there (I'm a mobile programmer currently and this is what we use).

I would strongly suggest starting with Java to get the programming mindset in. C/C++ are a little more tough when starting out due to pointers and all the fun things that make C what it is. I wouldn't suggest Java to actually code up a game, but it's a good start for learning how to program.
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Re: What is the best Game Maker and/or Engine fo...
« Reply #8 on: June 18, 2013, 12:55:50 pm »
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Can someone say me because no one recommends Java? D:
I also made some good experiences with (Lwjgl), Slick.

Java should be slow I heard, but is Java really that bad?
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Starforsaken101

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Re: What is the best Game Maker and/or Engine fo...
« Reply #9 on: June 18, 2013, 01:23:05 pm »
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Quote from: Rayo on June 18, 2013, 12:55:50 pm
Can someone say me because no one recommends Java? D:
I also made some good experiences with (Lwjgl), Slick.

Java should be slow I heard, but is Java really that bad?

Java really isn't that bad (and here's where we cue in the nerd rage from others), but it's just generally frowned upon for game development due to its performance issues. If you truly do want to continue using Java, you can code your games in ActionScript 3 which is Java-based. Equally, C# is like a hybrid of C++ and Java and is used frequently in game development.
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Re: What is the best Game Maker and/or Engine fo...
« Reply #10 on: June 18, 2013, 01:23:36 pm »
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Quote from: Rayo on June 18, 2013, 12:55:50 pm
Can someone say me because no one recommends Java? D:
I also made some good experiences with (Lwjgl), Slick.

Java should be slow I heard, but is Java really that bad?

Java is actually not as slow as many state. Of course, you have levels of abstraction, and there is automated garbage collection, but these can be pushed into positives rather than negatives. If someone is telling you Java is 'too slow' then they 1.) Don't know how to tune the JVM and 2.) Are probably so low level that they'll only be able to talk about pointers.
Java is used in enterprise software for many high performance utilities, and is chosen because on a server it can be very effective and development is rapid with the numerous amounts of tools and support from other companies.

Of course though there are downsides. Some companies don't keep their tools up to date, and the employees are then forced to use outdated software to develop in. Is that Java's fault? Not as much though as the employer (hints to an anecdote deep inside my career)
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Re: What is the best Game Maker and/or Engine fo...
« Reply #11 on: June 18, 2013, 03:03:42 pm »
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Quote
2.) Are probably so low level that they'll only be able to talk about pointers.

I feel like this is targeted at me  :)

On the subject of tuning the JVM, this is something the end-user would have to do as well, right?
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i love big weenies and i cannot lie
Re: What is the best Game Maker and/or Engine fo...
« Reply #12 on: June 18, 2013, 03:35:05 pm »
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Quote from: MG-Zero on June 18, 2013, 03:03:42 pm
Quote
2.) Are probably so low level that they'll only be able to talk about pointers.

I feel like this is targeted at me  :)

On the subject of tuning the JVM, this is something the end-user would have to do as well, right?

You may be included in that group!

Unfortunately sometimes the user ends up having to tune the JVM (see minecraft as a perfect example), but good developers usually provide the JVM tuning parameters by default in their program bootstrap script (basically which runs their program using certain parameters in the JVM). Thankfully for my case at work, we run Java on a server, so we manage that and obviously the end user does not.
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Re: What is the best Game Maker and/or Engine fo...
« Reply #13 on: June 18, 2013, 11:12:20 pm »
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Yea, I was gonna say, never trust the user haha!  At one of my previous jobs, the post office provided us with a program that we used to preprocess packages.  It was written in Java, and everytime we had to use it we had to tune the memory allocation and such a bit differently.
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i love big weenies and i cannot lie
Re: What is the best Game Maker and/or Engine fo...
« Reply #14 on: June 22, 2013, 01:05:43 am »
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Thanks for all the help.  I've been doing a lot of browsing and reading up on this stuff.

This may sound wild but are their any options whatsoever to transfer a game that was made in an engine programmed in C++ / C# that would be playable on say an IPad OS? 

Even though my game will be 2d, I don't want any kind of lag at all from using a Java-based engine, just in case.
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Kienamaru

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Re: What is the best Game Maker and/or Engine fo...
« Reply #15 on: July 03, 2013, 04:27:35 pm »
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Don't mind me, I'm just subscribing to this thread so I can see which of these languages best suits Shadow of Liimina. Also, Gypsy. You mentioned you were excellent at story telling? Would you mind messaging me about that?
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