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What is the best game engine/framework for a absolute beginner to learn? (lemmy.fmhy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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So ive tried to code many times on my own but i feel like im doing things the hard way and im still unsure what to pick becasue ive been jumping around here and there. like most gamers i would like to try to make a game or something but im just not sure if i can or not becasue it seems really hard to do and im not sur eif ill enjoy it or not also my pc is low end so im kinda limited to say.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Defitely Godot, especially having a low-end PC. The language, Gdscript is very python-esque, so the entry bar is low. Really, a couple of years ago I tried unity and that thing wouldn't load even if my life depended on it haha, Godot's load times were pretty much instantaneous.

And there are tons of resources to learning either through YouTube or their original documentation :)

I recommend you start with the oficial documentation "Introduction to Godot" and their "Your first 2D game" sections, If you wanna see quick results you may start with the latter.

Some extra resources:

GDquest YouTube channel, extensive Godot resources

Miziziziz, a quite successful Godot solo developer, he shares guides and tips in a short format

Make an action-RPG in Godot, one of the most complete follow-throughs I've seen for beginners, while building a Zelda-esque game.

How to make a top-down shooter in Godot, same as the latter, but instead you are building a Hotline Miami clone.

If you don't mind some self-promotion, you could also give a look to a couple of FOSS games I've built using the engine, I made them for short game-james so all of them are pretty simple, feel free to use them however may be best to you :)

https://github.com/croobat/ClickerMiner

https://github.com/croobat/Farm-Defense

https://github.com/croobat/lacking-light

And most importantly, don't get discouraged, there are lots of things you may not know but that is fine! It's part of the process. You got this chief.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Considering you have a low end pc i'd recommend trying godot. As someone who has been in the gamejam scenes for few years now I have seen it be used more and more. It is not the most powerful engine, especially compared to unity and unreal. It however is by far the easiest both on user experience and on computer resources. As a bonus it is fully free and open source, which is always nice. For the learning part I'd recommend just starting, being bad at something is the first step in being kinda good at something (this is a quote from somewhere, and i dont remember from where). Good luck!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

thank you i will defintly look into godot also are there any beginner video tutorials also which version do i pick?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

If you do end up going this way we have a nice little community forming over at [email protected] (direct link) fyi. I'm pretty new to the engine too and it's been a learning curve but ultimately anything you choose will be a learning curve.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I'd say take the latest stable one, which atm is 4.0.3. they released their major rewrite(version 4) a few months ago, but for now they still support version 3. Considering you are starting from scratch i'd say just go for 4. I have never used their tutorials myself (went about with only the public docs, and looking at other projects), but they have an entire page dedicated to it https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/community/tutorials.html. Feel free to take any one there.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'd suggest maybe stick with Godot 3 until 4.1 comes out. I just started playing with 4, and hit a bug where Godot will hard crash whenever you try to view the Terrains tab if you've created terrain sets, used them in your scene, then deleted the terrain sets.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Python might be good. Really just pick a popular language and stick with it. I liked C++ for a sound foundation but it is HARD for a beginner.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I will second this. I really enjoyed learning core game dev concepts using pygame and Ursina engine for small 3d projects.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'd suggest Löve, which uses Lua. It's a powerful language but equally easy to learn. You could also try Pico8, which is also a version of Lua. It's presented as if it's an old 8-bit microcomputer with a built in sprite and tile editor. I find Pico8 much more approachable for beginners. Python is another good starting point for low end hardware.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Maybe Godot?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

what languages/tools/engines have you tried in the past?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Python, love2d, unreal, unity but unity and unreal are too powerful for my pc and i barely tried godot, love2d, pyhton i just felt overwhelmed and such.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

How much programming experience do you have? You might want to start extra small with some games that are just played in the terminal, like tic tac toe, battleship, and hangman to practice good object oriented programming in a small project before you move on to Unity or Godot. You really need to understand object oriented programming well because Unity has some very complex classes, you are expected to understand inheritance, and so on.

When you do start with Godot or Unity start with a Mario clone, keep it really simple and finish the project.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Overwhelmed in what way? Too much to learn, not enough coding knowledge, or something else?

And what types of games are you trying to make? Certain genres are harder or easier for beginners.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

i feel like i have big ideas and im like yep thats good and then i try and give up, but i also get annoyed wheneve ri get a bug like a character cant stand untop of a platform or something like that, i tend to dream big and im not sure why.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

As a hobbyist developer that has been trying to make a game and giving up when I can't figure a thing out since checks notes 2001?! 😢... Listen to these people saying to limit your scope! It's difficult to find that sweet spot of simple but interesting enough to finish for me but it's so important to LIMIT YOUR SCOPE.

Take your big idea and start chopping pieces off in your head and keep cutting it down.

At the moment, I've been on and off on a top down shooter like Vampire Survivors, I have this grand idea where it's a space combat game where you move a giant fleet of capital ships that are driven by a flocking system. It's a cool idea but too complex. I need a simple thing first and then add onto it. I've removed ALL of my spaceships in the fleet down to one guy, all of my gun types beyond one, removed all of the enemy types beyond one, simplified the upgrade system to something that just makes number values go up (Like HP, Weapon Dam, Defense, etc) instead of complex bonuses. It's still hard, it's still boring at times and I'm currently in a trough of disillusionment about the whole thing so I haven't touched it in about a week. BUT this has had a better chance at completion than anything else I've done.

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