[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Game development for non-game developers
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       Ask HN: Game development for non-game developers
        
       I started my software career as a kid, building side-scrollers and
       platformers for desktop and then graduating to iOS. Back then,
       there was no Unity or Cocos2d and open-source engines were hard to
       come by.  Since then, I've been doing professional software
       development (first backend and now full stack) but never revisited
       game development.  In the time that has passed, games have
       obviously evolved a LOT, in terms of game engine sophistication and
       availability, types of games ("game metagame"?), and expectations
       of games. It seems that more indie game studios have appeared and
       done well.  My question is two-fold:  1. What is the state of the
       art for indie game development right now? If I wanted to make a
       game, what should I do, and what libraries or frameworks are
       absolutely standard?  2. What are common problems in game
       development that are not common in other verticals of software
       development? I'm imagining things like camera angles or multiplayer
       networking.
        
       Author : abanayev
       Score  : 11 points
       Date   : 2021-06-05 19:55 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
       | zzo38computer wrote:
       | I think that it depend what game you will want to make. Often,
       | the older systems will work just as well (or sometimes maybe even
       | better); sometimes the newer ones do, and not always the same
       | one. Not all games will need camera angles, although if you are
       | doing 3D graphics then camera angles and lighting will probably
       | be important. Not all games use multiplayer either. Although it
       | is true that they are probably more common in game development.
       | Some game engines are specific for some kind of game, and other
       | are more general. Sometimes using a plain programming language is
       | good, and sometimes the use of a VM code is good.
       | 
       | For example, if you write a game for NES/Famicom, then it is
       | likely to run on many computers with many operating systems,
       | likely supports user-definable key bindings, volume controls,
       | possibly multiplayer by internet, you do not need to implement
       | any of these things by yourself since it is already there. And,
       | it will work on NES/Famicom, too. There is also less likely the
       | user will have to worry about malware. (One problem with this is
       | that the colours might be somewhat different in different
       | emulators. I had once proposed a format to include the file with
       | the RGB colours (which can safely be ignored, but if used might
       | result in better colours) with the game, but doing so doesn't
       | seem to be so common now.)
        
       | verdverm wrote:
       | I'd recommend Unity because it has good support for both 3d and
       | mobile. Many great tutorials are on YouTube
       | 
       | Difficult things are lighting and multiuser networking. Cameras
       | and input are not so hard anymore.
        
         | JoeyBananas wrote:
         | Godot Engine if you don't want to deal with a foul-smelling
         | EULA
        
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       (page generated 2021-06-05 23:02 UTC)