The only purpose I can think of this being useful for is to bring more people to the site and have quality standards a tad bit higher.
Here's how it starts, you get some of the master klickers to make about 6 engines, an RPG one, 3/4 view shooter, 2d fighting and so on, all with about 10-15 game-play elements in order to keep 'em from getting repetitive.
These engines will be fairly easy to modify and be well commented.
Then, instead of that "every game should be unique" BS, have the people of this site pick engines for themselves to make games out of. no storyline or uniqueness required, just plain old fun gameplay.
They will be finishable too, of course, since say... a 3/4 shooter it's only expected to have 5-7 levels and an RPG in only expected to have 3 towns and 9 explorable areas (all of this being dependent on how much time the people want to spend on the their game).
So what do you think? might just sorta work , or very terrible idea?
The list of engines gets updated and debated over with the best of the best.
Constantly having the new and best engines pushing the older ones into the grave could add excitement, more site interest, and the downloaders saying: "I hear this is the first game made with THAT new engine which has that cool new feature and that updated movement system".
What would people make other than games with those engines?
And, get real, every story here on the TDC has been done before.
This is a horrible "bs" idea. At least from my view point.
Sure it's great for those people who are lazy, and can't be bothered learning and working to achieve something.
I can just imagine lazy people using those engines and producing some horrible things.
If you really want to make a game, you'll work for it, and you'll feel awesome when you finally complete it.
It could also create a situation similar to that at the Mario Fan Games Galaxy. There someone named Hello made an engine and now all people do is use that for their Mario games as a level editor, not even bothering to change the graphics, which causes every game to be an expansion pack of another. You see one of those games and say "Ugh, another game made with the Hello engine."
I wasn't saying anything about the story, I only meant uniqueness. Games that don't take a pre-made engine or fit into a narrow field of what can be done with those engines are what would be made. And having one preset engine for each type just takes the hand-made and original feel out of a game. Everything would be the same, and quality would lower, not rise.
Jonbob's example is prime.
This is moot anyway since engines and examples and extensions and stuff are already available. Would this require that all games be made with these engines? No thanks.
No it wouldn't require that all games are made with these engines.
Look at some of the project pages on this, look pretty awesome right? and how many of them are ever going to be finished? None? I thought so!
And how many FULL 3/4 view rpg, shooters, and strategy games have been released in 2009? now, I'm too lazy to sift between the hundreds of good demos and crappy full games to find them. but I can tell you now : the number is probably below 2.
Those games that have awesome demos and never get finished? the engine is complete FIRST, then game itself fails because of lack of interest. so where does all that go hard work go? okay, maybe they use their skills to help a few people or post their engine on some site which is then forgotten, then that's IT.
If you have people doing the work that the coders don't have the patience for then maybe some games better that "use this block to avoid other blocks and get a high score" will finally appear on this site.
Your all probably right though, it just gets so FRUSTRATING seeing the lack of quality on the downloads page.
I guess there's really no need to "argue" over this, so I'll just say one thing. The downloads you're seeing and are being frustrated at are often beginners' games. Don't expect them to get better without practice.
It sounds more like you speak from lack of discipline rather than from wanting to help people make better games.
You don't get better at making games by having someone make it for you, you get better through diligent practice. I've been at it for 10+ years and have hundreds of shit.cca on my hard drive, and if you check my profile you'll see that I only have one completed game there. But others like to have input from the community on all their projects and upload every game they make. And in this community it's their right to do so. You come off as quite arrogant when you say "it just gets so FRUSTRATING seeing the lack of quality on the downloads page". If you feel the standards are so low, up them yourself. Almost everyone who submits "use this block to avoid other blocks and get a high score"-games are proud of their creations. And they are often verbal about it being a step in the learning process.
And finally, as OMC has already stated; there are loads of engines here already, and loads of articles on how to make different engines.
Originally Posted by OldManClayton I guess there's really no need to "argue" over this, so I'll just say one thing. The downloads you're seeing and are being frustrated at are often beginners' games. Don't expect them to get better without practice.
You make it sound as if everybody here is a beginner?
It seems to me that the beginners attempt short sub-par games and that is NOT a problem.
But most of the people who have been here to for years are smart enough to make those little games because they know they won't finish anything more complex. not because the engine is tough to develop, but because they don't have to time/patience to design all the levels that their idea requires, and they don't want to have to depend on somebody to do that for them in a team project.
So then the MFA or CAP gets chucked in an unfinished project folder and is never heard from again.
Most engines don't take too long to make. When they do, they're well beyond the scope of what a cookie cutter engine could cover. By your own admission, interest is often lost in the phase after the engine work is done. So what's the difference?
This wouldn't solve that. Even if it did, it would create a different problem. Improve quality of downloads? More like improve sameness in the downloads. People's games will probably be of a similar quality whether or not they have a premade engine. So they don't have to make an engine. They skip straight to making crappy graphics.
So, interesting thought, and a repository would be nice. But the direction and purpose of the idea are well off-track. The idea of everyone skipping the same work is exactly that--skipping the work.
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Edited by 0ko
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