New game engine; Game Guru, chasing the claim it can make any game without coding

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
1

The prolific game engine software vendor known as The Game Creators is at it again, working on an all-purpose game engine that is claimed to allow artists to create anything without having any sort of programming knowledge whatsoever.
http://indiegamemag.com/game-guru-a-game-maker-that-makes-dreams-come-true/

Personally, I would take a wait and see approach to see if it actually lives up to expectations, as this company in general has a reputation for making software that doesn’t quite live up to the quality of its marketing videos, but maybe they actually managed to make a quality product this time that can entice users of established engines like Unity.

What do you think, will it live up to the hype or will it be a mediocre engine with a shiny presentation?

2

Personally I still prefer raw code/script to nodes noodles on the screen (and I am not even a programmer).

3

Eh, GDevelop already nailed it pretty well for 2D and some limited 3D. It will be interesting to see what this group can pull off.

4

I’m pretty sure the word “easy” means “not very flexible”. Maybe one day there will be an easy tool for everything human imagination is capable of, marvelously organized under a bigger tool that rules them all. But it is hardly that day in gaming or in 3d software in general. Just seeing that “drag and drop” things makes me wonder if it can really do crazy games that are not terrain-asset based.

5

For reference, this is from the same team that made Darkbasic/Darkbasic Pro and FPS Creator/FPS Creator X10

I’ve heard that both of those products, while not the best you can buy, have produced quite a following at their peak (but the X10 version of FPS Creator was widely panned by users and ultimately failed as a product). The original FPS Creator meanwhile is still being used to make games by a small group of indie fans.

They at least have a better reputation than Gekido Design Group, who have a reputation of building engines that launch with numerous issues and are then abandoned to make a new product.

6

a game is a collection of systems,

if you code these systems well, and they dont interfere with one another,
then they are modular, the more of these systems exist, the larger range of game one can make, using presets without coding.

however the minute you start doing non stock behaviors you need a scripting language.

Blender Logic nodes could reach a higher level, if they allowed properties as input fields in sensors,
and in actuators.

also adding the ability to handle game objects as properties, and lists would open a lot of possibilities.

Ray (sets target=hitObject)----------and---------Steering(target)
__________________________--------time = 60

if ray min 1 max 60----------and----------time-=1

if time = 0----------and-------------target = self
if time changed-----/

Ray --------and---------property position = Ray.hitPositon
MouseClick–/

Would be tricky, but very powerful.

if you see some one, chase them for 60 frames, if you don’t see them, stop

if you click, and ray is positive set the property position to ray hit point.

7

There seems to be a new game engine every week, and probably at least every month! :spin:

The idea of creating a game (aka a program) without programming seems to be one of the holy grails of game development, although it’s probably a stronger buzz word with the gaming market since they’re naturally more visually oriented. In the end, it’s all just marketing hype.

The way I imagine programming without programming, would be to create 3D objects that rely on certain principles (physics for example) just like language (symbols) rely on syntax. So building programs would be similar to how we build machines in reality. Easier to make, maybe, but more efficient, idk.

8

Meh, there’s nothing really groundbreaking or new about “noodle-coding” anymore. The level editor seems average as well and (for now) it seems to not be very optimized.

However for $20 I might just get it if they are promising free upgrades from the roadmap.

9

I don’t buy into the whole idea of writing a game without programming. That’s like a modeling software that doesn’t actually model! just hook up a cube node and a sphere node and some suzanne nodes… :smiley: that sounds ridiculous

It’s fine if it’s just an alternative like unreal engine’s blueprint nodes, though.

10

To be honest project spark did just that, in my opinion game development is better with coding, and can only be done well with coding.

11

Man that’s an ugly looking engine. And I’m not only referring to the graphic capability, that UI looks pretty bad (I’m sure it works fine, but just the looks make me cringe a little). - It really doesn’t honestly seem all that impressive to me. You can probably get a basic game running with very little coding done in UE4 as well. Plus UE4 looks fantastic.

The thing is, I could see it maybe for a quick prototype or something. It comes with a bunch of free models that are already animated as well as some sort of character creation built into it. However, this does seem like it’s mostly for a younger audience or for people who just want to goof around a bit. Especially with the ability to share maps on workshop built into it.

When push comes to shove, I highly doubt that the engine is going to take the gaming world by storm. However, it will probably get more people interested in game dev and hopefully they move on to other engines such as Unity or something. Either that or it will be terrible and cause people to never bother with getting into actual game development.

12

The thing about nodes, they are equivalent to a operator

Object node = a game object

Object Node -------Force node
property node------/
(move a object with force)

object1 = scene.objects[‘Object’]
object1.applyForce((own[‘Variable’],0,0),1)

they are equivalent, just different.

Blenders own logic nodes, if corrected, could do just about anything…

13

I mean there has always been packages that let you “make” “games” without any coding or skills. (does anyone remember Klik & Play?) You’ll never make a cutting-edge game without skills, because the people with the best skills will always be ahead of those that don’t have skills, including coding skills.

It could be that some node-based package becomes robust enough to handle say 95% of what a typical game requires. But the 5% will still require you to know more than that, and that’s what sets the best apart from the rest.

14

ouptu1, output2,output3 = Function(argument 1,argument 2,argument 3)

Node - 3 hooks in-function- 3 hooks out

there is no difference.

15

I think that’s quite true, but anything that dumbs down a more complex process so that “anyone can do it” will inevitably leave things out that only experts can do. And by definition, experts will always do most of the best work, that is why we call them experts. Not that a different type of coding can’t be as powerful, but when you remove the need for knowledge and skill to complete a task, that doesn’t disadvantage those with knowledge and skills.

16

yeah , it does not make it easier to understand coding itself.

I love python, and I like nodes.

I think nodes are very nice for visual learners to understand programing flow,

I wish there was a hybrid aproach.

like a flow diagram that ran code.

then the individual pieces of the diagram can be copied
and pasted.

17

all the games made in it look like generic first person shooters. :slight_smile: - not very creative/flexible

They seem to be only games made on windows for windows - not very portable.

The engine will only be sold on steam?