For games with a focus on dialogue, story, and exploration, there are many options available for the game engine. As this is a small production it is best to use one of several well-known and widely-supported engines and editor suites, such as GameMaker, RPGMaker, Unity, Unreal Engine, or Godot.
Focusing on the dialogue and visual novel styling, RPGMaker provides an easy way to create retro-styled 2D JRPG-format games including menu-based interaction, combat, and inventory management. This would be useful for prototyping the narrative flow and some simple mechanics in our game, but it would not be a suitable platform for the immersive 3D experience we hope to create.
GameMaker is more flexible but is similarly intended mostly for 2D production and uses an easy-to-learn workflow ideal for small independent game production. While a number of notable games in both 2D and 3D have come from this engine, it has a proprietary scripting language and the 3D aspects can be difficult to work with as it lacks a 3D scene viewer.
Godot is an open-source engine with a similarly intuitive workflow to GameMaker and as such is great for teams without a strong programming side. This is a decent engine to work with as it is very capable of handling 3D game development and works with a range of programming languages, but may struggle when producing large-scale open-world games.
Unity is a highly versatile engine for 2D and 3D work and is among the most common choices in the indie scene. It requires some programming knowledge and various external tools to make effective use of its workflow, but it is a powerful engine suitable for game developers of any size and experience; additionally, the team is already familiar with this engine’s application for 3D game development.
Unreal Engine is optimised for 3D game production and tailored toward larger and graphically intense game production, finding use in a fair number of mainstream and independent games over the last 21 years. It offers a more comprehensive suite of development tools than Unity and boasts outstanding production quality on multiple platforms; a drawback is that the engine may be too powerful or intensive for a small team to work with, and given the limited timeframe this makes it a less appealing option.
For our game, we have decided Unity is the most appropriate option for a game engine. Our reasoning is that the team is already familiar with the editor and workflow and its capabilities are in line with our aims without having extraneous features or technical restrictions.
Focusing on the dialogue and visual novel styling, RPGMaker provides an easy way to create retro-styled 2D JRPG-format games including menu-based interaction, combat, and inventory management. This would be useful for prototyping the narrative flow and some simple mechanics in our game, but it would not be a suitable platform for the immersive 3D experience we hope to create.
GameMaker is more flexible but is similarly intended mostly for 2D production and uses an easy-to-learn workflow ideal for small independent game production. While a number of notable games in both 2D and 3D have come from this engine, it has a proprietary scripting language and the 3D aspects can be difficult to work with as it lacks a 3D scene viewer.
Godot is an open-source engine with a similarly intuitive workflow to GameMaker and as such is great for teams without a strong programming side. This is a decent engine to work with as it is very capable of handling 3D game development and works with a range of programming languages, but may struggle when producing large-scale open-world games.
Unity is a highly versatile engine for 2D and 3D work and is among the most common choices in the indie scene. It requires some programming knowledge and various external tools to make effective use of its workflow, but it is a powerful engine suitable for game developers of any size and experience; additionally, the team is already familiar with this engine’s application for 3D game development.
Unreal Engine is optimised for 3D game production and tailored toward larger and graphically intense game production, finding use in a fair number of mainstream and independent games over the last 21 years. It offers a more comprehensive suite of development tools than Unity and boasts outstanding production quality on multiple platforms; a drawback is that the engine may be too powerful or intensive for a small team to work with, and given the limited timeframe this makes it a less appealing option.
For our game, we have decided Unity is the most appropriate option for a game engine. Our reasoning is that the team is already familiar with the editor and workflow and its capabilities are in line with our aims without having extraneous features or technical restrictions.
Other production tools for asset creation include:
- 3D modelling and animation software such as Blender. Blender is available for free and is supported by a large community and dedicated development team, with a vast array of addons and tutorials available. Other 3D modelling software such as 3DS Max, Maya, and Cinema 4D may offer more professional quality and specialised toolsets but cost as much as £1500 per year, making them unsuitable for a small independent development team.
- Substance Designer and Substance Painter, which while expensive can accelerate the production of high-quality materials and textures. These are packaged with a cost of around £200 to £300 for either annual subscription with updates or perpetual licence without; it is possible to work without this suite, but the benefits are worthwhile when realistic materials and high-quality shaders are desired.
- Image editors such as Photoshop, GIMP, Krita, or PaintTool SAI, which can be used for concept art, environmental art and texturing, model texturing, and interfaces. GIMP and Krita are free while PaintTool SAI is priced at 5500 JPY (about £37) and Photoshop is available as a subscription costing £240 per year.
- Vector editors such as Inkscape or Illustrator, which can be used to create clean scalable designs for interfaces and icons. Inkscape is available for free, while Illustrator is available as a subscription costing £240 per year.
- A Digital Audio Workstation such as FL Studio, which can be used to produce and sequence music tracks without requiring an actual soundtrack orchestra and recording studio. Depending on the feature set, a DAW is likely to cost between £200 and £1000; additional instruments may be freely available or might cost as much as £500 for a mid-range orchestral set.
- Audio editors such as Audacity, which can be used to process music tracks, sound effects, and voice clips using various filters. Audacity is available for free.
As the team member responsible for art and sound design, Xavier already has many of these asset creation tools available; as such, the initial setup cost for these will not require budgeting. The game engine and any other tools being used by other team members will need to be budgeted for, however.