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Hi folks,

I am beginning a new semester at school and this time, i`m the only programmer on the project. Henceforth, it is up to me to decide what engine to use for our project.

A little bit about the project, it`s a top down 2D game with rpg elements ( details not yet decided yet ) and it should support ads and/or ingame store to buy new items online. It also has a lot of management options, but those are mostly menu views I suppose..

The most important platform is going to be Android ( both smarthphone and tablet ) but we should retain the possibility to deploy as well on iOs and perhaps even the browser. So my first guess was html5 canvas + javascript, however, the game itself should support the ingame store and/or ads, so that`s going to be tough using canvas.

I have no clue what to chose, i looked at a lot of resources, here`s the list:

mobilegameengines.com ( complete overview of all kinds of game engines )
madewithmarmalade.com ( peeked my interest)
andengine.com ( looks promising for java deployment)
Pretty straightforward choices; Unity, Cocos2D-x ( + marmalade )

However, licenses are quite expensive, so that`s probably not going to happen.

The environment is important as well, to me that is. I prefer high level languages like Java or C# over C or C++, however if there`s no other option, i`m OK with C++. Environments I prefer; Visual Studio (10 or 12) and for Mac xCode ( or Eclipse clones for java and the likes)

Like I said, it`s quite daunting at the moment and I have no clue what to choose. What`s the best option for me to choose?

Why will canvas make the in game ads difficult?

I assure you HTML5 can fullfill all of those needs

Excellent, in more then 1 way. First of, we just had contact with the clients and we explained that creating a fully deployed game in under 13 weeks is gonna be tough on more then 1 platform, so they (actually me) chose a browser game. Mostly since it`s easiest to develop quickly on and is still deployable on other platforms with wrappers for Android and iOS.

So, this limits the number of engines, what to choose?

My personal choice for HTML5 has been enchantjs for a few weeks now, although I just got my hands on impactjs and I am loving it, so my preference might change but for now its enchantjs still.

So in short,
Dont want to spend a dime: Enchantjs

Got $100 to spend: Impactjs

You mentioned this was a school project in your first post and now you mention it is for a client, has your school hooked you up with a client who wants a game? Because thats pretty cool
If this is not a paid project and just as a school project, you can get your hands on impactjs by joining the clay.io competition and getting a student license for the engine.

Actualiteit yes, all projects are managed, So to speak by our school, however the projects themselves are for clients. So we do work on actual client projects , pretty cool. Anyway thanks for the advice, ill start looking into impactjs!

Any other recommendations are welcome als well!

Xaleph wrote:Actualiteit yes, all projects are managed, So to speak by our school, however the projects themselves are for clients. So we do work on actual client projects , pretty cool. Anyway thanks for the advice, ill start looking into impactjs!

Any other recommendations are welcome als well!

Which school is this?

NHL Leeuwarden, it`s Dutch actually. By the way, the projects themselves are all relatively small, so to speak. Most students have very limited experience and skill to work on high level AAA titles ( truth be told, we only have 1 major studio in the Netherlands anyway) however, some students who show exceptional skill, do get a chance to work for these studios, some go to Germany to work with Crytek etc.

And another thing, our major ( communication & multimedia design, in short: CMD ) is kind of a weird school, I guess? We don`t have colleges, we don`t have exams, all we do is work on projects, we have to figure out most of the stuff we learn, ourselves, so there`s no way to really cheat either. Projects fail and well, that`s tough luck, it happens even when you try hard, but you can tell when someone`s slacking which, in return, will not grant you any points ( we need 30 each semester).

Wow I actually love that concept of learning!
I keep hearing stories about how universities teach outdated methods these days and curriculum has not caught up with the advances in computers yet, so a university where you learn everything as and when it is released is pretty sweet!
I also love the concept of projects for clients, it is giving real world experience which I'm sure will look impressive on a CV!
Dam that university sounds nice

I Love impact and recently learning melon. Both pretty good. To be honest all of the HTML5 engines talked about on here are pretty good.