Engine making don'ts, Preventing clones

• Don't include any graphichs nor sounds. If you do, use just cheap scribbles. The engine is not a game template.
• Don't name your engine after any existing game (e.g. "Mariofan45638967's Paper Mario engine" or "SINAPE Is New, Awesome Pokémon Engine"). That'd prevent associations to existing games, resulting in an engine open to new ideas.
• Don't try to replicate, clone, etc. an existing game.
• In some cases, you could include an EULA (End User Licence Agreement) with some limitations (but I personally don't recommend it).
• Include documentation on how things work, how to edit them, etc.
• Don't copy ideas from other engines.
• If you want to be really cool, make the engine for Klik products or for some "real" programming language like C++, Python, etc.

The list is open for your suggestions!

This post has been edited by Hohoo on Dec 31 2008, 11:33 AM

Great Idea! How bout including a EULA that gives limitations on use of the Engine?

Include as much commentary as possible in the scripts and codes.

Make the engine work in as many gameplay methods as possible, not nessecarily limited to SMB3, as an example.

Don't include ripped graphics because this makes it okay for people to just make level edits and call them games.

Hohoo already said that in Bullet 1.

make engines that are actually useful for learning things

I don't need graphics and all that **** I just want the raw details so I can learn from it and apply what I learn to my own programming skill

Don't copy other engines.

Use original ideas, no graphics, no sounds, just simple things.

Try to not add a lot of things, if not, the game would be "just make levels" and "change graphics".

probably I'll add more

i think this should be a do, otherwise, the engine you make will NEVER get used

More like it just won't be used by newbs who think an engine's graphics matter.

(I don't mean you when I speak of those "newbs"; I doubt you're necessarily implying that you think graphics matter in an engine anyway.)

Sensible folks will realize it's a learning tool that has nothing to do with graphics. And I would have thought every engine maker would want the users of their creations to be all sensible folks.


Also, sounds should never be put in a learning tool unless they're needed to show how to use or manipulate sound in it. Otherwise they're a waste of file space.

This.

DO NOT MAKE A MARIO ENGINE FOR GAME MAKER

This. There are not enough engines / learning tools for Klik products or "real" languages like C*, Python, etc.

this is likely going to be a reiteration of what others have said, but for the love of god: it's an ENGINE, not a game

engines are generally loaded with features that are screaming to be executed poorly, that's even if they're all used; unused features are probably never removed by the person using the engine, and will more than likely have been designed poorly enough to significantly affect performance even if they aren't used in the resulting game

in fact, a lot of the engines on the site (particularly GM ones) are more or less the same damn thing, with all the same features, enemies, and even similar HUD designs! i'm looking at the feature sets for HME and DES, and i'm getting this vibe that the only significant difference between them is the people who made them

i bet very few of them are even modular enough to be easy to modify, which is probably why very few people even bother

and of course, there is the problem with engines being used verbatim in games, which makes them feel cookie cutter; again this is mainly a GM issue, because klik engines usually require a good deal of effort just to integrate into a game... hell i think most of the MMF/TGF games on the site have their own engines programmed from scratch, because trying to use an existing one is more effort than it's worth

This post has been edited by Xgoff on Dec 28 2008, 08:05 PM

I was trying to make my engine unlike all of this, although right now I'm not. =(

But it will be different, soon.

I'll just make a PDF explaining how to make it and how to edit it, without including it.

if you wat to put in music, use midis that sound like ****

imo engines shouldn't even have music, because that's something that is generally played when the level/map starts and is pretty easy even for novices to figure out

similarly, sounds should only be used when necessary, and even then they should be oggs instead of wav, or at least wavs with a much smaller bitrate. mono, even. hell, i believe even sound recorder allows you save samples in mono with a lower bitrate

Well, you've seen that with Hello's, Ultramario's, Trisoft's and some other engines. The users are usually too lazy to change them.

This post has been edited by Hohoo on Dec 30 2008, 10:55 AM

if you give them appropriate graphics and sounds, you're basically giving them a game template, not an engine

Try to make an engine that shows how to do something...not run-of-the-mill. I like to think of the weather engine by Darkyoshi as an example. It may have been simple, but it helped me.