josef
whenever someone says "im writing my own game engine" im like wow that sounds really cool, i wonder what new ideas they're going to implement in their game engine, new ways of making games, new ways of playing games. etc. and then i look at the screenshots and what they've made looks like this
Feb 3 at 9:56amWeb
Show threadNafeon the BearFeb 3
@jk this and sometimes the XYZ achses have Y up and sometimes Z up :p
Show threadKristian SivonenFeb 3

@jk "I'll go my own way! I'm breaking free from Unity!"

*proceeds to fashion an effigy of Unity out of newspapers and human feces in a back alley*

Show threadKevinFeb 3
@jk bahaha too real! But I understand how it can go that way… the best quality article series focus on teaching techniques and it’s natural to get swept up, “okay now I gotta implement x”
Show threadPaul GrenfellFeb 3
@jk I am in this photo and I don't like it :/
Show threadPaul GrenfellFeb 3
@jk Oh.. btw.. here's my current toy project - a 2D game engine. Just need to add windows on the right and underneath the game window and I'm done :/
Show threadLRFeb 3
@jk it is an old dream of mine to make a game you can entirely change from within. the titular Dreams engine offers some great ideas for how that could work.
Show threadJosh SimmonsFeb 3
@lritter @jk sauerbraten was right!
Show threadDominik GrabiecFeb 3
@jk
I do wonder how much it is because of Unreal and Unity are popular and familiar interfaces and how much of it is because they're genuinely good interfaces.
@RYStorm might have some wise words to add to this
Show threadMKSchmidtFeb 3
@dominikg Good is relative ... I think innovation is good, but if you innovate too much, too fast, very few people are likely to even try it.
Show threadDominik GrabiecFeb 3
@MKSchmidt I do wonder that because in a lot of places that are making custom engines the answer to "how should this work?" is often "this way that Unreal does it".
This is coming from artists and other content creators which have gotten used to the way the big engines do it.
Show threadMKSchmidtFeb 4

@dominikg Once people are comfortable with a process, it becomes harder to convince them to try something new.

But maybe having a target audience of younger, more flexible developers would be another option.

Show threadRobin-Yann StormFeb 3
@dominikg @jk Thank you for thinking of me! Indeed I have talked about this before, at GIC in 2022: https://youtu.be/ALJ4sq9NZzY?si=0boktDYe93AI62Xo
There is no such thing as a sensible default in tools UX - Robin-Yann Storm

YouTube
Show threadratrogue @ Rat KingFeb 3
@jk To be fair, that's an editor, not necessarily the engine
Show threadLesley LaiFeb 3
@jk I think that's the "make games not engines" advice that comes from. IMO the spirit is not "just use existing engines," but rather "build actual games, and then maybe extract common code and tools as an engine"
Show threadMatt GoddenFeb 3
@jk Bro, do you even tear-off palette?
Show threadRamsey NasserFeb 3
@jk also "engine===gui" is taken as a given. I'm working on a thing that can be construed as an engine and it's a software library/framework that can consume things you make in guis like eg blender. other things are possible.
Show threadYukari Hafner Feb 3
@jk I wish I could say my own game engine (Trial) not looking anything like that was actually a good thing 🙃
Show threadwb x64Feb 3
@jk @shinmera I once wrote a "game engine" (the library/scaffolding side of a game) and emulated C#'s way of creating and managing buttons/textboxes/labels, but it had no GUI 
Show threadjosefFeb 3
@wilbr @shinmera i feel like the war between “make the thing” and “make the process of making the thing easier at the cost of never making the thing” is endless
Show threadTake It EV Podcast 🎙️Feb 3
@jk that looks like Godot ;p
Show threadAnimeAndVisialFeb 3
@jk I mean if it helps developers transition away from Unity then all is good
Show threadJPFeb 3
@jk i want more people making tools to have the confidence to deviate from that even slightly and feel secure in the knowledge that stepping off the path a bit doesn't automatically put them deep in Kai Krause territory
Show threadjosefFeb 3
@jplebreton i think a lot of design conservatism is due to fear, maybe in this case the fear of making something less capable or less broadly-applicable than existing systems. the kind of tools that really inspire me usually come from people who have a passion for specifics. not that i think everything should be hyper-opinionated though, but i would be nice to see more things like "normal development tool but with one weird change, and an interesting story about why"
Show threadSpindley Q FrogFeb 3
@jplebreton @jk ok, yes, but also I want to visit the universe where Kai Krause designed Unity, that sounds like it would _fuck_
Show threadJPFeb 3
@SpindleyQ @jk absolutely yeah we do also need a revolutionary vanguard