New Game Engine?

[EdLaFave]

I've used Alice as an introduction to game programming and its been a great learning tool but I feel I'm ready to take the next step and move to a more sophisticated game engine. Do you guys have any sugestions for a good FREE game engine?

I've looked at Panda 3D but really don't like the fact that they don't have a window allowing the user to manipulate the objects in the world. Instead everything is done through code and trial and error...its quite annoying considering you have to plays with 6 variables ranging from position to orientation.

I'm really looking for something similar to Alice....but something that allows me to write my own code and gives me a little more freedom than alice does. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[HUman]

Unless your willing to settle for some free substandard WIYWSG editor or something like FPS Creator(it costs 50 bucks), you might as well learn coding. The only good engines that are free and opensource in my opinion are Crystal Space and Irrilicht but they both are nothing like Alice and you need to learn C/C++ to use it. Unless you got lots of cash to buy some commercial engine, do yourself a favor and learn coding. Alice is the best you got (and it SUCKS!). It's a mean mean world out there and Alice seems very friendly. If you want more choices you should go to the engine list at DevMaster.

[HUman]

Translation for above:
Forget it and learn coding.

[EdLaFave]

Well thanks, kind of, for the suggestions for game engines. I know C, C++, Visual Basic, and Java already so settle down on the demands to learn coding. I'll take a look at the engines you suggested but the whole reason for my post was to try to find a stable engine allowing for object orriented coding and preferably a point and click design of the world rather than hardcoding placement/orientation. I'll check out the engines you suggested...btw alice doesn't suck, its entire purpose was to serve as an introduction to game design (and to allow younger kids to get involved) and I feel its done a great job. Alice wasn't meant to create the next HUGE hit in the video gaming world.

[HUman]

Okay then look around at DevMaster.com
They have a big engine list there.
A good chunk of the stuff is free but cannot be used for commercial use and if just learning is what you have in mind then you might want to try game factory(which costs money) or 3d State (free for learning but costs $900 for commercial license).

[HUman]

Ok, I should be a little less harsh and there isn't all just coding to gaming cause I'm forgetting all those artist types. I apologize for my initial craziness.

[ulrich200]

you can enable script editing in alice. but i would not be able to tell you how

[gwellman]

Check out this web site:

http://www.greenfoot.org/

[DrJim]

I think your first step should be (as with all software selection) is to decide what you want the "game engine" to do. Here are my opinions on three different free or relatively cheap options.

Irlicht Engine (http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/ )

This is a true "hard core" game engine that will allow you to move and control objects in 3D with great flexibility. It's heavily oriented to C++ and will test whether or not you really do know that language. Very little artistic control (i.e., model making, etc.) - this is largely a set of software packages to program game actions. It also has very complete documentation - worth looking at just for that.

MilkShape 3D (http://www.milkshape3d.com/ )

This costs a bit (around $35) but is probably the best "hobbyist level" game package around. Good model making, good movement control, great file conversion capabilities and an OK user interface.

Blender ( http://www.blender.org/ )

Blender is more usually though of for creating non-interactive videos - but it's game capabilities are really the purest "object oriented" set of tools around and, if you can find it, there is also a good text available. Lot's of disadvantages - and (IMO and many disagree) a very difficult user interface - but this is the only package that comes close to the capabilities of the commercial game engines.

If you don't care about 3D there are many options - probably a search of the web is the best option there. Be sure to look at how current the postings in the program's forum are - this software tends to have fairly short lifetimes and the field chages very rapidly.

If you are really looking into game development as a career, I'd suggest you take a course at a local community college or university and use whichever of the commercial Big 3 (Maya, 3D Max or LightWave) that they use. With student discounts, the cost of any of these still will be several hundred dollars - but you will be learning the type of tool you will actually be using if you do end up working in the industry.

[mikepol]

Get used to Panda 3D or learn coding

-Mike
Free Online Games (http://www.playedonline.com)