UDK or my own Costum GameEngine?

Lil Margin · Post by **Lil Margin** » Wed Feb 24, 2010 7:15 pm

Hey all,
I tried UDK and its good but if you are going for a commercial game...whats recommended...
i readed all the commercial, licence UDK documents and it seemed OK...
but personally tell me what YOU think on what to work with(UDK or your own made Game Engine)...Thanks in advanced.

DtD · Post by **DtD** » Wed Feb 24, 2010 8:08 pm

According to the current EULA, game makers can sell their games by paying Epic a lump-sum of $99 at the outset, and 25% of all revenue above $5000.

That is from Wikipedia about the UDK. I personally wouldn't be a fan of that.

I personally like using my own engine instead, that way you are more familiar with it, and no mucky legal stuff to deal with.

Mel · Post by **Mel** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 5:04 pm

Much people gets impressed by the Unreal Engine 3 screens, but much more people tend to ignore that most of that, is nothing more and nothing less than content showcase. Normal maps, particles, models, almost everything is done outside the engine, in fact, the UE3 only SHOWS them.

I am not claiming that there is no merit on what the UE3 has already achieved, which is impressive, but that the engine needs great models and content to make use of all its capabilities. And that is something you don't get just coding.

Ulf · Post by **Ulf** » Fri Feb 26, 2010 4:35 am

Mel wrote:that the engine needs great models and content to make use of all its capabilities

I watched some tutorials about it on youtube and I must say it looks incredibly powerful.
You can set up worlds and objects with materials, animations, effects and many things that you would normally need to do programmatically.

I wouldn't say you need great models and content to use it's capability. You could say the same thing for any engine or game.

It looks like quite a learning curve though, to be able to even know what it is capable of.

Virion · Post by **Virion** » Fri Feb 26, 2010 4:45 am

My friend tried UDK and after like an hour or so he uninstalled it.

Brainsaw · Post by **Brainsaw** » Fri Feb 26, 2010 6:54 am

Imho it always comes down to the quality of the models and other graphics, no matter which engine you choose.

freecell · Post by **freecell** » Sun Feb 28, 2010 6:53 pm

UDK was created by the group of professional programmers, IMHO you cant beat'em. And remember, models are uselles without the engine.

Dorth · Post by **Dorth** » Sun Feb 28, 2010 7:02 pm

But do remember UDK is mainly a FPS engine and while you can use it for other things, it will not be easy nor as efficient in those aspects.

sudi · Post by **sudi** » Sun Feb 28, 2010 7:41 pm

the tools provided make it a great gameengine.i guess when u get the hang of the tools its pretty easy to make someting amazing way faster than coding all of it. but yeah its a fps engine.

Halifax · Post by **Halifax** » Mon Mar 01, 2010 2:18 am

Really, you're going to need to make your decision based on what is more cost-effective (or in your case time-effective). You don't want to waste your time. Thus if learning how to use the Unreal Engine 3 and producing your game will take 3 months, while producing the same game with your own homemade tools will only take 2 months, then the choice is obvious.

Square Enix just recently spoke about the problems they experienced with the Unreal Engine 3 while making The Last Remnant. Overall, they said the team just wasn't ready to adopt such new technology in the given time and that in the future they would need to analyze on a case-by-case basis whether the UE3 would be appropriate.

Basically, the UE3 isn't the end-all-be-all engine that they make it out to be. Usually what I find is that programmers are scared to step to the UE3 because they don't know where they fit in. If that's the case, then the documentation on the UDK should help you immensely. I've just begun to start playing around with it.

Furthermore on the note about the 25% of all revenue after $5,000, why would that be a problem? You are getting a very good deal there; not to mention you can negotiate further with Epic Games once you have actually released something commercially.

Lil Margin · Post by **Lil Margin** » Mon Mar 01, 2010 3:52 am

where can i find the documentation, i readed some docs but it was no big help

it doesn't teach you what which tools are for,etc

Halifax · Post by **Halifax** » Mon Mar 01, 2010 4:25 am

You have a multitude of options: UDKProgramming, Getting Started, UnrealScript Reference, etc. All the documentation is written by Epic Games themselves, or approved by them. It's cross-referenced as well, so feel free to click through as much information as possible. It will take a good bit of time to fully learn how to use the Unreal Engine effectively just like it took you a good bit of time to work with whatever you are working with now. I recommend you get in a development team that is using the UDK, preferably people who know what they are doing and are looking for a junior programmer.

Ulf · Post by **Ulf** » Mon Mar 01, 2010 5:47 am

Furthermore on the note about the 25% of all revenue after $5,000, why would that be a problem? You are getting a very good deal there; not to mention you can negotiate further with Epic Games once you have actually released something commercially.

Exactly. What a joke, really.
They probably never distributed a complete game, or even finished one. Yet they are concerned with losing 25% of what they would otherwise not have!