This Blog Series has two entries prior to this one
001 - The influence of board game mechanics
002 - A Prototype Board Game born from inspiration
Why use a PC and make a video game variant?
In the past blog I mentioned iteration. When it comes to making board game pieces, and changing the artwork, etc that can be costly and slow. I realized that if I prototyped the same game on a PC as a videogame that followed the rules I could iterate through the rules faster.
This does make sense and I recommend it as a possibility for other people making board games.
As I started doing this I was quickly hit by a different type of inspiration that would dramatically change my plans. I would also scrap (for now) the idea of making it a board game.
Enter the M.U.L.E. - Nostalgia leads to inspiration
If any of you that were fortunate enough to go through a phase of playing the old (1980s) EA game M.U.L.E. by Dan/Danielle Bunton and grasping its implications it likely holds a very nostalgic place for you. I know it did with me as I'd considered making variations on what it showed me in terms of ideas several times.
If you are not fortunate you can play FREE recreations of the game at planetmule.com
It is not exciting to look at, but it sure is fun to play (especially with friends).
What does this have to do with a hex space game?
My inspiration came when I thought about the ships that drop the colonists off, the pirate ships that occasionally raids the planet, and the ship that returns after a year. A simple question idea.
What do those ships do when they are not on the planet, where do they come from?
I realized this was the perfect setting for the game that I was still calling Starways at the time.
I quickly worked up some initial ideas using resources like those in the game M.U.L.E. and adding a few of my own.
I chose the UNITY game engine to prototype and later on just decided to keep using.
I have never considered myself a skilled artists in the visual sense of the word.
I told my family and friends over the years that "If people liked stick figure games, I'd be rich" but that ended up not being true because people DO like stick figure games and I didn't bother to make one. Games like Dwarf Fortress shattered this self-imposed delusion I had trapped myself behind for decades.
I dove into the game using Unity primitive 3D prefabs and slapping cones, cylinders, and torus (donut) shaped pieces together. I even made spherical planets and such. IT WAS NOT PRETTY.
That was my art back then. I got much better, and I had a friend and a family member join my cause.
That is a very old video I made that I obviously did not capture in a format that looks very good. That is the oldest example I can find in my records of this game.
It was still called Starways...
That would change when a friend told me that it was VERY close to Starwars. I said "yeah, I didn't think of that" and started trying to come up with a new name.
The project name was changed to Wormhole Ventures
Kickstarter was starting to do well, so we decided to do a kickstarter. We knew we needed to make it look considerably better than my prototype, and we were adamant about having a playable demo. So many kickstarters at the time were making fancy pre-rendered videos showing off games that didn't actually exist or have a single line of code written. They were doing fantastic on backers, but we were not going to do that!!
I will discuss the Kickstarter phase in the next Blog Entry.
Why Unity with all their costs? UE4 and Godot is good alternative.
UE4 was NOT free when I started. Plus it is a matter of use as to which costs more. 5% royalties is less if you don't make very many sales. I have three people on my team, and really only two of us heavily using Unity.
So If I bought two licenses that would set me back $3000 or a little more. 5% royalties from Unreal would cost me that IF I sold more than $60,000. If I use Unity and only make $60,000 I don't even have to buy a license so it is then $0.
I also had a lot of time invested in all the ins and outs of Unity. I like a lot that Unreal does but it would set me back quite a bit on relearning a lot of things.
I have a 3D RPG/RTS/Open World type project that I have tons of assets and stuff already purchased. Some of them I could make work with Unreal. We considered switching to Unreal for that. We realized we could get Unreal to do everything we wanted, but relearning all of the stuff we are planning would probably set us back 6 months or so. (It's a pretty complex project)
I may use Unreal for some projects in the future. I really like it. Yet the COST ASPECT and which costs the most is totally a matter of situation. Time is also a cost. I am not a USE UNITY fanboi. I am a person that uses the tools that work best for me in a given situation.
Did that help?
EDIT: Those images and videos in the post above are from early 2012.
EDIT 2: Up voted your reply. It IS a good question.
Clear point, ty. For new developers Unity look not really good. Money for base engine, money for plugins. All team need license and etc.
It again depends on how many people. It also costs NOTHING if the FREE version works for you. It does have virtually every feature. You don't have to buy a license unless you gross over $100,000 in a year. So if you are poor have no income Unity actually costs less. If you have a big team and need to buy a lot of licenses it could cost more. If your game does really well Unreal will cost more. So it is a decision based upon use case. If I make $10,000 Unreal will cost me $500. (unless they added a rule for >$100,000 gross too) If I make $100,000 Unreal will cost me $5000 which is more than if I had to buy licenses for all 3 people I work with in Unity. If I made $200,000 then unreal costs me $10,000 yet unity still only costs me those 3 licenses. So it really does depend upon factors. Like I said I like Unreal. I know things that it has that are better than Unity and have had me considering switching for some projects. Yet, switching mid-project with a lot of time invested is kind of a dumb move for us. I like Unreal, I like Unity. Which is better really depends upon the team size, expected sales, and type of project. They are tools. I don't get hung up on which brand of hammer I use. I use the one that works best for me in my position at a given time.
EDIT: And competition between the game engines is GREAT for you and I. They will keep getting better and better. Win Win!
EDIT 2: I wanted to add... a big win for me in Unreal is the open source side. If they had been free and had the 5% thing they have now years ago when I started poking around with Unity I likely would have chosen Unreal and never looked back. Unfortunately, I was using Unity for a couple of years before Unreal, Cryengine, etc started catching on to the fact they should go free.
I don't know M.U.L.E. game, but you seem to be very talented if you're willing to do your own game.Good luck!
Thank you. We shall see. I may like my game(s). Hopefully some other people will as well.