I love video games, many (including my relatives and significant other ) would consider it an obsession. The vicarious experience felt when exploring an exotic world through the eyes of another persona is as indescribable as it is satisfying and I aspire to recreate that same feeling in others.
In this generation it is now more accessible than ever to dive into the world of Game Development through handy software development tools (Game Engines). While there are a plethora of game development applications out there, we’re going to focus on two of my favorites; GameMaker Studio 2 and Unity.
GameMaker Studio 2 is a cross-platform game engine developed by YoYo Games. Originally, GameMaker was designed to allow users develop games without programming knowledge; recent versions of this software include features to appeal to advance developers.
GameMaker comes with a variety of tools in the box. Equipped with an interactive user interface and many new features including: Real-Time Animation Editing and cross-platform development which seamlessly exports to Windows OS, Mac, Most Current Gen-Consoles and even Ubuntu.
In addition to the helpful features. GameMaker Studio 2 includes a new innovative workflow which combines from Drag and Drop functionality with actual scripting.
One drawback of GameMaker Studio 2 is the proprietary GameMaker Langauge (GML). There is very hard ceiling on how graphics intensive your program is allowed to be when compared to lower level languages like C#.
GameMaker Studio 2 has both free and paid options.
Unity is a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies. This engine can be used to create both three-dimensional and two-dimensional games. Unity is marketed to programmers of all levels; emphasizing accessibility while boasting advanced development features.
Like GameMaker, Unity comes with a lot of functionality. What sets Unity apart is that you have much more control under the hood.
Within 2D games, Unity allows importation of sprites and an advanced 2D world renderer. For 3D games, Unity has all sorts of neat stuff; specification of texture compression, and resolution settings for each platform that the game engine supports, and provides support for bump mapping, reflection mapping, parallax mapping, screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO), dynamic shadows using shadow maps, render-to-texture and full-screen post-processing effects.
Unity allows utilization of three different programming languages of your choice All development is done using your choice of C#, Boo (the proprietary language of Unity), or a dialect of JavaScript called UnityScript.
Unity has a higher barrier of entry due to the vast amount of control you have over your project.
Breakdown
GameMaker Studio 2
- Low barrier to entry
- Streamlines the development process
- Many features which appeal to both novice and advance developers
- Supports multiple platforms
- There are limits to graphical performance
Unity
- Powerful game engine, can contend with AAA developers
- Advanced 3D model rendering
- Supports three programming languages (C#, Boo, Unityscript)
- Supports multiple platforms
- Higher barrier to entry
If you are new to programming and game development. I would recommend starting out with GameMaker Studio 2 to get your feet wet with the process of game development before moving on to Unity.
o\0taku_overdose 