Why We Shouldn't do 3D

[SuperSonic]

Hmmmmmm. Do we really want GE to go 3d
I have to both support and contradict this Idea.

First, the reason I don't think GE should go 3d, is because 2d graphics is(how I put it) an art. If we take that art away then we won't have a great program(Such as GE) to make all those cool games that can be made with 2d(but not 3d)

Now, I also think that there should be some 3d capabilities in GE. I was thinking that there could be two versions of GE, one that is 2d, and one that is 3d. I know that this would probably be very hard work, but it would definitly be worth it.

SuperSonic

[Chai]

3D for....???

I can fully say that 2D game is still a very strong market.
2D.... is cheaper for developing
2D.... needs less man-Task.
2D.... can be greater than 3D game

So, it depends on each developer.. How well he can do.

Personally, 3D is nothing for me.
Especially, I believe that Most of our GE members are the individual developer.

[DST]

I agree with Chai. One-man teams are better at making casual games, where 3d is extremely labor intensive.

With this concept, you can build a space needle. This is a very tall building in Seattle that uses intelligent design to achieve height, rather than simply a lot of building materials. This is what you seek to create, as a casual game creator, in order to get a lot of success with minimal work. I say minimal work, not because you don't want to work, but because a good game, even a simple one, takes a lot of work. You must try to reduce the work as much as possible, so that in the time you have, you can create the best game possible. It's much like the concept of saving cpu; not because your game is slow now, but so that you can add more graphic effects later. Every redundant 'if' you can get rid of now saves space for better graphic effects later.

An intense 3d game, such as Final Fantasy or Halo, takes a team of 50-100 people a year to make. Thus, it will take a single person 50-100 years to make.

However, a game like Jewel Quest is a space needle: a single person could make that game in a few months. That's the target. That's what 2d can do.

[Turon]

I agree with Chai. One-man teams are better at making casual games, where 3d is extremely labor intensive.

With this concept, you can build a space needle. This is a very tall building in Seattle that uses intelligent design to achieve height, rather than simply a lot of building materials. This is what you seek to create, as a casual game creator, in order to get a lot of success with minimal work.

Now DST what is casual game creator??? I do not want to take programing out i would like to put more zdepth not make the software to easy! there will still be programing and it will still be hard not to easy!

[BlenderFreak]

If you want to do 3D gaming, GE wouldn't need just a "rewrite" or an edit done to its source code. completely new software would have to be developed. There would have to be a method of creating 3D models INSIDE the GE, painting them, designing them, rigging them, and animating them. Which is all MUCH easier to do in 2D!
I've worked with Blender 3D for a couple years and trust me, it's AMAZING stuff! But it took me FOREVER to get where I am, and I'd still consider myself a beginner. And yet with GE, it took me less than a week for me to start getting the hang of it (to a degree). Personally, I don't think GE should even try to develop on 3D. Leave that to the people who make games! Make your animations and your backdrops look great. Bee-Ant's Darkboy Agent Training Demo is a GREAT example of this. It's code and imaging. It takes a lot of talent, and for lack of a better word, it's a visual "trick".
2D games can be complex and incredible in their own way. Instead of taking all that time working on the most visually entertaining 3D models you can think of (in the 3D world, EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE VISUALLY APPEALING AND FILLED WITH DETAIL!!!), you can concentrate more on the quality of the game. Games like Rune Factory are actually 2D, but created at such an angle that they APPEAR 3D. They have amazing gameplay, but they aren't 3D.
If you want 3D, try Blender out. It takes forever to learn, but it's open source. http://www.blender.org
As for 3D in the GE? No, that would practically be a waste of time, in my opinion. Many tutorials would need to be made for using the 3D engine, and so many childish games for 3D would be released that it would be unbearable because once everyone finished with the modelling, sculpting, and animating, they'd feel so worn and tired of looking at the models that they'd hardly care for the quality of the game. Making decent 3D games requires a *lot* of experienced people. to make it work. GE should continue to develop in other ways, such as consoles it can export to, perhaps more common variables, and plenty of other ideas users have come up with. But not 3D - if you want 3D, be creative and do it yourself in GE by visually "tricking" those who play your game, or just go and learn Blender.

[SuperSonic]

Yeah I agree
If you want a 3d effect in GE, you should 'trick' your audience(kinda like a magician ) or you can learn blender.
But beware learning 3d graphics is hard. You have to be dedicated to learning everything.

One last thing.....Blender is AWSOME

Sonic

[BlenderFreak]

Precisely... it's extremely difficult. Though to me, making 2D Graphics look really good is almost just as hard! The time spent on developing GE should be used for other things, such as other export file types (.nds would be great), fixing bugs in the program, and listening to the ideas of the community! It's fantastic software as it is, and I think 3D would just open up an entire new area of problems to be fixed. Would be best to just leave 3D to other software and keep developing the 2D area of GE. Love this software, and this online community!

[247wkman]

sprite rotation and scaling is by far more important than 3d- remember in yoshis's island, fighting that bird on the moon- it was a circle your character could run round on and of course the gravity would have to pull you down, toward the centre of the circle awhile rotating the yoshi/enemy sprite as you ran round it- with the background rotating also- highly impressive 2d sprite phisics is better than wish washy 3d effects (especially like game makers)- lets leave that to blender and such- if g.e was forced in that direction it may look ugly- better to be the best something than the ok-ish eveythng for now.
Game editor has animation 'direction' controls- if you had 3d software and build all the scenes, you could run the camera through them and render the sequence out to be used as a backdrop sprite you would fill the view with- if you press up- you play the footage movin foward, press down it plays it backwards, like you're moving backwards/fowards. the frame positions determin if you can turn at a corridor, open a door but of course enemy sprite scale would also have to be animated as sequence so they would come at you but like a still billboard! this is how to approuch a doom type game- it would look great, cause its would be pre-rendered but of course would not be dynamic...

[Turon]

2Ds better 3Ds for Gaming companys

Edit
I mean I Have changed my mind about Game Editor and 3D I think I am now content with 2D!

[247wkman]

i found gm games to run pretty slow mostly. its best game is iji (which is awsome-but can still slow down)- and thats a 2d game! what i like in ge is a 2d game making softwhere that so far has never shown any slow downs in general. An effiently running 2d game is easily more an appealing project than a jerky 3d game!

3d features i want to see in game editer is: 3d z-depth- basically this means that you would have an option to use your sprites z-depth as a 3d co-ordinate, enabaling the sprites to scale down/receed in the background in 3d space, so effects like parrallax scrolling would happen naturally, with no need to simulate it. Couple this with sprite rotation and ge would be a flawless 2d game creator!

[rykein]

thatd be cool. might try that with the 1.5 preview. I dont think theyll implement that but it would be easy to make it in your own games which is the reason I dont think they will. still great idea.

[JimJamJom56]

The two games on the iPod app store that have always been at the top of the top 25 are 2D (Doodle Jump and Angry Birds!)
3D would need a lot of programming to make AND a lot more processing power to play a 3D game (might be laggy games!)

[jobro]

I've bought a license of GM to be able to do 3D if I want to, but I downloaded GE to get the possibility to release any game I create for a broader public. Linux, Mac, Windows, Smartphones. So let's focus on making 2D as good as ever can be done. Then once 2D is as good as it can be, then it's time to pick up 3D to bring that to the top of GE's agenda and make it as good as it can be. I'd say let's ask the Nexuiz team if they want to collab when the time is right.

[Game A Gogo]

So let's focus on making 2D as good as ever can be done.

Good idea, every time I work with GE, I feel I'm making some sort of 90's game because of how CPU demanding it is, even if you're on a top-notch computer (Speaking canvas wise here). Of course GE's compatibility to various platforms comes in play... like always...