Note Studio looking for Game Engine(Updated)

[Note Studio]

Hey there,

We're Note Studio(Indie) and we're looking for
a game engine to develop game in. Note Studio
consists of 6 people.

We found that cplusplus.com is the best place to
ask. Below are the needs.

-3D

-C++ programming and C++ scripting

-Networking(16 player support)

-We don't want paying method as revenue.

-Doesn't matters whether open source or not.

Thank you.

Note Studio


FAQ

What game is Note Studio looking to develop?
We're developing FPS online game.

How much can Note Studio pay?
We can pay around US$3000.

Why do Note Studio want C++ programming and C++ scripting language?
We've been using C++ since primary school and we don't want to waste
all our knowledge.

Why don't Note Studio write there own game engine?
We don't want to waste all our time to write a game engine. We
might end up getting nowhere.

Why Note Studio don't want paying method as revenue?
CRYENGINE takes 20% of your profit, Steam takes 30% of your
profit and you need to pay 15% taxes and we ends up 35%.
At the end we all get only 5% so what's the use of taking so much
time in developing a game. I hope you understand us.

[NoXzema]

NOTE: I'm biased against software that isn't open-source.

I would just look into free alternatives to paid engines. Most of them have commercial backing anyways and contributions are generally made whenever a game is made for them to add whatever feature the game wants. You'll get community and developer support along with whatever documentation for free.

Such engines include Irlicht, Ogre3D, CrystalSpace, so on.

Notice most of these are mostly just renderers, specifcially Irrlicht and Ogre3D. You'll probably want OpenAL to go with it as sound. It's still a relatively low level abstraction so making a wrapper over it is often preferable. Commercial solutions such as Wwise are not bad but they aren't fit for Indie developers and lacks any advantage an open-source code repository can gain.

High-level networking done right is also very difficult. In my own projects, I usually just use ENet and Boost::ASIO directly with quite a bit of lack in design. Engines like Ogre3D and Irrlicht often have 3rd party addons to add a networking layer but they're not going to be as featured as say... RakNet.

Anyways, for renderers, there's various choices. For the other subsystems, there's generally only low-level solutions (OpenAL, ENet, Boost libraries (yes, I'm calling Boost low-level)).

[SaiF PUNK]

How about id tech 4?

It's a complete game engine and it's open source.
Blender Game Engine?

However i won't recommend Blender Game Engine.

Cons in Blender Game Engine

-Tris counts are way too low.

-1 light in a scene or else it's gonna lag out your game.

-Lack of tools for Game Engine(Blender is better for 3D modeling than Game).

-Bad Networking, you can hardly have 3 online player in a scene.

-Super Simple 3xAI/BOT still make your game lag.

Use id tech 4, gonna blow up your mind for sure!

- SaiF PUNK

[jasongog24]

maybe Unity 3d game engine could be helpful
https://unity3d.com/

[SaiF PUNK]

Didn't read carefully.
Blender Game Engine isn't C++ neither Unity is C++.

[N36fSL3A]

Well I believe you cannot use idtech 4 without releasing your project's source code.

Of course you could contact them and request it's use but I'm not sure how much you'll have to pay.

[Mats]

I think you should seriously consider the UDK. It will be $100 to release your game and then 25% interest on earnings above $10 000 dollars thereafter. This means you're taking 75% of the money of your game at this point (whatever engine you use, free or not, you're going to have to pay tax on earnings). It's a fully featured 3D engine written in C++, which is extendable easily in UnrealScript, which is very very similar to (and basd upon) C++. It seems to match any engine out there and is also ideal for creating FPS genre games.

[S G H]

The Source Engine "only" costs 10k $ for licensing (The only reason behind this is their physics engine, Havok).
Also you need to own a Source Engine game (The VALVe Complete Pack ranges from 35 to 90 euros here based on discounts, and Half Life 2 costs about 2 euros if you're lucky).

It uses C++, and officially uses MSVC++ 2010 at this time.

[Note Studio]

Seriously? I mean "WOW"
Source Engine cost 10k ONLY.

Thank you guys for the reply.
We'll be using Source Engine then.

Note Studio

[SaiF PUNK]

The Source Engine "only" costs 10k $ for licensing

He must be kidding. No one know the price of Source Engine, even
if they know, they're NOT allowed to tell the price.

It's all under NDA. Once you've signed NDA, everything need to be
kept secret.

The main reason for keeping it secret is because they don't give
everyone the license with the same price.

- SaiF PUNK

[BHX]

Yes, we all know everyone honors NDAs. Seriously, though, most professional engines are licensed for several thousand dollars so $10k isn't unbelievable. As for NDAs, it may be so they can change the price per purchaser or it could be that they don't want competition to steal the sales out from under them by offering engines cheaper than them.

[S G H]

I cannot really find the source anyways (I believe it used to be this now 404 page: http://source.valvesoftware.com/licensing.php ).
You may want to ask about the price direcly on their website: http://www.valvesoftware.com/contact/

Also, you can begin programming BEFORE getting a license, as long as you own a Source Engine game.

The Source SDK 2013 is on Github: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/source-sdk-2013
From Steam's Tools page you can also download the prebuilt stock HL2 binaries for your system (Source SDK Base 2013 Multiplayer, Source SDK Base 2013 Singleplayer and Source SDK Base 2013 Dedicated Server).

Just remember, your "game" will be considered as a MOD.
If you get a commercial license you should be able to sell it as a standalone game anyways (See: Garry's Mod).

A basical list of things to do is this:

1. Download the Source SDK 2013
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Source_SDK_2013
2. Download the Source SDK Base 2013 MP/SP
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/83943521/Screens/f/cplpl/srcsdkbase.png
3. Create a Mod (Gamemode):
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/83943521/Screens/f/cplpl/sdkroute.png

Duplicate the hl2mp folder, renaming it in your short-name for the mod
Enter the folder and open gameinfo.txt
Replace "hl2mp/" with "yourmodname/"
Change the name and title to your liking
Save and close
Go in the Source SDK Base folder, enter the bin directory
Open hammer.exe:
  Hammer.exe is the official map editor for the Source Engine.
You will be asked a configuration: Choose hl2mp.
Open Tools->Options.
Near Configuration, choose Edit.
Make a new Gamemode configuration for your game.
Close the Edit Game Configurations window.
Under Game Data files:
Remove all the elements from the list, and add base.fgd and hl2mp.fgd
Based on how many files are in the list (and their content) you will have different entities to use in the Hammer Editor, but you must make sure the entities are in your game project, or errors will occur.
Make sure Texture Format and Map Type are for Half-Life 2.
Choose your Default values.
I suggest a func_door_rotating for SolidEntity, 0.25 for Texture Scale and 16 or 8 for Lightmap scale.
PointEntity should be the respawn point (mine is info_player_start, but this should be for the singleplayer mode).

Point the Game Executable Directory to your Source SDK Base directory and Game Directory to the folder you made earlier.
The Hammer VMF Directory will be the default folder where your maps will be saved.

Now, choose the Build Program tab.
Choose your Configuration.
in Game Executable, choose the hl2.exe in the SourceSDK Base directory.
For the BSP Executable, find vbsp.exe in the bin directory.
VIS = vvis.exe
RAD = vrad.exe

Place compiled maps [...]:
Source SDK Base\your gamemode\maps

4. Make a test map
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/View_Navigation
5. Get your hands dirty
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/My_First_Mod
6. Test
To run your mod, place the compiled files (client.dll and server.dll) in:
SourceSDK Base\yourgamemode\bin
Then open the console at the SourceSDK Base directory, and run:
hl2.exe -game yourgamemode
(You are free to make a .bat file for that).

This is just the bare bones, I can't tell much more.

If you need more, you can search here:
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SDK_Docs