I don't really know the details but it would seems the 2D engines would be significantly cheaper. For an engine with support, that decent and supports some essential middleware products it starts at 17-27-42 (Gamebyro), then it just goes way up in price, due to revenue pricing. I gotta agree with the price for a 3D engine with linux/mac support they seem quite high. Brian in an interview mentions he has something special in mind with the music in the game.
Apart from their art, sound will be the second most powerful tool they have for creating immersion, and so great sound software should be used. There might not be enough time to develop the complex A.I needed so the A.I software purchase is necessary. This art can be saved for future expansion packs. Brian is dedicating as much of the money as possible to art/content creation, but because the game art is in 2D, they will always have more art than they have time to implement. These setups are the only decent ones I could find. Engine cost with source is 15K, Total cost 27K
It supports the xaitment A.I suite, for which a 'Brain Pack' full license for one year will cost them $8000. I'm really hoping they get the Unity engine. ($8000) Studio licences for a small team start at $6000 So Total approx price of setup would be 17K+ I'll add a seperate A.I software licence price though. It supports FMOD sound software ($3000) and has a A.I addons and kits you can purchase. Torque 3D appears to be the cheapest bare minimium candidate available. So an engine that supports both A.I and sound middleware, might be strongly preferenced. Brians clear dedication to turn based combat will require a very complex A.I to be developed, something middleware A.I software can help him do. Due to the advanced sound system planned for the game he might be preferential to advanced sound support. So given that, in regards to an engine we are talking as cheap as possible Price wise I think he's looking for something really cheap, he doesn't mention speed, so it seems he plans on building his own tools for the most part, which will be planned out in the design phase also. The use of the Unreal 3 engine is still possible though given it's little to no up front costs. Use of middleware is also under doubt due to the expense. And for this reason I think the 15 and 30K Unity and Gamebyro engines are too expensive. This suggests the engine may be in 2D.īrian also says "We need as much of the budget as possible to be spent on assets and design and not technology." So here he explicity states he's budget concious when purchasing technology for the game. From what he says just previously to that sentence, it suggests that he will be using a cheap engine, they won't be spending their money on technology. What is unclear is whether the engine is 2D or 3D. So he interprets the question to be asking 'will the game be in 2D or 3D', and he says "Clearly this will be a top down game for the reasons I stated above." So he confirms the game will be at least primarily in 2D. Which is a little non sensical given that you can quite easily show 2D graphics on a 3D engine. So it stands to reason Brian would have understood that question to be '2D engine or 3D engine'. The question about the game engine was open ended and finished with a 2D or 3D. Brian is talking about the advantages of 2D, which are erased if you start moving the camera around or need your 2D art to move/change in some way. And different camera angles require different versions of 2D art too, since it isn't in 3D. Unique movement of 2D art assets would mean animation, that requires alot of work if you want it to look good. I take to mean he means by 'fewer situations' fewer camera angles and unique movement. It's not that confusing if you read between the lines.The first sentence claims the advantage of 'top down' is less art creation because there are fewer "situations". We do have the advantage of this being a top down game which saves tremendously on the art creation which in turn allows us to script out numerous outcomes without the concern of creating graphics for every possible situation.