New Engine for successor?

[UfoMaster90]

Hello!

As you all already know, UFO: AI utilizes technology that is at least decade-and-a-half-old. This results in lesser functionality, cross-platformability and user-attractability that this game has all the potential to have.

So how about defining a long term (maybe even as long as the game's current age *shudders*) plan on migrating to a more modern engine?

Potential candidates:

• Unity Engine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unity_%28game_engine%29) - a pretty popular engine among the indie developers of this genre. List of games that use this engine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unity_Engine_games;
• Godot Engine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godot_%28game_engine%29) - Unity-like engine that has the benefit of being open-source;
• OGRE Engine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OGRE) - another open-source engine, less used than Unity Engine but still having adequate indie titles to back it up.

Off the top of my head.

So maybe in another decade we'll see UFO: AI II shine in all its glory

[Sandro]

It was already discussed to death. Conclusion: if you want it, do it youself. Period.

[geever]

How did Unity come into the picture? We wikipedia you linked clearly says: License: Proprietary.

Anyway Sandro is right, you just hit one of the Three Taboos. I suggest reading that  wiki page it explains the why quite well IMHO.

-geever

[UfoMaster90]

1 person can't do all the stuff alone, unless we are talking about simple and straightforward game.

While I can code, I'm not really into the team-leading, and then there should be game designers, artists, modellers, animators, composers, more designers, etc...

Just not feasible for a game of this scope. Pretty sure whoever came up with the idea of UFO: AI wasn't told:

if you want it, do it youself. Period.

[Noordung]

you can start. im sure more people will join.

[Mattn]

the game was initially made by one coder, one mapper and one modeller.

[UfoMaster90]

the game was initially made by one coder, one mapper and one modeller.

Which means there was already team (with media content making ability, what is particularly important).

[geever]

... We are getting to the point where we should lock the topic ...

-geever

[UfoMaster90]

If I am to achieve something, it's not here. Alas

[Flying Steel]

This is not a bad idea in my opinion, just a bad execution. The 3 Taboos wiki page indicates that engine limitations are mainly what blocks destructible environments from becoming a feature. I do not think you can have a full spiritual successor with such a core feature missing as battle-scape destructibility.

But you have to get started on the right foot:

If there was a dev who made a prototype based on Ogre, idTechX or whatever that shows a little map with a soldier, an alien, a weapon and a few buildings which proves that everything is oh so much better with that engine, several ufoai devs would take a closer look at that prototype and either drive it to its limits or decide that it's time for ufoai to switch the engine. Interestingly, nobody ever did...

Prototypes speak louder than words.

[Sandro]

That is the point. Ideas are cheap, the work what it's matters.

[geever]

Actually I think a prototype is not enough anymore, because it would still be enormous effort to port the maps and features. And the Team is more busy with RL. The minimal requirement IMHO is a functional game engine (with >=90% of the current feature set) and either source-level compatibility with maps & gfx & data or a conversion tool that does the job.

-geever

[Flying Steel]

At that point you would not have a successor engine but a successor project.

[geever]

fair enough. locked