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Newcomers AppGameKit Corner / Should I buy this ?

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Tum
5
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Joined: 19th Feb 2019
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Posted: 19th Feb 2019 15:54
Hi,
As the title says, I am pondering on whether this is the game engine/software that is suitable for what I need !
I am totally new to writing games, I have always wanted to but never got around to learning.
I am very good at programming using AutoIT script language, but have very limited experience using other languages like C# , C++, Python etc

After looking at the AppGameKIt script, it seems very similar to what am use to using.

I am looking to write games mainly for using with SteamVR and the HTC Vive.
Obviously id start with really easy stuff to learn the basics, but id like to thing i could create a good FPS (maybe similar to Pavlov VR) in time after learning everything.
Maybe even then progesss to open world games and learn that sort kind of gaming programming.

So my question is, would AppGameKit be a suitable and good enough engine for creating such games. The learning side of it does seem very easy from watching some of the tutorials.
My concern is that after looking at some of the showcases, the games all seem very basic and more geared towards a mobile platform, and not a PC platform.

Or would you be able to suggest a different game engine to start learning with, that has a similar sricpting language to what am use to.

Thanks for any replies.

2D Analyst
AGK Developer
19
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Joined: 2nd May 2004
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Posted: 4th Mar 2019 03:03
I came from Game Maker and I think whatever games GM can produce so can this. I haven’t release any games using AppGameKit 2.0 yet, but I seen some amazing games created with it.
Kevin Cross
20
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Joined: 15th Nov 2003
Location: London, UK
Posted: 4th Mar 2019 11:47
I was talking to someone the other day about the showcase and how it can't be helping TGC much. When I look for new languages/engines the first thing I look at is the showcase if there is one, and looking at the AGK2 one I'd probably be put off. Comparing it to showcases from engines like Unity it should only contain truly amazing apps that help sell the software, GameSalad was also bad with their showcase letting every app people make with GameSalad on it.

All that aside AppGameKit is great, and you'll be surprised what you can actually do with it. And yes, Tier 1 is really easy to get into. I think you can make some really advanced games/apps with it. So don't pay too much attention to the showcase on the AppGameKit site.

If you do decide to try AppGameKit I'd probably recommend purchasing the AppGameKit Studio version though. It's in alpha stage so the IDE has bugs, but it will save you buying AppGameKit Classic now and then having to buy AppGameKit Studio later on when it's officially released. The tier 1 language is the same in the Studio and Classic. Studio is due for official release in July. I believe you can also download AppGameKit Classic and trial it for so many days, or it may have other restrictions in the trial version.
OryUI - A WIP AGK2 UI Framework
fubarpk
Retired Moderator
19
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Joined: 11th Jan 2005
Playing: AGK is my friend
Posted: 7th Mar 2019 12:34
I have found AppGameKit a very powerful language and certainly allot easier than engines like Unity etc to use
It is true that it started off aimed at mobile development which means your code not only will work on mobiles
but lower end machines. That's the problem with unity for example as that aims development at high end
machines and creates really bad mobile apps. Altho Unity does produce nice pc style games. What needs to be
considered is the market you aim at and I personally feel the larger the market the better as not everyone
can afford the latest gaming pc just to play your game. With that said it doesn't mean AppGameKit cant produce the
prettiness as Unity just software developers achieve this slightly differently and there is many examples in the
showcase that showcase some great work done with the use of shaders and other clever methods. Like the
world builder i have seen. Depending on what you plan to do with AppGameKit you may want to look at Janbos
shader pack later down the track if its effects you want to achieve like that. And AGKStudio would be a great
place to start with AppGameKit classic used an older style game engine in the background which is great for lower
end machines, but AppGameKit studio will allow development with the classic engine and also the new vulkan engine
which is still being developed but will give a 30 percent frame rate increase ove the classic engine the drawback
being it will not work with some of the older hardware. but AppGameKit studio will allow both engines to be selected at
compile time. The vulkan engine also supports improvements with shaders and other things that will produce nicer
stuff and at the time is a great time to purchase the Alpha version as its set to go up in price
fubar
Bluepixel
5
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Joined: 8th Apr 2019
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Posted: 29th May 2019 11:32
AppGameKit is very powerfull, you can do vr aswell. alltho I would recommend AppGameKit Studio over classic since its an all in one game engine including a neat scene editor wich makes everything a lot easier, you can preorder it and use it in early acces or you can wait for it to release on steam, either way, AppGameKit is a very powerfull game engine and I definitely recommend it. if your just getting started with it I recommend watching the beginner tutorials on youtube.
Raven
19
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Joined: 23rd Mar 2005
Location: Hertfordshire, England
Posted: 1st Jun 2019 22:41
In terms of VR Support... personally speaking I find that Unreal Engine and Unity 3D are better in regards to there being far more Resources (as they're the most commonly used VR Engines) but more is that they just work without any special considerations.
AGK Studio *might* be improving this., what I can say is that there are issues with various VR HMD with the AppGameKit VR Plug-In.

Windows Mixed Reality, PlayStation VR and the 2nd Gen VR that have just been released have "Issues" … on top of this the Plug-In requires some effort to get to work with each Project, rather than simply being installed.
Why, I'm not sure and again maybe tis is resolved with Studio but for v2 is quite frustrating.

Now another element to consider is that AppGameKit be it the "Tier 1" (aka Built-in BASIC) or "Tier 2" (aka C++ API) is that it is more of a Middleware Toolkit rather than an Engine per se.
Thus you will find yourself more heavily involved in the Engine Programming., rather than just the Logic Flow.
With Unity 3D as noted there are a lot of Pre-Fabricated Tools and Attributes that allow you to basically just link a Script and you're basically Good-to-Go; and for Unreal Engine, you can just use Kismet to Visually create Scripts.
AGK however you have to create more or less the actual behaviours.

This isn't to put you off AppGameKit, it's just to say that as an "Indie" Engine (at least for VR) it's not exactly well suited for such; where-as both Unity and Unreal have focused on these features for the past 2-3 years. (arguably in lieu of modernising their Engine APIs)
So they might be better for what you're looking to do. AppGameKit is better suited to more Hobbyist or Mobile Projects.

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