Pros and Cons of Gaming Frameworks

Question

This question is directed to anyone out there that is just starting in hobby game development. The first thing that comes to ones mind is:

Which language/framework should I use?

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List of solutions:

1. Adobe Flash
2. Microsoft Silverlight
3. Blitz3D
4. Blender Game Engine
5. Devkit Pro
6. Unity 3D
7. Torque 3D
8. Allegro
9. Game Maker
10. IndieLib
11. Apocalyx
12. SFML
13. Multimedia Fusion / Games Factory
14. MOGRE
15. Microsoft XNA -> done
16. OGRE -> done
17. pygame -> done
18. pyglet -> done
19. jMonkey Engine -> done
20. Custom -> done

Answer template:

Framework Name (Linked)

Pros:

• Pro1
• Pro2
• ...

Cons:

• Con1
• Con2
• ...

Answer 1

Pro's for XNA in my opinion are that XNA apps can run on Xbox360 in addition to PC, and you can pick your favorite language from anything supported by the .NET Framework - which is quite many.

Answer 2

The pros of any framework (gaming, web, etc.) is that they remove the unnecessary boilerplate code you'd have to normally write.

The cons often come up later on, once you want to go beyond the capabilities of the framework it can become very difficult. With many of the more complex frameworks, extending their functionality to make it do something it wasn't designed to will results in you having to write a lot of your own boilerplate code.

Answer 3

If you have the time, do it all yourself. It's worth the experience and you'll learn a lot, instead of how to work with framework X . ;^)

Pros

• Full Control
• Strong Learning Experience
• Consistent code between game engine and program
• Tends to be well-suited towards the application it is applied towards.
• Supports any language/environment

Cons

• High difficulty
• No online documentation
• Generally, less generic. Harder to apply to other games.
• Harder for other people to use.
• Probably buggier than more popular frameworks.
• Not well-tested.
• Harder to get help.

Answer 4

OGRE (Object-Oriented Graphics Engine)

Pros:

• Tons of 3D features
• Cross-platform, uses DirectX or OpenGL
• Plugin architecture for even more features
• Does not try to be an everything-engine, only a graphics engine (doesn't even try to handle input, as many graphics libraries tend to do)

Cons:

• Uses the Singleton pattern
• Very hard to do 2D or primitive rendering (individual polygons, lines, etc)
• Tons of code makes the learning curve quite steep

Answer 5

Microsoft XNA Game Studio

Pros:

• Uses .NET languages; managed memory, ease of the Visual Studio environment, etc.
• Good mix of high-level and low-level
• Supports both 2D and 3D very well
• Is proven; look at the Xbox Live Arcade, all of those games are made with XNA
• Games can be easily run on a networked Xbox

Cons:

• Uses .NET languages; can't use Java, C++, etc.
• Not too many resources (i.e. books) out yet, though it is easy to learn and use so that may not be an issue
• Windows-only. Mono (on Linux) doesn't support XNA at all.
• XNA 3.0 was released less than a year after 2.0, and now we're at 3.1; frequent changes like these can hinder documentation, i.e. books get outdated quickly and many things break when upgrading a 2.0 game to a 3.0 game.

Answer 6

pygame

Pros:

• Easy to get started and create something visible.
• Cross-platform.
• Lots of open source games available to inspect the source.
• Python language's pros (flexibility, dynamic typing, strings/arrays/tuples, etc.).

Cons:

• Performance-wise does not scale to very large games (which hobby game development rarely is).
• Mostly suited for 2D, although 3D is possible.
• Difficult to distribute as closed source.

Also SDL could be inserted as pros and/or cons.

Answer 7

pyglet

Pros:

• Low difficulty
• Cross-platform
• OpenGL accelerated graphics by default
• Further OpenGL graphical enhancements easy to add
• Python language

Cons:

• Less well-known than pygame
• Game 'loop' is a bit unconventional
• OpenGL knowledge required for advanced graphics and to maximise performance

Answer 8

jMonkeyEngine

Pros

• Uses Java; managed memory, highly supported in many mature IDE's (Eclipse, NetBeans, etc.), highly portable
• Good mix and high-level and low-level
• Modern 3D scenegraph
• Built atop LWJGL, a very mature and well-working game library
• Very lightweight; doesn't add very much overhead
• Built in 3D model loading in a variety of formats.
• Built in modern node-based 3D scenegraph.
• Easy to use.
• Open source; constantly evolving and improving.
• Includes culling, collision checking, etc.
• Has the option to save and read its own ultra-compact, ultra-fast binary model format.
• Full list.

Cons

• Uses Java, so compiles JIT and can therefore be a bit slower than C++ and other options.
• Hasn't been used in many commercial apps (and therefore not as "proven").
• Has no attached editor of any kind, everything must be done in pure code.
• Difficult to do 2D games (for that you could try Slick).