Printable View
Using a newer version of MMF, I am constantly amazed as how powerful it is. I used earlier version of MMF as well as the games factory, and they seemed to have limitations. I was wondering just how powerful this program is. Just curious if the following games would be possible with MMF:
1. hidden object games
2. military strategy games like Close Comabt
3. virtual surgery games
4. trivial pursuit
5. starcraft style.
Just what can be done with this wonderful program
Just about anything you can think of (2D) you can make.
Marv
Just a forewarning: there will be a learning curve. Start small :)
Anything that requires advanced AI (e.g. strategy AI), or pathfinding (e.g. units in a strategy game), or realtime multiplayer is pretty hard to do. Not just in TGF2 / MMF2, but in general. All of the above have been done in MMF, but only by experienced coders.
The easiest games to do in MMF are breakout-style bat+ball games, platformers, top-down racers and scrolling shooters.
If before reading this post you were planning a multiplayer realtime strategy game with AI you've probably aimed a little high.
Jamie's definitely raised an important point :) You can do everything you listed, but some of them might need a much greater amount of effort from you than others. RTS games (2 and 5) in particular need a lot of work to write the basic engine. Board games should be fairly easy, and a couple of MMF-made hidden object games have reached the top of the lists on casual portal sites.
For "virtual surgery", are you talking about something like Trauma Center or more... realistic simulations? It's not so much an issue with the genre of game as what you want it to contain - at its most basic level that game just involves using selected tools to work against a series of objects that have their own attack patterns and weaknesses, and I think that given that criteria it should be pretty much possible to recreate in MMF in its entirety.
What a horrible idea!Quote:
Originally Posted by DavidN
As long as its 2D, you can make it, and it will probably run just fine and fast. You cannot do 3D efficiently within the current MMF2 graphics architecture, but even that can be rendered with extensions.
But as others have warned, it is not so much a matter of "If it is possible" as "How difficult is it?". Whether you use MMF2 or C++, a game like Starcraft is a monstrosity to code, and will take years.
Yeah I agree as well. MMF2 is really only limited by your skill and determination, in regards to 2D creations. There are so many extensions that allow for so many things, your options are pretty much unlimited. Whether your game will be any good or not depends on your skill and the quality of assets you are using (as in the graphics, sounds, etc). A lot of people will take a look at some amateur games made with MMF2 and assume that you can't make a quality game. That's simply not true. A lot of what makes a game "look good" are the quality of the artwork and effects. That's not going to change whether the person was coding from scratch in C++ or using MMF2.
In fact, I'd say you'd have better odds of making a good game with MMF2 for the simple fact that you are working with a pre-built graphics rendering engine. No point re-inventing the wheel.
That's not to say there isn't room for improvement. That's why there will eventually be an MMF3. But MMF2 is certainly no slouch. And with the Flash and other exporters being worked on, things keep getting even better.
Interesting post.
Well, as mentioned before if YOU can do it, then it can be done in MMF 2 (( 2D ))
Since you mentioned 2D games anyway, you can do all that you listed, and Jason Darby even has a Book about Military Strategy games [ one type ] and there is an extension to go along with it.
Extensions "Extend" MMF's already formidable and "stable" ability.
I can definately say that out of all the game creation software i've used, MMF 2 continues to be the most stable and reliable to get a tangible project moving along.
The most difficult parts of game design are the logic and the art. So you are left those mountains to climb to really answer your question.
So... your question should really be "How powerful of an MMF user am I?"
RTS games are certainly possible, the biggest limitation is pathfinding and the object count. All the units and background tiles take too long to draw and lag too much.
Keep an eye out though, im working on it ;)
There is a very nice RTS code at one of Klikdiscs, but I'm yet to see a good with an accurate pathfinding where the troops doesn't stop on to of each other.
You CAN do 3D efficiently but it just depends on the skill level of the user and what you are doing. OpenGL is not as popular yet because not everyone knows how to use it but things like the OpenGL collection are making it simpler and there will also be other 3d objects in the future. I think in the new video interviews clickteam said they want a coder to make a MMF 3d also so that is probably going to happen sometime in the future.
You could also make a game using just code with Lua or another code type or even combine them like OpenGL can with Xlua and DotNet so it's really just down to what the user knows. You can also code extensions for MMF or XLua libraries etc adding even more power so if you know how to code it becomes much more powerful.
In fact MMF can be better than some direct coding sometimes because it has a lot of stuff ready to go which would take a long time to code and makes it much faster to work with using the event system. Then if you really need to you can extend it more and re-use things with widgets etc. It's not as efficiant as you can't optimize any extensions/movements that are not open source but in general things are reasonable and work well. Some coders can make things very fast im sure but MMF just makes it simple and fast to create things. The really cool thing is other members share nice extensions, game engines and examples also.
The answer is very powerful, it allows non coders to create things but is also good for advanced users and coders. Everything listed can be done but it doesn't mean it would be simple as it depends what the game developer knows, you could technically make everything in 3d also if you know how. The program gets more powerful depending on the users skills.
Atom touched on some good points also... I'd say learning MMF is just a matter of sitting at your computer and tinkering with it. Look at the fundamentals and see what you can come up with.
MMF is definately easier than language based creation where you are essentially coding stuff then testing it to see the results, and it takes SO MUCH code to do the smallest things...
Since your last post you should already know more about MMF than u did a few days ago... [laugh]