I've been working on games for a while. Worked with a few commercial 3D engines, made a couple myself... I've been around the indie-scene for quite some time too. Most indie games that make money are 2D games (though some make use of 3D graphics cards to render their sprites faster), and that makes sense: the customer don't care, and it's a more cost-effective way to produce games.
My opinion on games in general, is that very few game types benefit from 3D - they make better games if done in 2D (and at this point, someone always goes "but what about FPS games, they require 3D", failing to realize that the game type is, of course, shooter, and that there's plenty of great 2D shooters. Which are also generally better than the first person ones).
But there's one specific genre which I think lends itself better to 3D: the racing games (and in my previous post on racing games, I tell you what a fun racing game is). Sure, there's 2D racing games too, but they tend to not work as well. Even on the early computers and consoles, the good racing games were 3D, although a simplistic, primitive form of 3D.
I like the kind of whacky, casual types of racing games, a la Mario Karts. Would be fun to make one at some point. But as a hobbyist developer (as for most indies), my technology options are limited. The commercial engines are too expensive. The free ones are usually developed to make use of the latest and greatest shader technology with fancy lighting and realtime shadows. They are (for this very reason, I bet) quite unstable, and won't run (or will run way too slow to be usable) on a large number of computers. They will also, in some cases, require a greater effort in terms of the artwork (normal maps, shadow volumes etc to be created, which takes time). Some of them are difficult to use. It's clear that their developers favors working on new features over making the basic technology stable, reliable and easy to use.
The fact of the matter is, that for indie developers, there's no point using fancy modern 3D technology, like the latest shaders. It will incurr a cost to the indie, in the form of time spent and more expensive art resources, as well as in reduced sales (given higher hardware requirements).
You might think that there are benefits to using fancy effects - but the truth is, by doing so, you're starting to compete with the AAA retail games - and you won't ever win that battle, as you're outnumbered to start with. If you focus on your gameplay and mechanics though, you have a chance of delivering something that the AAA games industry can't - A great game.
Though most games are better in 2D, considering that some (like racing games) can actually work better in 3D, I think that what's missing today, is a good, basic 3D engine, free to use for indies and hobbyist, which focus on stability and ease of use, and leaves out the fancy shader effects. One which supports models and animations, basic particle systems and billboards, basic decals, simple lighting (with something like lightmaps to efficiently add static lighting to a scene). And not much more. But, in a way that is simple, straightforward, easy to use and modify, at which works just about everywhere.
I don't think there is an engine like that out there. Yet. I'm planning to make one, and as with other tech I write, it will be released into the public domain. That means that there's no license for using the engine: anyone can use it for any purpose, without restrictions and without paying anything. It probably won't see widespread use though, as most indies who do 3D stuff seems to want to compete with the latest and greatest AAA games in terms of visual quality - meaning they will fail doubly: they won't get it as nice as the AAA games they are imitating, and they won't make a fun game either.
But for those rare indies that see a need for 3D as a gameplay mechanic rather than a visual effects fest, I'm hoping this 3D addition to my Pixie game engine will be a welcome and useful one.
I'll keep you posted...
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