Question for the Dev. (Impact Engine)

[PM]

Okay, I got to say, l am impressed.

As an Ex Rpg Maker 2000 / 2003 game developer, I thought the coding involved with Velsarbor was amazing back in the day. But with CrossCode, I need to say it, I’m even more impressed. I knew the guy was a good programmer, but damn, this is really good.

Congrats to the whole team!

But now I’m here for a question. I want to make an Rpg (Kinda like CrossCode), but not with Rpg Maker. I have technical skills in programming, but I’m still not sure which engine should I go this time. Developing a game in HTML5/JavaScript seems really interesting and fun, I want to give it a try.

So I’m curious about the Impact Engine. It is really a good engine? 100$ is not that much for it and it seems that this engine have a lot of documentation available for it too. Since CrossCode use it, I was wondering if the developer could give me some feedback about this engine. (Please!!! XD)

[Regiden]

Hey,

First things first, we use impact engine, however we heavly rewrote it. As of now about 90% of the code is completly changed, that even includes the editor. So all in all we actually use our own engine which is based of impact.
And this is where impact shines. It features a very minimal set of functions. plus an amazing editor. Both are well written in JavaScript using a class-kinda system.
You can do cool stuff with the base of impact too and the documentation is really good (but the engine is s well written that you might not even need it).
For a game like CrossCode you probably have to rewrite a lot too. So if you have fun creating an engine along with your game like we do, Then impact is a great choice! We love it!
However if you are more into the actual game dev, solutions like Construct 2 or other HTML based engines might be a better suit (assuming you want to us JavaScripts here).

Hops this helps a little :)

Cheers!

[PM]

Originally posted by Regiden:

As of now about 90% of the code is completly changed, that even includes the editor (...)
For a game like CrossCode you probably have to rewrite a lot too. So if you have fun creating an engine along with your game like we do, Then impact is a great choice! We love it!

That's really cool actually. If I feel something is missing or it is not right, I can just code something that meets my needs. I really like coding, so it's not a problem for me.

I want to make something that will resemble Chrono Trigger, mixed with Breath of Fire III and Final Fantasy X. Quite a simple game on a technical point of view, but I want to be sure to have a maximum of flexibility for my algorithms.

Thanks for the fast answer, it really helps!

Good continuation on CrossCode. It is really good and the passion of game design is really shown. Keep it up! ;)

[Teflora]

Maybe a bit late, but check out https://html5gameengine.com/ for an overview of html5 engines!

For a game like Chrono Trigger you would need to write 3D collision (and physics), and also keep track of drawing order. But there're engines that use WebGL, which can do 3D graphics. With the help of 3D you can use some tricks to make 2D games alot easier (like the drawing order. You just give elements a z-position and it's done :p )

So, try some engines, maybe make some very basic games (pong or whatever) and see how they fit you :)

[SolarLune]

I don't think top-down 2D games require 3D collisions or physics; that's over-thinking it a lot. A developer should be fine just managing the draw order of objects effectively.

EDIT: Unless you're trying to represent the third dimension physically in your scene (where you can "walk over" objects, like with staircases or elevators or things like that). In that case, you would have to take into account the height of objects when you check for collisions. At a certain point, it might be simpler to use a 3D engine and a 3D space, and just use 2D art.

[Peonicle]

I've had this idea to make an ARPG like diablo but with pixel art, and the combat and UI, and all around movement that cross-code uses seems perfect for it. Would creating an ARPG with impact be the best way to go about it? I'm currently learning c++ with visual studio and I'm stuck with what engine to use. Since I'm currently taking a c++ course i'd rather it be an engine off of c++

[Vulpisetclava]

Originally posted by Peon:

I've had this idea to make an ARPG like diablo but with pixel art, and the combat and UI, and all around movement that cross-code uses seems perfect for it. Would creating an ARPG with impact be the best way to go about it? I'm currently learning c++ with visual studio and I'm stuck with what engine to use. Since I'm currently taking a c++ course i'd rather it be an engine off of c++

Whew, you really digged this topic. ^^
As Regiden mentioned, they've modified the engine heavily, so if want to make an ARPG that feels like CrossCode, you probably would have to modify the engine yourself as well and there might be other, simplier ways to do so, unless you want to go into deep water.