I am always fascinated if someone creating his or her own game engine from scratch in order to make a game. I mean they really did a lot of work, didn’t they?

Three or four years ago, I would have done the same thing. Make my own game engine and then starts building games on top of it. But now, I realize that I’ve changed. What I will do is try to find if someone’s game engine, choose to use it, and try to use it as it is.

It’s like building sculpture using LEGO bricks, those colorful plastic blocks. You don’t have the curved shape block on the standard LEGO bricks. Some people would have chosen to make their own curvy blocks instead of using the blocky standard brick. They could end up with a really nicely curved and seamless shaped sculpture but I would choose to stick with the standard block. I know that I will get a blocky shape but it’s still a sculpture. And it’s not impossible that you’ll get a great sculpture 😉

Nathan Sawaya with his sculpture, made by using LEGO bricks (taken from CNN) 

That’s how I work using other people’s game engine. I rarely modify the engine’s source code, just stick to the provided APIs. If I need an extra function, I will search other people’s plug-ins. Not that I’m too lazy to do any programming but I want to focus more on the design and the big picture of my game (but of course, without loosing attention to the details 🙂 ). I know that my game will be slower, or without any state-of-the-art 3D graphics or shader effect but that’s the compromise for not modifying the engine. It’s just not my focus and to code or to configure a game engine is really challenging. It takes a lot of time and passion (and several days of hair-pulling moments 🙄 ). Why not just using somebody’s work?

Well, there’s nothing wrong making your own game engine :). I am just telling that game development is not only about coding or programming. So, to anyone who wants to start game development, especially game design, you can use any tools. Macromedia Flash, C++, Java, C#, LUA, XNA, or even paper and scissor for board game!!

To see more of Nathan Sawaya’s works (the LEGO sculturer above), check out this link from CNN or his website at http://www.brickartist.com/