Some Amazing 3D Game Development Tools Out of the Box

Do you have a knack for 3d game development, but aren’t able to substantiate your ideas? Or, Are you already a game development professional, but want to update your portfolio? Well, regardless of - who you are or where do you stand in the game development sector, this article will help you with some good resources to begin with the same and for different operating systems, like Android and iOS. Read on!

Some of the best game engines so far

Unity – Popular in the game development industry as a cross-platform game engine, Unity lets the developers to create games for a different devices, right from consoles and personal computers to websites and mobile devices. Unity is not just a mere game engine, it’s more than that. It’s is a game development tool that comes equipped with its own environment and can handle different stages of development efficiently, from creation to deployment. The main benefits of this game engine are – ease of 3D game development with seamless visual experience and state-of-the-art graphic technologies.

Unreal – It is a complete set of game developing tool that is developed ‘for’ as well as ‘by’ game developers. It gives you every ingredient to begin with game development, right from 2 dimensional games to Virtual Reality. There is no cap on what you can create using Unreal and can be used by everyone, be it a beginner or an expert. With Unreal, you can not only develop, but also deploy your brainchild on Android and iOS devices, impeccably.

Corona SDK – It is a cross-platform game development framework that helps developers to create various apps and 2D games efficiently with the help of Lua, an easy to learn and lightweight programming language. One of the best things about Corona SDK is - it allows you to develop games and applications at a speed that’s 10 times more than other development platforms.z

SIO2 – This engine is based on OpenGLES. It’s a cross-platform framework for developing two and three dimensional games for different operating systems, including Android, iOS, Windows and MacOS. This game engine offers speed, best in class functionalities and flexibility. Unlike many other engines, it does not ask you to make use of any particular integrated development environment (IDE) to create your games. The full version of this game engine also comprises source code and can be easily incorporated with Xcode.

GameMaker – In order to make game development reachable to all, taking away all the boundaries is very important. With GameMaker’s easy-to-use and spontaneous Drag & Drop game development environment, you can create your game and deploy it in no time without having the need to code.

Stencyl – If you are looking for an easiest, quickest and intuitive game development engine, you can bank upon Stencyl. It is way more than just a game creation framework; it’s gorgeous and spontaneous at the same time and, accelerates the workflow of your game, just like that. It not only supports Android and iOS, but Windows, Linux and Mac as well.

These are some of the best cross-platform 3d game development engines to name some.

Key Aspects of Game Development You Need to Know

Games are a great source of entertainment. After playing a video game or mobile game, a person gets refreshed. With stress levels rising among the youngsters, the popularity of games has increased. This is the reason that game development education is being taken up by more students.

A game has various aspects that include programming, sound effects, visuals, etc. Some of the aspects have been discussed below:

The Platform 

A platform of game is a combination of software and hardware which provides a basis for a game to run. Some popular game platforms are – Mobile (Android, iPhone, others), Handheld, Web Browser Based, Console (Wii, Xbox, PS2/PS3), PC (Mac, Windows), Arcade machines (machines specific to games in game parlours of malls), etc.

Type of platform may or may not restrict the type of game. For consoles, the hardware is different and the games that can run on them are also different. The best part is, on knowing about the hardware, one can design customized games.

Stages of development

Development of games can be divided into two phases – Content creation and runtime.

In the content creation phase, one defines the theme of the game, characters to be placed, levels of animations, etc. This is done offline on tools like Game design tools, Photoshop, etc. In the runtime phase, interaction between server and engine takes place. Both of them interact with the user to define each frame of the game for the user to play.

Graphics in movies is different from that in games. In movies, the animation and graphics are computed well in advance and saved. One just needs to open the file and it shows that sequences. However, in a game, the graphics and results depend on the inputs from the user. The graphics and animations have to be decided in real-time.

Different Components

A game comprises of many parts. Some of them are: 
The game renderer: This calculates all the computer graphics like reflection of light, lighting, etc. It adds the feature of clarity and accuracy to the game. It starts to look more real. 

Physics: For the games that involve steps where a character has to jump from a building, an object is thrown, etc. the physics laws and principles have to be incorporate. Trajectory motions, newton’s laws find their implementation here. 

Artificial Intelligence: This includes the coding that monitors response of the characters in the game. In order to make the game as realistic as possible, the responses should be based or coded similar to the human behaviour. This is done though AI algorithms.

Audio: This forms an important part of the game and makes them more interesting to play. The commentary or instrumentals in a game should respond as per the outcomes of the inputs given by the user. 

User Interface: This defines how the user will interact with the game. It can be through buttons, sensors, etc. 

The above mentioned aspects are only a part of the game development process. It includes much more. Opting for game development Education can provide a person with good knowledge to move ahead in this field.