Engine licensing fees and royalties are
Poll started by feillyne with 289 votes and 11 comments. Browse the poll archive.
A way too high (117 votes)
Affordable (67 votes)
Very low, everyone can license an engine (14 votes)
I'm using free game middleware (45 votes)
I'm developing my own engine (46 votes)
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Although I've been playing around with developing my own, I think that engine licenses now are very reasonable being a lot are royalty free to an extent making them very accessible to low budget titles.
I just like the freedom of having access to all of the source code to tailor your own engine exactly how you want it :)
Guys, go check out Unity3D, so you can vote "Very low, everyone can license an engine" or something around that.
Not everyone. Unity Pro licence costs $1500. UDK and CryENGINE are basically free, though they have royalty-based licences, but still, they are very affordable and highly advanced engines.
Really, 1500 isn't bad if you make a game actually worth something.
Yep, it's affordable if you have a small company and some funds.
Though if you're just a beginner and wish to try all the post-processing effects and similar stuff for free, your only alternatives are UDK and CryENGINE (apart from other engines).
good engines,very affordable for properly assembled small teams that are serious about development, however for an individual hobbyist specially kids and teenagers, game development in general is still a too expensive activity with a worringly high failure rate
Unity free is perfect for individual hobbyists. You can even sell the games you make with no royalties nor you have to pay for the Pro license, only when you earn more than US$100,000 in a fiscal year is when you may need the Pro license.
The free version can build for Mac, Windows and Web, and you can buy iOS and Android basic licenses for $400 each.
If I weren't a Linux addict, currently into 2D/"2.5D" tech and genuinely enjoying hacking engine code and the like (to the extent that I'm coding my current project in my own scripting language), I would definitely consider Unity! The UDK looks like another fantastic alternative.
All this whining about expensive tools, "only free for free games" etc sounds a great deal like people are looking for excuses for not just diving in and creating games.
I mean, seriously; there are amazing tools and engines out there, ranging from "totally free for all uses" through "very reasonably priced, should you actually make some money." Where is the problem!?
When I started toying with computers, one pretty much HAD to roll one's own engine to do anything interesting - and it had to be cleverly tuned machine code to be of much use at all. Now, you can implement an entire 3D game with advanced AI and stuff, all in a nice, friendly, totally crasch-proof scripting language if you like...
Kids these days! :-D
So is building your own car.
As someone who actually did build my own car (a Westfield SEiW with a custom V6 drivetrain), I approve of this parallel. Building cars, like developing games, takes the kind of persons who like to work hard for that extra satisfaction of actually creating something.
Also, game development - especially "AAA class" 3D - is on the very cutting edge of technology, for crying out loud! It's just amazing that mere mortals can actually get anywhere near this technology, let alone actually using it to create their own applications.
Engine fees are so variable from true freeware to £500,000 for a UE3 license etc... I'd say the royalty split option could be the best choice for a small Indie. If you don't expect to make enough to see a decent return after the various royalty splits then you'd probably better rethink your game.