Just thinking about this. The New York City Insomniac built is great, but I often wonder how much more deep it could be it they used the Decima engine for the next game.
Decima engine.. PS5.. Spider-Man 2..
It sounds like a recipe for greatness if you ask me. I mean its already going to be exclusive and I cant see a downside to this.
So what's up? Yay or nay? Why not?
Web my mouth shut and lock if this has been discussed already.
Edit:
"OP has absolutely no idea how game development works, along with the 17 other people who voted Yes."
I never said I did, just asking for yalls opinion which I got in spades. I can take the heat.. plus I'm high as shit playing Spider-Man right now.
I'm really starting to hate those comments that state how it's likely nobody here knows anything about game dev or engines and "this ain't beyond3D" (paraphrasing).
This makes it sound like "game dev" is some singular thing. It ain't. It encompasses a huge number of separate disciplines and expertise in different areas. Developing an open world game requires a massive amount of manpower, and no singular person in a team knows everything or even most things. Tool devs might not know a lot about game design, for example. But the different disciplines could be a lot more subtle than this, where you have a programmer specialising in netcode who wouldn't know where to begin with graphics pipeline, but sure, one programmer could train in one area and transition to another area, sure.
My point is this: there is no magic involved in game development. Almost everything we see is a result of hard labour, planning and more labour. Sometimes the results may seem like magic, but there is nothing fundamentally mysterious or difficult to understand about game development or how an engine works. Of course there are some proprietary details we aren't privy to, but it's kind of annoying seeing so many people talk about it as though there is something involved in the process that is beyond the capability of mere mortals to understand.
An incredible amount of information is shared openly about engines and rending pipelines and physics and animation and beyond. Pretty much every aspect of creating games is openly shared amongst the dev community. Like the animation engine of For Honour, which is being adopted by ND and refined. Or how the innovative rendering engine of Dreams came to be. This shit is all out there and presented in a way that is easily digestible, so I really don't know where people get off saying nobody here knows anything. It boggles my mind.
I'm not saying I can do any of these things, or I'm as smart as any of the people creating these games. I'm a dumb fuck, but I can program to a good level. I've never created a game from scratch, but I understand how shit works and I think anybody can if they just looked into it even a little bit. Are many single-person teams gonna create huge open worlds like we see in spider-man? Hell no... that's why there are teams of hundreds and sometimes thousands of people creating them, but the core components of what is being created isn't hard to understand. I could go and on and on and on about this, but I won't.
It would be so nice to just enjoy the fruits of the labour, and be able to discuss some aspects of the game production without being bashed for knowing nothing about game development.
I am guilty myself a little, making fun of the OP, but that was just silly banter. It's a different thing.
To me, for anybody to suggest that nobody here understands anything about game development is even more egregious than the content of the OP.
I'm sorry but this in bollocks.
Regardless of how much public information is available about game engines and what they do and how they work, to suggest that everyone or even a fair portion of people on this forum have actually taken the time to go through this info and understand it is pretty naive at best and utterly absurd at worst.
Even your own lack of knowledge on the subject matter is proven limited by your inaccurate uses of the terms, "animation engine" and "rendering engine".
If you're discussing a technical subject and not used the proper technical terminology to define the things you intend to discuss, you're only going to end up creating confusion and muddying the discussion.
Regardless, upon all your frustration at those saying peeps here don't know what a game engine is and what it does, I must ask, do you?
Edit:
Taking a step beyond this, the core issue here that I see, is that even if this thread was full of game developers and even engine programmers at that, unless they had worked with Decima and worked at Insomniac games, they would have no clue how to answer the question in the OP.
What the Op refers to as a "game engine" is really just the engine's graphics renderer that the end user can see the results of. If you were knowledgeable on the subject you'd immediately understand that an engine is more than just a renderer.
The Decima engine seems much more suited to mountain top and wilderness environments evident from Death Stranding and Horizon: Zero Dawn. What Insomniac is using know seems to be working well and suited to the vision they're trying to achieve.
I already said I'm not a game dev, therefore the terminology may not be accurate.
Game engines come in many forms. Unity, game maker, unreal, custom. Some are very abstracted and don't even require coding. Custom engines usually go closer to the metal and and therefore more efficient at using the available processing power. They are sets of frameworks and systems that define, organise and execute what the game designers want to represent to the player.
I've developed a few apps, there isn't a huge amount of difference between an engine and an SDK. Sets of rules and APIs you use to represent whatever it is you want.
I don't think the precise technical terms are important to the point I'm making. Which is: the purpose of an engine and how it works is not fundamentally difficult to understand.
However, I'm not seeing how the use of the words "animation engine" is in any way incorrect. How would you refer to it?
Edit: of course I know it involves more than the renderer. Nothing I said in my post suggests that I think an engine is only it's renderer. Come on. That's Just dense AF.
Double edit: I also wasn't expressing frustration about people saying other people don't know what a game engine is. It's that people are making blanket statements about knowing nothing about game development. There is a hell of a lot more to game development than just the engine.
Triple edit: I also didn't say that everybody or even a fair portion of people on this forum have perused the the publicly available information on game engines etc. I merely stated the fact that this information is out there and to suggest that "nobody knows anything" is where the absurdity lies. I think you really should learn to read a comment and consider what is being said before spouting bollocks. Maybe you did read but failed to understand basically anything, in that case, you need to work on your comprehension.
I don't think anyone in this thread has the necessary insight of the engines to make an educated statement.
I mainly imagine how the Decima engine will be on the PS5 versus Insomniacs engine they have now. Next gen would want to offer a deeper experience that what is present . I'm fine either way, but I want to know what you guys would think of that.
Why? Insomniac Games engine is pretty new-ish. And is doing some incredible stuff. Just look at Spider-Man.
And Decima will be used by Guerrilla, Kojima Productions and (as it looks like) Wild Sheep Studios (WiLD). More than enough studios :P
They met with Hermen Hulst lately. Wild Sheep Studios is a small studio and WiLD is an ambitious open world game.
Smells like Decima Engine will be used for WiLD ;)
The craziest thing about this thread's premise is that changing the engine would result in "deeper" and more personal side quests.
Game Engines are like the Pens you write books with. Better the Pen better the Book.
A modern game engine isn't gonna magically make your game design and writing better. In the same way a pen doesn't magically make you a better writer.Game Engines are like the Pens you write books with. Better the Pen better the Book.
Good game design and writing is far more likely to result in better and deeper side quests than what engine you use. A better pen isn't gonna produce a better book if the talent in the hand using it isn't there.
A modern game engine isn't gonna magically make your game design and writing better. In the same way a pen doesn't magically make you a better writer.
You can never tell because game engine threads have so many bad takes.