Petr Benýšek – Lead Programmer at Ingame Studios – was this week’s Tentacle Zone virtual event speaker. Petr joined us to talk through some of the many technical considerations that occur at the beginning of new projects – choice of engine, tool requirements and the merits, or otherwise, of developing your own engine.

As an indie developer, arguably the most important technical decision you’ll make at the start of a new project is the game engine. Should you choose a commercially available option – Unreal or Unity are the big ones – or should you create your own tech?

In Petr’s mind the decision comes down to this question – are you more interested in making games or making your own engine? If the answer is the former then your best option will almost always be to choose one of the established engines.

If, however, you decide that making your own tech is for you, you should be aware that this will always cost more than you initially think. Bear in mind that the days of Unreal costing hundreds of thousands of dollars to use are over. In fact, commercial engines are free for studios under a certain level of revenue, making them a brilliant choice for small teams.

Petr went on to explain that creating your own technology is really only worth it if you’re able to tick off one or more of these points:

• You have a strong desire to learn the skills that you’ll need to do it.
• Your game is simple and not too complex with lots of different systems and mechanics.
• You have a large team that’s motivated by the idea of creating tech.
• You are worried that using commercial tech will take away your freedom or somehow threaten your project or studio.

Our thanks to Petr for generously giving us his time this week, it was fascinating to hear his thoughts and ideas. Petr returns (virtually!) to Tentacle Zone next week when he’ll be delivering part two of his talk which will cover game engines in more detail along with his thoughts on middleware and plugins.

Weekly talks like Petr’s are just one of the exclusive advantages that Tentacle Zone residents enjoy. Our shared workspace is located in Farringdon, London and is an affordable option for game developers whether you’re looking for a full time home or just a hotdesk.

To learn more about how we can help, head over to our residents page.