Re:In Defense of Not-Invented-Here Syndrome (2001)
by chii on Tuesday February 14, 2023 @02:27AM
(#34786490)
> Factorio or The Witness might be better examples of games that did/are doing novel, exceptional things and their engines were developed in-house. And it shows
I dont think The Witness really required a custom engine, except that Mr. Blow had a team that could (and it might've been easier for them). Ditto with factorio tbh.
If a game like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antichamber could be done in unreal engine, most other games could've been done with it. The fact is, understanding the engine is harder than writing your own, and for some programmers, they'd rather write their own simply because they won't have to read someone else's code.
Factorio or The Witness might be better examples of games that did/are doing novel, exceptional things and their engines were developed in-house. And it shows. The unique look and feel, the smoothness, depth, coherency etc.
The comparison is maybe unfair though. We're basically comparing a product focus with an art focus. Artists _must_ do things their way. Risk and cost are secondary. Success is a bonus. In a more survival oriented world you have to weigh these things differently.
What you describe above seems more like a problem with clinging to legacy and missing the world around them rather than developing things in-house. It should be obvious, but the thing you do in-house has to provide you unique advantages over the main-stream. That comes with costs and only works if you have the stomach to be honest with yourself.