Need some advice (my engine or theirs?)

[elias4444]

Call me crazy (yeah, downright nuts), but I'm torn right now between ongoing development of my own game engine, or switching everything over to the jMonkeyEngine.

Problem is, my game was "near" finished - meaning that the engine was just about done and I was primarily focused on content. Problem is, then I see the jMonkeyEngine and everything it can do, and think to myself, "wow, why did I reinvent the wheel?" Immediately, feature-creep began to occur. I wanted to port the game over and start adding the things the jME system could offer (to be somewhat prideful though, I've still been having to port some of my stuff over to jME). The main problem is though, is that I feel like my development cycle just started over.

I'd like some advice from the other game developers out there, especially the ones that have released some games.  :wink:
In the long run, which is better? Building your own engine and maintaining/updating it? Or using someone else's?

[Evil-Devil]

I haven't released a game, but I think that building an engine is good for understanding what is going on and be handled in background. So you might better understand other engines and their system. And even if there are other engines out, mostly you have to rewrite some engine stuff to have your game running fine. Depending on the amount of code to rewrite there have to be made the decission to build your own engine or use a aproofed one.

And there is allways a learning effect

[Sardtok]

I wouldn't exactly say I've released any games (I've made a couple of hobbyist games a long time ago though), but...
If you've already reinvented the wheel, then why adapt it to a formerly invented one?
For one, if you are planning on having this stuff in a portfolio, then having done an engine is nice to show off.

On the other hand the jMonkeyEngine looks great...
So, if you really need the features it has (and it doesn't actually sound like you do, it just sounds like you want to use it to add lots of extra stuff to your game), then it might be a good idea, if not, you're already almost done.
If I were you I would probably finish off the engine I was working, then for later projects, I would reconsider using the jMonkeyEngine before starting off.
Really, having done an engine from scratch is a lot of work, and is worth showing off, even if it's only used for a single project.
It's a learning experience, and you were going to port a lot of the stuff over to jme anyway, which you should do in the future, when you start working on your next project.
It's important not to decide to add a bunch of features halfway through making a game, as then when you're halfway through adding all that stuff, you'll find a bunch of new stuff to add...

[elias4444]

Very good advice, thank you both. I think I'm going to stick with my own engine for now... Sardtok helped me to remember just how much work I've put into it thus far. I may consider jME for future projects however, as it seems like a very capable engine.

Thanks guys!