When should I stop reinventing the wheel?

General Discussions
#1

Hello fellows,

I’ve been studying OpenGL and game programming for about a year now. I’ve also on this time created a pretty decent game engine. As I want to participate in the next Ludum Dare (and deploy to the web) I decided to start on writing a GWT/WebGL backend for my engine. But now I’m thinking that I may just be reinventing the wheel a little too much. LibGDX has everything my engine has, and even more. The only thing that is holding me back from LibGDX is my ego (I really like writing my own code). Should I stop now and just use LibGDX and actually make some games?

Thanks in advance,

Simn

#2

If LibGDX has what you want, use it. I only started using LibGDX again last week and realised what a huge waste of time it was attempting to create my own game engine. If you like tinkering with all the low level jargon though, keep at it.

#3

If you are writing a game… then stop making the back end and work on the game. You can always figure out the low level stuff later. However, you don’t always get the chance to participate in Ludum Dare. Who knows, you might even get more information for your back end by working on your game and LibGDX :stuck_out_tongue:

#4

Remember that libgdx is not an engine that there are still lot of fun low level code left to write for your games. It’s just save you writing all that annoying boilerplate code.

#5

Thanks for the replies. @pitbuller That’s very true, I think I’ll have to learn to admit that it’s nothing wrong using others code.

#6

[quote]When should I stop reinventing the wheel?
[/quote]
When you’ve caught up with the latest racing tires. :stuck_out_tongue:

#7

Using other people’s code is even the professional way :wink:

#8

[quote]When should I stop reinventing the wheel?
[/quote]
I always have this answer in my mind:

Stop reinventing the wheel when you know/understand how the wheel was made.

It’s a logical conclusion I got when I asked about reinventing the wheel some months ago.

#9

When you are unable to make your wheel ‘better’ than already existing ones. Or obviously if it is far too much effort to do so.

(Better is what you define as better. It doesn’t neccessarily mean your solution has to beat the others in every way)

#10

“When should I stop reinventing the wheel?”

When your garage is full of unusable selfmade wheels.

More serious answer: Stop sooner than later. Once you have a good idea how to make wheels, better use readymade ones. Actually, you can use readymade ones even without knowing how to make wheels.

The people who make libraries are not stupid.

#11

My wheels always turn out square, I made a hexagon once.

On a serious note, if you want to know/learn how something works, reinvent the wheel. Already know? Don’t waste your time.

#12

Thanks for the replies again guys. I’m currently playing with the included Box2D API in LibGDX. Everything so far in LibGDX makes perfect sense. I guess that’s a good sign. :slight_smile: