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Discussion on: IAMA Gaming/AI/Cloud Architect Turned Designer/Product Lead, Ask Me Anything!

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jitheshkt profile image
Jithesh. KT

I have a product idea. But it's core part contains a graphics engine (or game engine). Since I am just a coder (who hardly writes python but does lots of JS) do you think I can pull the MVP myself.? Where should I start when it comes to graphics engine?

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taillogs profile image
Ryland G

Without knowing the specifics, there's less advice I can give.

Since I am just a coder (who hardly writes python but does lots of JS) do you think I can pull the MVP myself.?

Even with the little information I do have, I feel comfortable answering yes to this. There are so many free, open source options in the software world. Unless you want to innovate the graphics engine itself, it should be pretty easy to find something that doesn't require much understanding of graphics.

Where should I start when it comes to graphics engine?

Again, hard to answer without knowing more. If you want to keep using JS, there is the threejs framework, which has a moderate barrier of entry. If you want something less technical phaser is also great. I wrote a moderately complex browser based engine in threejs for a talk I gave at Serverless conf last year. That code is available here if you wanted a reference.

As a product guy, I would advise you to really make sure you understand the "problem" your product solves. ALL great products solve a problem. What is the need from users that is being satisfied by your concept?

Remember, as long as it works, users won't care if you built your own graphics engine or used something off the shelf. Focus spending your time on the things that will bring more value to your users.

I hope that answered your question, if not let me know.