We are a small group of developers and we want to create a Future-like MMO which will combine City building, RTS, Economic and Political type of games.
We are unsure if we should develop a DirectX9 engine from scratch or use tools like XNA, DXstudio.(we have experience creating a simple FPS-like engine using DirectX)
Another question is if engines like UnrealEngine/ UDK, Unity are really an option for a complex game like ours(most games developed with these engines are FP/3rdP Shooters)?
Any idea for where to start with the engine will be helpful.
You allways endup with engine that prefectly fits your needs if you build it your self. but this takes time and is costy.
On the other hand picking a engine like UDK/CryEngine, you will save some time but probably need to give time to be able to do exactly what you want.
If i would suggest a start is to nail down every technical aspect of the game.
For example, things like this :
Graphics, Content handling/pipeline, SocialSupport(Facebook, Twitter), Target platform, How to solve most of your programming problems (How to use the economy system, building systems etc)
And when all that is done, just try this out in a easy alpha in all the engines you would like to test. (including writing a own, but with limited stuff to just make it prototype)
from there, pick what feelt best and hope that it will work out, 🙂
hope that helps some!