Esenthel Engine

Esenthel engine is a game SDK in development since year 2000. It is a competitor to other SDKs like Unity or Unreal Engine but let’s take a look at its features.

FEATURES

Esenthel engine has been developed for 16 years now and it is considered a very solid SDK. There are not many bugs on it and we can say it is a very reliable one. The graphics can be really good, supporting DX from 9 to 11 and shader model up to 5, Opel GL and Web GL. It works pretty well for both 2D and 3D but it is mostly used for 3D development. It supports bump mapping, tessellation, shadow mapping, fogs, water reflections, clouds, decals, dynamic lighting with several modes like volumetric, cone, point and directional and it manages particles very well. The anti-aliasing is quite correct too and it offers several functionalities like dithering, vertex buffering and even support for VR devices like Oculus Rift.

Esenthel engine has a good support for textures and 3D models. You can import your models in FBX, DAE, OBJ, 3DS, B3D, MS3D, PSK PSA, BVH and ASE and you can import textures in almost every format as well. There is also an animation tool into Esenthel engine, skeletal based and with up to 256 bones. It has a lot of features as well like inverse kinematics, item slots and many more which leads us to the gaming engine. Esenthel engine is powered by Nvidia PhysX and Bullet. This engine has been used by the major players of the gaming industry so, we won’t discuss here how good it is.

Although the engine can´t be considered purely cross-platform because you may have to develop separate apps for each, Esenthel engine can create games for PC, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, Web and Xbox. When it comes to network communications, you can totally make an online game with Esenthel engine even an MMO.

You can also monetize your games with this engine. It supports AdMob and ChartBoost, and also in-app purchases from all the different marketplaces like the Apple Store, Google Play and Windows Store. It is a great SDK.

It is worth noting this SDK includes everything you need to create a game. From textures to animations, and all the necessary coding. With this single tool, you can create a videogame, and not all SDKs can say the same. Some of the tools can be easily replaced by the ones of your choice, for example you can create the models with your favorite 3D tool and then import it to Esenthel so, you are not tied to it to do everything, just get what you need.

The community behind it is really small. There are not many people using this engine and, even though there are a lot of tutorials and videotutorials, the learning curve is very steep. This engine is not a very intuitive and easy to learn, although it has many drag and drop options to make almost anything you need. The support is quite good actually and that´s surprising. It is surprising because Esenthel engine is a one-man show. There is only one developer behind it and still, he manages to improve the engine and offer support to those who need. The support is usually provided via the official forums and, sometimes, email.

Esenthel engine is fairly priced at $11.40 per month in the most basic pack and also has another pricing pack if you pay annually (usually has a 20% discount). There is also another pricing pack if you also want to have access to the source code, at $19 per month. Generally speaking, this engine is cheap but it has no free trials or indie versions with reduced prices. Still, we like the fact that they offer the source code for cheap and they don´t hide the prices at all. The prices are what they are.

There are quite a few games released with Esenthel engine, although the flow of games is pretty slow. Esenthel engine is not aimed at big companies but to individual developers instead so, many of them abandon their projects before they are finished. Still a fair amount of them are released and some of them were released this year. Esenthel Engine claims they have a great engine but the truth of the matter is the graphics can´t compare to the last versions of Unreal Engine or Unity. You can´t compare the prices either so, it is quite balanced.

PROS AND CONS

PROS

• Good game engine
• Affordable price
• Ability to import many file types
• Everything included, there are tools for almost anything
• Good support
• Community is very helpful
• Cross-platform
• You can get the source code
• Good tutorials made in a professional way

CONS

• Not as powerful as some competitors
• Difficult to learn
• No trial versions
• Not a lot of games released with Esenthel
• Not many games released with it

CONCLUSION

Esenthel is a very handsome SDK. It is cheap and has enough power to create indie games at an affordable price. It is highly recommended for small groups or single developers because actually Esenthel is created and maintained by a single person as well. Do not be fooled by the last statement, this doesn´t mean you won´t get good support, it is actually the other way around. Since there are not many people using this engine, but they are quite active, their community is very helpful. It feels like a big family and that´s something you want to get when you are in a community. The engine is quite difficult to learn but if you are committed to it you can do it all by yourself because there are quite a few tutorials made in a professional way. Overall, it is a good option if you have the dream to create a good game and you are all by yourself with not many funds to invest in expensive graphics or fancy game engines.