Is SFML right for me?

[JETeran]

Hello everybody, I'm happy to be around this forums.

I'm starting a new game dev career and I want to create games in C++, a language I love to use, even thought I still don't have that much experience, but I'm working on it.

But I have a problem, I'm jumping the net to look for the best library I can use to make my games. I found SFML very attractive but I want to know if it is the correct one for me? I want to develop 2D platform games with many animations like the good old Flashback or Another World.

Thanks so much everybody.

[Hapax]

It can be. It's easy to use and really powerful. It manages to abstract away a lot of the really low-level stuff but still allows you to get down there if you need to.
One thing to note is that SFML doesn't do 3D. If you don't need 3D, or you can use OpenGL (you can use OpenGL 3D graphics in a SFML window along with SFML's 2D graphics), I'd recommend sticking it out with SFML.

[Grimshaw]

Sure, if you are willing to learn and make an effort it might be THE tool for you using c++. I just have to remark that there are _easier_ things to use for game making, but arguably less powerful and more restraining than doing everything yourself..

If I had to pick something again, SFML would be it.

[eigenbom]

Yep, you'll definitely be able to make something like Flashback or Another World with it, but note that it's quite simple and low-level, so you'll need to build all the subsystems yourself. As an example, SFML gives you the ability to draw an image on screen, but if you want to animate it then you'll have to write all the code to do that. Compare that to, for example, cocos2d-x, which provides animation classes, render batching, a scene-graph,  etc. In my own experience, I chose SFML, and have implemented a substantial (>50k LOC) game engine on top of it.

SFML is a good library if you want/need to start at a very solid low-level and have the time and resources to also build the game engine basics, but probably not the best choice if you just want to make games.

[Nexus]

As an example, SFML gives you the ability to draw an image on screen, but if you want to animate it then you'll have to write all the code to do that.

If you also use Thor, you have to write a bit less

[JETeran]

Thank you so much people for answering my question.

I'm really happy with your answers, seems that SFML has a great community with a lot of proactive people!

If you also use Thor, you have to write a bit less

I was looking at this Thor library and seems really interesting, specially if I want to use sprites and animations within SFML, can you please tell me more about it?

Thanks once again for your kindly responses.

[Nexus]

Thor is an extension library to SFML. It provides more high-level features that are often required in game development, such as particle systems, animations, vector algebra functions or color gradients.

To see how a specific feature can help simplify code, I recommend having a look at the tutorials and API documentation on my homepage.

[JETeran]

Thanks very much Nexus for your kindly response.

Yes I can see that is very attractive and powerful, I will dig more during the next days.

Keep having a good one!