I’m new to UE and game development in general. I’m a 3D Artist, and trying to make my own dream game.
I’m torn between UE and Unity. I just want to make a simple stylized game, no need to be photorealistic. Maybe something like Animal Crossing or Tearaway:
I heard Unity is great for games like these, but I’m not a coding expert (I have a bit of experience with web development though), and I hear Unity is missing a lot of features, and I have to “buy” those features separately. That’s why I look to UE.
But I also often heard that UE is only best for AAA/AA games, not for indies or solo dev. Sadly I don’t have the luxury of much free time to try in-depth every game engine. I just watch some tutorials on YT.
Should I continue with UE, or move to some other engine that suits best my need, without wasting a lot of my time?
I think Unreal is often misunderstood like that- that being unreal is only good for AAA/AA games. A lot of what makes Unreal great for AAA/AA also makes it good for indies- everyone’s making a game, no matter how much money is getting pumped into it.
It isn’t necessarily easier to make a simple, stylized game in Unity. Although it is easier to make photorealistic in Unreal thanks to quixel and lighting with a very high starting bar, that doesn’t mean it’s harder to make stylized games.
Just consider looking into tutorials on how to get the kind of look you’re going for. Things like auto-exposure wouldn’t necessarily go well with that kind of look.
You can make great looking games using either engine, but I’d recommend just sticking with Unreal at this point. There aren’t any glaring reasons one is better than the other for that type of game, and you’ve already started learning Unreal.
Not necessarily exactly what you’re looking for, but the channel PrismaticaDev is handy for learning specific things you may want to know. StylizedStation is nice too, but it’s pretty hit or miss.
Just so you know, there’s a lot more options than just these two for creating this type of game.
Try test-driving GODOT first to see how you get on. Its Epic dev grants backed. It downloads in a few secs, and installs in less than a minute. It offers a real challenge to Unity across many different game types.
That’s all part of the journey. Its how you figure out if a certain game engine suits you or NOT.
That’s probably the worst way to learn tbh. Unless you want to learn a huge amount of bad habits and become a zombie: Youtube ‘infection’
Unreal is probably overkill for the project you’re planning. But its good to have clear goals about WHY you’re doing this. So if the goal is to gradually improve and get better and eventually end up a pro dev, then realize now that you’ll probably have to learn everything eventually anyway. So it doesn’t really matter what you start out with, as long as it keeps you going and interested.
The coding part will be a big part of your decision (that’s why its important to try a few engines first to see what you like). Unreal has Blueprints which is probably the easiest option, but it isn’t for everyone. Unity’s C# also works great. But Godot gd-script is even better / simpler. But hey the best or right answer is just to try things out. And look for similar sample projects you can try.
for any character based 3d game I think you’ll find unreal to increase your productivity by large factors.
blueprint is faster and easier than anything else for 90% of your games code (unless you were already fluent in some other language).
unreals level design and general asset management tools are 100x better than what you get elsewhere.
lastly, the engine is more stable and polished.
my experience making games in unity was mostly pain, but in unreal i never lose productivity due to the engine. so for me the difference is major.
there is tons of misinformation on the web because 5-10 years ago unreal wasn’t viable for most indie devs. unity was only real option. so people get used to it and naturally even after things change, they don’t want to anymore. So then the experienced people keep saying what used to be true but might not be any longer, and naturally noobies tend to parrot what they read.
So it takes time for public opinion to catch up with reality. This is all to say, forget whatever nonsense you read on the internet - test things out for yourself. My belief is that if you compare unity and unreal in the same way I have (make a few types of games in each) you’ll greatly prefer unreal for anything that is not 2d game or very out-of-the-ordinary (like minecraft)
I’m not quite sure… solo devs are extremely rare. Even Undertale wasn’t technically solo since Temmie Chang helped.
Talking about indie, I’m still not sure. I think technically Satisfactory was <10 people when it started, but maybe not. I’m not exactly the best person to ask since I don’t exactly follow a ton of games, but @Everynone might know. Knows everything short of how to summon a genie.
It’s not going to be the same without Jace. But Coffee Stain Studios is now like 9 studios or something. Hardly Indie. They were when they made the Goat Simulator.
Simple? Check!
Stylised? Check!
Goat? Also check!
Knows everything short of how to summon a genie.
Nonsense, summons a @ClockworkOcean genie. He made a game, it’s neither simple or stylised, but it is very much solo.
Is it true that UE is not best for simple, stylized indie games?
UE seems to be fine for about everything but 2D. I spent limited time on Unity but have been working with UE4 since the start, now 5. The problem with Unreal is that EPIC keeps pumping in new and shiny features but there hasn’t been a single version fit for releasing a game in a while, definitely not UE5, because existing features are being broken over and over. It’s a bug spaghetti and the engine code is awful. The reason I am still sticking with UE is that I have a lot of knowledge about it to quickly set up games. However, the hours and hours I have spent on working around EPIC’s broken crap makes me want to research if Unity is a more stable option. I can’t tell if Unity’s user base is stable, growing or declining with all the shiny stuff in UE drawing in new people… Worst case it could cause engines like Unity to die at some point but that might not be the case… just a worry. In the end only an engine which prefers quality over quantity in features has my heart.
So, how is your exp so far with Unity? Is it better for you? I also heard Unity loves to add new features and then abandoned them. I always thought UE is on the better side (Definitely looks more polished to my beginner’s eyes), but your comment give me more perspective.
Well I tried to get familiar with the editor side, not the code side of Unity some time ago because I wanted to see what it could do for a 2D game concept. I didn’t get much experience with it at all because I felt uncomfortable seeing how slow I adapted to it knowing I know UE so much better. I switched to UE Paper2D to implement a concept there, this went quite quick. Except UE abandoned Paper2D and 2D in general so both options remain a question mark for me. Once you get past the learning curve of UE and pretty much memorize everything that can go wrong and will go wrong the level editor and most asset editors are simple and quick to work with. Behind it (in code) is a mess at best and debugging / fixing problems on every new version takes more time than actual development. I can’t tell if this is also true for Unity. UE also abandons every older version than the “Latest 3 major versions” which are always full of bugs. There is no LTS and no staff response on the forums to bugs. New plugins are often integrated as defaults while still experimental, such as CommonUI and EnhancedInput. Overall it’s a gem damaged by business and apparently amateur programmers.
Basically the same experience. As far as I have experience from the companies I work in, unfortunately, many people have been dissatisfied with Unreal and Epic for the last three years (from last third of UE4). It’s not very well known opinion, because nobody is talking about that in public.
As for UE5, it’s the best in my opinion for small or mid games. You won’t create large AAA with it, or you’ll have a lot of problems (with older UE4 yes). You basically have to “believe” in Epic. But don’t expect better support.
Even for a smaller game, the engine is as good as it gets. Basically, you can use everything. However, even with a smaller half-empty scene, you won’t get much fps without adding lights or some more complex materials. With a hybrid pipeline, where you render everything “twice”, you probably won’t come up with anything better. But the biggest problem is that Unreal has many complicated features that are dependent on each other. So if you have a problem with one, it will affect the overall result.
But Coffee Stain Studios is now like 9 studios or something. Hardly Indie. They were when they made the Goat Simulator.