We would have liked to support Unreal - but… not without C#
The guy quoted below has it clearly stated. C# isn’t just a development option. It should be embedded WITHIN THE PRODUCT , and just be compiled as part of the normal build-release cycle.
How much business are you losing (we went with Unity because of this) because you don’t spend about 4 hours per release recompiling this integration for everyone?
Hi Epic,
A while back Xamarin released a preview of Mono for UE that gives us the ability to use C# instead of C++. This is great for those of us that know and prefer to use C#. Let alone it taps into the market of one of your main competitors Unity. I can personally say that i have tried learning C++ and the more i learn, the more i prefer C#. But i’ve also used Unity and UE and i personally think the UE editor and Epics values are a far better experience. I can also say i would have never tried UE because it was C++ and not C# or one of the many languages similar to C# if it wasn’t for a bad experience with Unity that turned me off them. But this is not about what is a better language to program games in, its about expanding your reach to a larger audience.
Recently Xamarin has announced that they will stop updating Mono, and rightly so, because the setup and installation process required is far to problematic. They just could not get a decent enough experience with it current UE licensing. I’ve tried it myself, having to download UE source, apply a bunch of patches and try to build the engine has been very painful. It requires far to much insight into the source to get it working when you come across a problem in the process. In saying that once you got it working developing in C# was great. It can only get better.
I would happily pay for a plugin that was easy to install and gave me access to C#, hopefully Xamarin would stick to there typical model and only require a development license when you are ready to publish. This would fit in nicely with UE’s model of being free until you become successful.
So please epic, can you partner with Xamarin to resurrect Mono for UE and bring a truly easy to install, setup and use plugin that will bring us all the benefits of working in C# and expand your market reach. It would be a win win for everyone and you would have the upper hand of being able to use C++ or C# for UE Games. With your constant improvements to the marketplace, friendly editor, company values and the ability to use C# it would be hard not to look closely at using UE over Unity.
Regards