What is benefit of Unreal engine when make 2d game?

Development Asset Creation
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1

So I think to make 2d game for mobile.

Maybe use of pixel or sprite 2d images. No 3d at all.

What are Unreal engine’s advantages for this work?

2

You can do it, but the only real advantage is familiarity with the tools. If you want to make a fully-2d game, you may find better options elsewhere.

3

To be honest, I believe there’s none; no benefits at all. An empty UE4 project will compile to around ~200mb, usually for 2D games you want the file size to be as small as possible if not targeting PC.
There are dedicated 2D engines out there that fits 2D projects better than Unity and UE4 together. They simply was built for that, to make 2D and only 2D games as optimized as possible.

Unity and Epic have a 2D module because of their personal market penetration needs as a platform… But aren’t really good neither truly functional for that.

4

The only advantage is, that you have a friendly and helpful community, beside that there are other tools around that are much better for 2d games :slight_smile:

5

Having developed 2d games in Unity, Unreal, SpriteKit, and OpenGL over many years - I will give you my personal opinion:

There are significant benefits to using a game engine like Unity or Unreal for a 2d game compared to using a simpler framework like SpriteKit.

  1. Superior editor GUI and tools. This can not be underestimated. The first thing you notice when using SpriteKit/XCode is the lack of tooling and the weakness of the scene editor built into xcode. Laying out and designing levels in a rich editor is so much better.

  2. Easier behavior development using blueprint (or c#). Development with Blueprints enables VERY fast iteration and testing of ideas. This pays off enormously.

  3. Superior portability across platforms. If you want to target multiple platforms e.g. iOS, Windows, Android, mac… Then using a game engine like Unreal is orders of magnitude better. Trying to maintain your own cross-platform OpenGL is madness.

  4. More vibrant community to ask questions and gain ideas. This is also immensely valuable.

My advice, using Unity and/or Unreal for any game development (2d or 3d).

6

Unreal still uses 3d Rendering even for 2d games. This let’s you do anything that other 2d engines wouldn’t let.

Unreal is free to try.

Unreal’s Blueprint system lets you do almost anything without knowing a single code. I am making a Fighting Game for example. :stuck_out_tongue:

Add whatever OptimisticMonkey said above.

7

Honestly, I think you may be better off with unity with this one. Their object model is simpler, their asset workflow is easier, and it is not like you’ll hit GI bug or mecanim glitch in 2D (main deal-breakers when using unity for 3d stuff).

The only issue is that you won’t have visual editing tools available for free and that unity does not include decision-tree based ai framework into base game.

8

How about Unity vs Unreal for 2D game?

Unreal also support google play (google highscore, achievement), in app purchase system integration? Are there already done plugin or official built-in method?

9

I"d advise to finish the game before worrying about in-app purchases.

For specifics on unity google play integration, ask on unity forums or browse their “editor support” forum for signs of trouble.

10

I already shipped several mobile game by Unity and there I already did google play integration, in app purchase items.

I just curious Unreal mobile game’s case.

11

I agree Unreal and Unity is fantastic and what you choose is your personal preference. However, for 2D i would really recommend Unity. I would also assume that Unreal will, over time, catch up with Unity.

Also, it is fun to see the differences when using both engines.

12

I come from Unity and from my experience making 2d games I must tell you why unity sucks:

  1. Unity have a world unit system that you see in the editor, why they couldn’t use pixel? yay you can get the screen size for example in pixel, but to move a game object you need the position in gameworld unit, not pixels, everything is a little ****ed up I can say
  2. I made my own lib I can say made of static classes that I use for getting positions and move objects using pixels and so on, however they are not accurate , next problem ->
  3. Unity scale your sprites only when you increase/descrease the height of the window, why not the width too or none?? wtf? now I need to overwrite their system
  4. More and more other things, script order for ex. I made a script system because unity sucks , functions that don’t work like set resolution, or get resolution indicates wrong values, but screen size works

I was thinking to try UE4, did you encounter any of these problems?

13

Blueprints (tools that you make to communicate to other tools) in general are an advantage (makes programmers and level designers communicate better) , but what makes unreal have an advantage for 2d games? First study console commands then turn off anything in excess and you can get a really fast project you just have to dive into it. Like everybody said the learning curve is harsh but you must rage against it then it will be revealed. The best video game analogy would be dark souls very rewarding but you have to put the time in to understand it.

14

The thread you’re replying to is over a year old :stuck_out_tongue: