Choosing a game engine is, in my opinion, the most important step to take while developing video games. It is where you will have access to the components and tools you need to create your world, and is also where all of your assets and scripts are compiled to bring life to your project. Whenever I start working with a new team, my first question is always: “What engine are we working on?”
I’m going to clue you in on two of the most popular game engines that people use in the industry, Unity and Unreal Engine. These programs account for being the main engine for almost all modern video games, with them also being the most documented in terms of support from their creators and users.
Why the Engine You Develop on Is Important
In the years prior to wide accessibility to game development tools and software online, game developers used in-house software (and sometimes hardware) to make their games. This was due to how there was no known standard for where to make games, and with many AAA companies wanting to keep their software from being used by competitors. However, it is very intensive for smaller studios to develop and upkeep these systems on top of training new employees on how to use them.
So, instead of making their own software, many developers utilize programs from other companies that allow others to use their services for an annual service fee, or for a cut of the profits received by the games that are made using their product. A major advantage of using these engines is that many of them are free to use for educational purposes, which was helpful for me while I was in college learning game development.
There are several services available for developers to create their games on. However, depending on the features and plugins available, some types of games are better developed on specific software. For me, I switch between different engines for different types of projects, with the two I use the most being Unity and Unreal Engine with my teams due to how they are more commonly known.
There are some game engines that have been optimized for the development of games in certain genres. A few examples of this would be Enterbrain’s RPG Maker, which is commonly used for creating Japanese Role-Playing Games (JRPGS), and Tom “PyTom” Rothamel’s Ren’Py, which is a Python-based engine focused on creating visual novel games. I commonly use these two engines when I’m working on passion projects within these genres.
What is Unity?
Unity from Unity Technologies is used to develop both 2D and 3D games. This is the common engine of choice for indie developers due to its ease of use, straightforward user interface, and its expansive list of plugins that can be added to projects during any step of development. This was the first engine I ever learned as I was starting game development, and it has been the one I have had the most experience within my professional work.
I’ve mainly used the 2022 and 2023 versions of Unity, however, Unity 6 does include new features like its own version control system and generative AI tools to assist developers in making games. I have not tried out these tools myself, but have heard positive reception regarding them from fellow developers. My favorite part of the Unity program is how the engine’s user interface (UI) is easy to navigate and customize for my team’s needs.
The engine was used to develop indie titles such as Cuphead, Among Us, and Beat Saber, with AAA companies Niantic and Mediatonic using it for their games. Several mobile games and virtual reality applications use Unity for their development, seemingly dominating these fields on the development end. Unity has also been used outside of game development in creating backgrounds for films, training artificial intelligence, as well as developing simulations for the architectural, engineering, and construction industries.
What Kinds of Games Unity is the Best at Developing?
InnerSloth
Unity shines its best in its ability to help indie creators create stylistic worlds. With it supporting both 2D and 3D games, there is a great diversity of tools available for either medium to be worked within. As the engine has many plugins that can be plugged into a project at any time, developers can feel more free to experiment with new concepts in both their game’s design and development.
Some of the most popular games that used the engine for their development all tend to be unique in both gameplay and art. As Among Us is a social mystery game with simple “cartoonish” graphics, Escape from Tarkov is a realistic 3D FPS shooter game. Despite the vast differences between these two games, they both share a similarity in how they were both made using Unity. My studio is currently working on a game with a 2.5D perspective, which combines elements of the 2D and 3D tools that the engine provides.
I also recommend this engine for new developers as its engine documentation is beautifully designed to be friendly for beginners and experts. It is also not a powerful engine to run, as some low-end office computers are able to run the program without any issues.
What is Unreal Engine?
Unreal Engine is the main development software Epic Games uses for their studio, which they allow developers to use for free if they are not established in the industry or are just wanting to learn how the engine works. When I first learned this, I was shocked as this is the program that an AAA company uses and immediately decided to choose the engine for my team’s senior capstone. A decision that in hindsight led to our development being more difficult, but gave us important experience of how to work in an industry-standard program.
AAA game developers use Unreal Engine for games with realistic graphics due to its support of high-quality meshes, lumen lighting, alongside its built-in geometry system called Nanite, which allows for the meshes to be rendered to look very realistic. This engine uses C++ as its main programming language. However, the node-based “BluePrints” system in the engine is used by many studios for their development due to its easier-to-use interface, and visual approach to game engineering. The BluePrints are my favorite part of this engine as you can visually see how your code connects different commands to one another.
Epic has used Unreal Engine to develop their massively popular titles like Gears of War and Fortnite, with the ladder popularizing the engine among developers. It has also been used by other AAA studios like Square Enix and Riot Games for their games. Many indie studios use UE5 for 3D games, with examples being Stray, What Remains of Edith Finch, and my team used the software in college for our senior capstone project, Desecration.
What Kinds of Games Unreal Engine is the Best at Developing?
From personal experience working professionally using the engine and from industry trends, I recommend using Unreal Engine mainly for 3D games with high-definition graphics or with intensive movement mechanics. It can be used for projects on smaller scales. However, I believe more intensive projects shine the best using the engine, as they can utilize it to its greatest ability.
The most famous games to come from the engine are praised for their high graphics quality as well as smooth movement in a 3D environment. Stray, Fortnite, and Borderlands 3 have all either been nominated or won in many awards shows for their art direction, with Fortnite, It Takes Two, and Dragon Ball FighterZ being praised by players for their responsive gameplay. All of these projects fully utilize the engine’s rendering, nanite, and ray-tracing features to their full potential.
I recommend this engine for those who want to make powerful games, as you do need either a gaming PC or a gaming laptop in order to run it. From experience, it did destroy my original office laptop that I used in college three months after I started to use it full-time for my capstone. If you do have the technology that can run the software, I highly recommend trying it out if you’d like to have the experience of working in an AAA program.
At the end of the day, it is up to you as the developer to decide which engine you’ll like to use for your games. Whatever works the best for you as well as your team will always be the best engine to use, regardless of features. My best advice is to stick with the engine you choose and not to pivot mid-way through production, as that’ll almost effectively restart your game’s development.
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Now this is truly unreal performance.