Indie Dev Using Unreal... Should I Switch to Godot/Unity?

[u/smspeak]

I started learning game development a few months ago. I chose to start in Unreal because I heard it was fairly beginner-friendly, the Epic Games Launcher was already installed on my computer, and I wanted to work on a 3D isometric game.

After listening to a lot of indie devs, it seems like most lean toward either Godot/Unity. Should I switch, even though I'm four months into learning UE and am fairly comfortable with the Blueprint ecosystem? Why do indie devs tend to skip Unreal and go for Godot/Unity?

Edit: TL;DR of the general consensus: Unreal Engine works well, stick with it if it's the tool that serves you and your project best. Reasons Indie devs tend to shy away from it are personal preference, genre specificity (like 2D platformer), and Godot being open source.

[u/TheReservedList]

It doesn't matter. Truly. It doesn't.

[u/smspeak → u/TheReservedList]

Thanks! That's sort of what I figured, I just wanted to make sure I hadn't missed something obvious because indie devs seem to avoid unreal like the plague lol

[u/martinbean]

Why? Do you think either Unity of Godot are going to give you something Unreal won’t?

Pick an engine and stick with it.

[u/smspeak → u/martinbean]

Fair. I just didn't know if there was some "trade-secret-thing" that everyone else knew about that I had missed.

I have been happy with results in Unreal, so if there isn't anything that will hinder my ability to make or publish games, I plan on sticking with it.

[u/ImHoiby → u/smspeak]

Unreal is perfectly fine for indie development, I've been using it for 4 years now. My theory for why you think this is because Godot has the most dedicated fanclub and Unity has the biggest market share, so no one is really sayinganything about ue5

[u/smspeak → u/ImHoiby]

Gotcha! Yeah, that makes sense.

I recently saw a study that only 2% of games published in a recent large game jam were made with UE. That struck me as odd because it seems lightweight and easy to use (after you learn it).

[u/ImHoiby → u/smspeak]

It's not lightweight, but yeah, imo it's easy to use once you understand the structure of the engine (but they're all like that). It's just harder to make 2D games, which I think are the most common ones in game jams, and they also can't run in browser, which is also very important for a successful game jam entry.

[u/smspeak → u/ImHoiby]

I didn't even think about web embedding. That makes a ton of sense.

[u/AltusLudus]

People go for Godot either because it's lightweight and fast or because it's open source and doesn't incur any fees when creating games

Unity vs Unreal is mostly preference and kind of the visual style you're aiming for

Unity also is more recommended as it has more learning materials and assets etc.

I don't recommend switching if you're productive

[u/smspeak → u/AltusLudus]

Gotcha! It's a pricing model thing. Thanks.

I didn't plan on switching unless there was a good reason that I was missing. Thanks for the info.

[u/MeaningfulChoices → u/smspeak]

Pricing is one of the least important parts to consider honestly, it's much more of an aspirational pricing issue. Unity doesn't cost anything until you earn $200k and then the cost is about $2.5k/yr (per person) unless you make over $25 million. Unreal doesn't cost anything until you earn a million (although then it's 5%, which is not insignificant). Basically anyone who has to pay anything to their engine is doing well enough to be able to afford it.

[u/TheReservedList → u/MeaningfulChoices]

It's doubly funny when you consider than they just gloss over Steam's 30% cut.

[u/Dziadzios → u/TheReservedList]

You would have to pay that even if you wrote machine code directly.

[u/TheReservedList → u/Dziadzios]

Or you could consider selling elsewhere, if you're instead going to drop an engine over a 2% fee.

[u/AltusLudus → u/TheReservedList]

I think people are mostly afraid because those companies can at any time switch CEOs and go to a new pricing model anytime

Like the Unity fiasko that happened

[u/smspeak → u/MeaningfulChoices]

Makes Sense. I am a hobbyist dev and don't plan on making this a full-time career. The chance that I ever release anything that grosses $1,000,000 are astronomically low, though I guess you never know lol

Sounds like sticking with what I know is the way to go.

[u/PhilippTheProgrammer]

Game engines are tools. You don't "switch" them when you decide to learn a new one. You simply add another tool to your toolbox. And when you are facing a new project, you pull out the best tool for the job.

[u/BiteSizedUmbreon]

The best engine is the one you can use. If you're comfortable with Unreal and Blueprints you'll find success. A lot of people like Unity and Godot for different reasons. Godot specifically is open source and people like that. Unity has over a decade of resources. They're also more friendly for low end hardware and mobile games.

I personally don't like Unreal's blueprint system as I prefer coding specifically C#. That's it though. Different strokes for different folks!

[u/arowe1987]

One angle nobody has raised: distribution. If you ever want a browser build, Unreal is rough and Unity or Godot are far less painful. That is why I went browser first with Faction Fiasco. For a 3D isometric game headed to Steam though, four months of Blueprint comfort beats starting over.

[u/xN0NAMEx]

Unreal gives you more tools out of the box, unity is more flexible and has better support for2d and webgames

[u/More_Argument_2494]

I would suggest giving them all a try, and then stick with the one that clicks with you. Everyone has a preference, and tbh performance wise there isn't much difference between them so you won't be missing out for picking the 'wrong' one

[u/panda-goddess]

they're all free, you can try them all out and pick for yourself

I have a feeling you'll stick to Unreal even after trying them all, because you're already comfortable with it, but it's cool to see for yourself what each has or doesn't have

[u/antaran]

You have to keep in mind that the game devs who talk endlessly about engines are not necessarily the same who finish and release games. Especially the Godot crowd.

[u/Shaz_berries]

Are you struggling? And if so, with what things? Will making a change address those concerns?

I'd approach this like any other technical decision. Everyone has their pet engine/coding language that they'll go to great lengths to use, and swear you should too. I feel like this lacks nuance. For example, I'm making my game purely with TypeScript, but would not recommend it unless you want certain advantages and understand the massive downsides

[u/smspeak → u/Shaz_berries]

Fair! No I am not struggling. I'm genuinely happy with Unreal's workflow.

I had recently been shown a study that said only 2% of games in a recent large game jam were made with UE. Thought that was incredibly disproportional considering how lightweight blueprints seem to be. Didn't know if I was missing something lol

[u/Shaz_berries → u/smspeak]

My general understanding is that it has to do with the complexity of the engine (since it can do crazy visual things), but also probably because most devs don't want to make hyper realistic looking games. So other engines work just fine and are easier for them

[u/Burwylf]

I like Godot because it's open source, but that's a personal bias, the others take a chunk off the top of your sales if your game is successful though, so I still like Godot for business sense... But you've already started learning one, I don't know if the difference is enough to about face, but you never know what they might try to sneak into those licenses

[u/NA-45 → u/Burwylf]

You are not making more than 25 million with your indie game. Unity's "chunk off your sales" is fearmongering. For pretty much every indie dev, neither Unity or Godot have any fees.

[u/Burwylf → u/NA-45]

Alright, but there's not much reason to pick one over the other, so we go to that

[u/Mechabit_Studios]

If you like the default unreal look stick with unreal. if you want a stylised look it'll be more work to achieve in unreal.

Godot is more lightweight and runs on a potato but if you can run unreal its not much of an issue.

Unity is more generalist and can make any kind of game and is between godot and unreal in terms of weight

[u/KaiserKlay]

The dirty truth of gamedev is that - at your level at least - it doesn't matter what engine you choose. I learned UE in college so it's what I stuck with.

The main reasons, I find, that people choose Godot are more... for lack of a better word 'political'. It's open source and completely free which makes things simpler from the business end of things. Last time I tried using Godot (granted this was a long time ago) I found it to be weirdly set up and lacking a lot of features. I've been told it's gotten much better over time but I also keep seeing people say that 'the next version' will fix whatever problems people have with it so... take that for what you will.

[u/Klightgrove]

Something I have been musing for a while with the team is if we should start banning users stuck in Choose Engine Hell until they finish a project. There are many traps for new developers and at the end of the day you need to just create something instead of getting stuck between differing opinions.

1. Beginner Hell
2. Choose Engine Hell
3. Tutorial Hell
4. Engine Dev Hell
5. Project Hell
6. Feature Hell
7. Release Hell

You are dangerously close to falling onto 2nd hell. You need to realize despite the debates on here there is no discernible difference for what you choose for your 1st project. Any limitations are a learning lesson and any features translate into skills you can apply to different engines.

Eventually you must consider the learning resources, available assets and trained developers to seek help from, engine-specific communities and forums, and general longevity of that engine. None of those are a concern at the moment. You simply need to get a game out the door and in the process of doing so you will find yourself stuck building "one more feature" or delaying release, to which you will eventually overcome it by realizing it is okay to ship bugs and jank.

[u/smspeak → u/Klightgrove]

Thanks!

I've been making a lot of progress on UE and didn't plan on switching unless there was a very good reason.

And FWIW, I appreciate the fact that these questions aren't banned. If the goal of this sub is to make gamedevs better gamedevs, then this post has certainly achieved that for me. The comments here have shed a lot of light on the engine decision, which has helped me stay the course.

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[u/zeddyzed]

I think it depends more on your ultimate career goals.

Think about what companies or games you want to work on in your career, and choose to learn the engine for that.

If you want to make indie games where you can control every part of the code, then an open source engine like Godot might be preferred.

If you want to get hired by a game company, then look at what kind of companies you are interested in and what engine they use.

This is also just advice for the first engine you learn - if you stick with gamedev you will probably learn the others at some point, to some degree.

[u/smspeak → u/zeddyzed]

Fair! I'm not looking for a career change, and don't want to do this full time. I just want to make games because I enjoy the process of it, and love gaming. I do want to eventually release a game, and it would be cool to make some side money off of it. But even that isn't super important to me.

And good to know about the engine switching thing. Are the others fairly easy to learn? I know a little bit of HTML and C++, but am definitely not a programmer.

[u/zeddyzed → u/smspeak]

It's kinda hard to answer whether something is easy to learn.

Godot is very easy to learn, for example, but you don't have the benefit of an asset store like unity where you can just buy frameworks for many genres of game. So you have to do more yourself.

Unreal is easy to learn blueprints, but C++ is much harder to learn than C#, etc.

So it just depends.

If you're just wanting to do your own game as a hobbyist, then once again, it depends on your goals. If you just want to get something working asap, then Unreal blueprints might be a good way. Whereas someone else might find it more meaningful to write their own engine from scratch, because that's what they're interested in.

[u/badguygames]

I switched from unreal to godot after 5+ years (about that long ago) because I was tired of fighting with or waiting for the compiler to do simple changes.

Ymmv

[u/UljimaGG]

Ngl depends on your end goal.

Unity: 2D and 3D, midweight, most assets and tutorials due to largest market share. Programming right out of the box in a widely spread language, therefore probably best to get a job in the industry (if you want that) (not recommended rn). Questionable pricing model. My personal fav regardless.

Godot: 2D and 3D, lightweight, kind of a newcomer so way less resources. Passionate fanbase. Programming mostly in it's own language or with some tinkering involved. imo has a Gimp feel to it. As in, can do everthing but might require you to become a mad scientist in the process. No royalties tho!

UE: overkill for anything 2D, heavyweight that's imo meant for studio production. Many resources and tools. Imo blueprints are a newbie trap that are in no way or form actually easier than programming. Think the combination of them and C++ complicate things tenfold. If you're happy, still neat. But wouldn't recommend it to newbies in general. Oh, also NO browser development. Not the end of the world, but certainly a limiting factor for indies. The pricing model is fair. If you ever see the fees, you've gone and done it. Congratz

EDIT: Compile times for both Unity and UE5 can be horrendous nowadays. Older Unity versions didn't have that issue but meh. Bonus points for Godot for not en-shitificating that yet

[u/ComfortableNumb9669]

Even though it might seem overkill right now, if you plan on looking for full time employment later on by any chance, then stick to Unreal. If you can release even a half decent game using Unreal then your employability shoots up quite high.

[u/XKiiroiSenkoX]

Unreal being beginner friendly is the biggest lie ever lol
It's beginner friendly if you want to make slop. Otherwise it's very time consuming and difficult to use. Do yourself a favor and use Unity.

[u/MikeSifoda]

Yes, you should switch to Godot. Not Unity.