Why Solo Developers Should Use Unreal

I chatted with @TwoStarGames to discuss why he used Unreal as a solo developer to create the smash hit Choo Choo Charles...

[thomasbrush]

For the record guys, I'm sticking with Unity! But it's good to know the reasons why Unreal can be used as well! 

[onethousandxp]

Bro really doesn't want what's behind that door to get out.

[capitanhotcake]

6:14 "You can make a game wrong and it be profitable"
AAA games: Yes

[revalreval]

Did anyone notice how many locks Gavin has on the door?

[ChipboardDev]

As a struggling indie dev, I like how you mention that there's a million ways to do something, and that even though you're making it "wrong", if it works, then it works. The end user doesn't care as long as they're not lagging or suffering.

Edit: this is getting misconstrued as supporting bad practice in programming, but that's not what I'm talking about. All I'm saying is that it's ok to not be 100% conventional all of the time as long as you're doing so responsibly.

[soundhunter]

Gavens "wrong" way of texturing is not as wrong as it seems. He did something quite similar to trimsheets, which are commonly used by AAA studios for texturing models like buildings etc.

[SSLCKtv]

Bro has 40 locks on his door behind him LMFAO what the heck

[colonelb]

On the gaming front I too have found that blueprints can do pretty much everything, maybe like 95%-99% of all the things you care about with that last small part being only relevant for complex things you may not even care about in an indie game. The separation from blueprint and C++ is really meant for larger studios where you'd have a few senior coders that write all the core gameplay logic in C++ and then let the level designers and artists consume that in blueprint, so that there is a separation of workflows based on department and skillset, but as a solo or even a small team that's not really important anyway.

And regarding the "you can make it wrong and still be profitable" applies to not just games but all software. I'm a programmer w/ over 25+ years experience and work on HR software and I swear to god if folks saw the code that powered their online banking and 401Ks they'd keep their money in a shoebox, lol

[Helthurian]

I love blueprints. It's the only reason I started game dev because raw code never clicked with me. The cool thing is too, I now can read raw code better because of my use of blueprints since the terminology is similar. Glad to see yet another successful dev call out gatekeeping.

[thewhyyyguy]

I’m a new solo game dev using ue5. Started about a week ago. Already have a player controller, basic hit detection and combat animations for the player. I have a map and new sky boxes. I also just got the beginnings of some NPCs working. And this is just within a week starting with zero prior knowledge. It’s easy to learn if you are willing to fix something 200times before it works the right way!

[CoffeeAI]

2:53 that door behind him tho… Gavin knows/has seen things he shouldn’t…

[gnoel]

Wow what a great interview! I could listen to you 2 talk for 3 hours... As a guy who has zero background in game developing and is currently learning UE5, I am so happy to hear that I can do everything in blueprint and C++ is not necessary.

[hamzahgamedev]

As a Solo Developer myself who is working on a massive open world farming game, I am sticking with Unity for now, but I do have second thoughts for switching to Unreal after this project mainly because there are a few bottlenecks that I have encountered in Unity... Although Unity has been my bread earner from almost a decade now so it feels like i am doing unfair with the software. Lets see what the future holds.! 🤞

[DeathCloudGames]

1000% agree on the gatekeeping "what's right/wrong" discussion!

[moosehead]

Very much appreciate the sentiment of it's about progress not perfection. I often get paralyzed by the idea of doing something the "right way" when in reality it's more about the final result. It's also nice to hear devs being open about knowing they do something the "wrong way". One last thing I would like to highlight is the reality that you can build a game solo. Talk to any AAA dev and they are gonna shoot down your dreams, but content like this reminds people like me that it is not only possible but has been done many times. Thanks for making this video!

[peevee]

Actually Gavin’s way of texturing was a very legit way back in the day when you had a very limited texture budget. In the ps2 area that technique was a super effective way of ensuring your texture budget didn’t blow up.. and made it easy for models to share textures.

[THExRISER]

Already doing it.
Been using Unreal for a month now, never going back to Unity.

[theonesantiago]

My guy Gavin never plans on leaving his house ever again. 😅True dev.

[shadowlordalpha]

I mean, if it boils down to programming there is basically just a bunch of different ways to do the same thing. The thing that matters is what the side effects are of doing it the way you did as some are faster, some are easier to read, some merge in with other code better. and so on and so on

[andrewshandle]

The number one reason most people say to use C++ over BPs is the claim that BP is slower. While that may be true, it's also a premature optimization thing, and in most cases the what actually slows a game down has nothing to do with the BP anyway, it's the objects in a scene or lighting. C++ isn't fixing that.

But it's still the default answer for most people, and they just can't find a way to get off it.