Unity vs Unreal vs GoDot? (Why did I pick ...?)

Assets I'm using so far

[AntiSilence]

As a C# developer for a living (web e-commerce) Unity was my choice when I wanted to learn to make a game - I didn't have to learn another language, just the Unity API and the game stuff. I released my full 3D arcade shooter on Steam in November last year. Love it.

[deadwlfgames]

I started with Unity and when I was trying godot, I found Godot do few things so much better and simpler, After that I am using Godot since 2023 Jan. Unity has lot of features(Deprecated/beta) but if you know what you want to do, Godot can get you covered. There are things which just works for any kind of requirements. I am a professional developer in Java and C# but seriously, when comes to coding in GDScript, it feels so satisfying, Godot is lightweight and simple game engine to start with. After a while when you are experienced with game Development and problem solving, the game engine will just become a tool for you. Unity is so mature and rich engine but I still stick to Godot because I cant find any reason to move to Unity for my requirements.

[artisanmage]

I am a big Godot guy. I have used all 3 engines and built small projects with it. I am mainly a 3D artist, so I feel comfortable with any engine because I feel like where the game engine graphical fidelity lacks, I feel I can compensate for it myself. That said, I love unreal but godot was really the engine that really made me love the development process (and not only the art). I watched tutorials for both unreal and unity but for godot all I did was read the documentation and I felt more competent with it in my first project than anything I did with unity or unreal after years, multiple projects with instructors. With unity I always have a lurking sense of I am doing something the wrong and it will bite me in the ass later. With unreal its less like that but I don't really enjoy the development process like I do with godot. I feel like I just understand godot. With godot my general gamedev skill is whats holding me back and not my expertise with the engine and its quirks.

[GGClip]

Sooo still sticking with Unity after the recent pricing changes?

[Zwork]

The best part of Godot is that it's always fun to use. It is incredibly intuitive, but isn't restrictive or forces you down any specific design pattern. It's very easy to scale from the small project into a larger and larger project, and the Godot IDE runs very well. Absolutely worth spending a weekend with, I always enjoy building with it.

[BennysRadio]

I switched a couple of years from Unity to Godot and was amazed how fast you can be! I also changed from C# to GDScript. Godot feels lighter and faster in many ways also it’s easy to change features and dig into old code and make big changes later down the line. With the Godot 4 versions 3D also works impressively good. But there are also downsides. Unity’s asset store is gold! Just things like „safe space“ plug in for mobile phones etc. I had to make my own creations. Also unity analytics don’t work and i use Google what is not the best solution. The community both for godot and unity are awesome :)

[dudemannxs]

Great points regarding Unity. I have been using Unity since it first came out, and recently switched to Godot when I started teaching for a grant funded project that couldn't afford gaming PC's. Godot's size and Python like language have been nice to deal with for middle and high school students who are just starting out coming from Scratch programming. I still use the Unity asset store from time to time for art assets, and reference Unity code and docs for examples, but even with it's youthfulness and lack of an asset store Godot is growing on me.

[rongreen]

Some excellent points made here, as usual, people tend to focus on the engine not the game but, for me it's all about the game. I got into Unity simply because I couldn't download Unreal. I had a poor internet connection at the time and my attempts to download Unreal failed every time. So I downloaded Unity and have never looked back. It does what I want, there's tons of resources out there and the Asset Store is amazing.

[jamesclark]

As a person that learned to program in C and later switched to C++, C# was a breath of fresh air. It allowed me to focus on the domain problems of my games instead of occupying most of my time with 'this will compile but is it *actually* valid code?'. I never considered Unity until I played KSP and wanted to make a mod. After installing and booting it up I realized it was my dream engine. C# language. Composite pattern design. Easily extendible editor. And with that I never looked back. These days I am quite critical of the engine at times but honestly even my biggest gripes aren't enough to push me away simply due to those three points I just made in the previous sentence.

[zzmmorgan]

Your reasons for sticking with Unity are very close to mine. I tinkered with UE off and on over the years but it just seemed that as a solo dev Unity's workflow was far better for me and I also like C# quite well. I really don't like making character controllers and a fight with getting a reasonable one in Godot is part of why I dropped it. I also realized in the past couple years that I have heavily invested in assets from the Unity asset store over the past 10 years and it's so easy to find something that fits in where I can save time not struggling to write it myself. Right now I've been tinkering a LOT with RPG Builder as it just has so much in there. Thomas has basically done a LOT of heavy lifting for so many things I want to do in current projects :)

[MrPine]

Anyone watching: STAY AWAY FROM UNITY AT ALL COSTS! Unless you want to go bankrupt

[n_mckean]

Unity killing the Plus Plan yesterday and adding a Run time fee of 20c per install into January is really making me question using it. Unreal is overkill for my needs and charges 5% but only after $1m in revenue (where i'd be happy to pay or could afford to rebuild elsewhere). It's definitely driven me to investigate Godot.

[jeremyb]

I've been using chat open AI to help make my unity game, and wow, I'm making so much progress now.

[magicth]

I’ve been using Unity for 12 years and I really love it. I just wish they focused more on streamline certain aspects / fix up / FINISH features. I feel they may be losing focus and chasing the featuresets rather than clean up and tighten things they’ve had for years.

[theaprentice]

Game development has never been something I thought I would pursue, but I have a storyline I think would work better as a game. Hopefully, if all goes well, I can get some attention to my own channel. Thank you for going over this. Always happy to see people willing to help.

[BanDt]

I've been a long time Unity dev. And recently gotten into Godot and it feels like a breath of fresh air. It's so easy to throw together a prototype or a small game. Now there are some quirks of course, but for now, when deciding between the engines I lean towards Godot more and more.

My main gripe with Unity, especially recently has been their tendency to abandon features, so when using something you have to rationalize to yourself like "There is the good ol' option of doing it, but it's now legacy and some features don't work. There is the new way of doing it, but it's incomplete and full of blocking issues. There is the asset store asset that that this, but it's expensive/cumbersome/hasn't been updated" and it's just such a headache. And while maybe it's worth it to deal with it when you're making a big game and making big architectural decisions, and loads of custom tooling. But when making a small 1 person game it's so overwhelming and confusing (speaking as an experienced dev).
When in Godot, you have this tool, it works, and does exactly what it says on the box. Which is perfect when you're just one person, or a small team who just want to make a game without retooling the engine.

(Not to mention it's the fastest editor out of the three, you can go from clicking on the editor icon to launching the game in less than 10 seconds. And because of it's python-like language you can edit the game while it's running, and not just parameter tuning, but full on new object and script creation)

Now obviously Unity and Unreal win in a lot of aspects, rendering for one, but at least for me I'm having more fun developing in Godot than Unity.

[burningflag]

Hi,

So I love Unreal. That all comes down to timing. When I first started getting into making games Unity still had a cost. Unreal didn't. Unless you made x amount of money/sales at the time. Naturally I went with the zero cost option. Here's the thing. I've got nothing but respect for Unity, Godot and the like literal dozens of engines out there. Hell, I started with RPGMaker. At this point I use Unreal, because i've spent a lot of money & time learning how to use it. I truly think making games is like any other type of art. Game engines are simply one of many tools. Be it art, writing, game dev. People should use what works for them.

Take care & have a good one

[TegridyMadeGames]

Both are super sweet for super different reasons

[igorgiuseppe]

i dont work in the game business yet... but i make games since i was an little kid, never made an sucessfull game but i have experience in tons of engines (i tried 20+ engines and frameworks)

my current engine choices are godot and unity, godot for personal projects and unity... to try to find an job or due to the asset store.

i prefer to use godot because the engine structure and programing language are more comfy to use and because i have full access to the source code and can modify and distribute it as i please, that is great considering that the reason i switched from engine to engine in the past was because i was not satisfied with either the limitations of the engine (on godot if i ever reach it limits i can expand it) or the workflow (the godot workflow is co, fy as i said), but also because i can ensure the control of the entire code, for example if i want to port my game to an niche unsuported platform i can port it myself instead of rely on unity doing it, if i want an feature from the new godot (4x branch) in the old one for any reason i can backport it, or if i want to use the new version, migrate the code is almost painfree so i can ensure the preservation of my projects for future versions and maybe even future generations, if i ever decide to open source my projects people will have access to the last line of code, instead of just my code but having no idea how the underline engine works.

oh yeah, and godot has dedicated 2D support, not sure about unity (it has been a long time since i booted it >.>)

[okamichamploo]

Oh I just grabbed RPG Builder myself. It has so much functionality right out the box. Unfortunately (or fortunately idk) I just started a professional job that uses UE5, so probably gonna be focused on that for awhile, but honestly despite all the cool stuff you can do in Unreal I feel like as soon as I have time to jump back into personal work I'm gonna be using Unity.
Unity just seems so much more free, open ended, and flexible. Like you can do whatever you want. While Unreal seems to be always leaning you into a very specific type of experience. I mean you can do anything with it, but it almost feels like you are fighting against the engine to do anything outside of the genre it was designed for.