4 ms·

> the obvious go-to engine choice for indies and mobile developers What do you think has taken it's place?

bluescrn 3y ago
There's a lot more indies talking about Unreal, and also Godot. Too early to see how much of that talk will translate to shipping finished games, though. Artists are excited by the potential of UE5, as Unity's rendering tech has stagnated somewhat. But making a UE5 Nanite/Lumen game is likely to be limiting your audience rather a lot, with high hardware requirements.
- tick_tock_tick 3y ago
  I've heard a lot about Godot but the last time I really looked into it, years ago at this point, it wasn't quite ready for prime time. Is it ready nowadays? Looking at their showcase it seems I've played a few games using it without knowing.
  - badsectoracula 3y ago
    > Is it ready nowadays? What does "ready" mean?
    - bluescrn 3y ago
      "Can you develop and ship a non-trivial game with it, ideally on multiple platforms, without spending loads of time debugging the internals of the engine?"
      - badsectoracula 3y ago
        What does "non-trivial game" mean? Also what does "spending loads of time debugging the internals of the engine" mean? I have worked on small and large (AAA) games with both custom and 3rd party engines and all of them needed a lot of time both profiling (to make things faster) and debugging (to avoid/fix[0] bugs) the engine internals. Where is the threshold where that time is "loads"? Without being specific on the requirements how can one respond with "yes" or "no"? [0] "avoid" for the 3rd party engines that we tried to not change much as it'd affect engine upgrades later, "fix" for the custom engines
        squeaky-clean 3y ago
        For one example. > Projects written in C# using Godot 4 currently cannot be exported to iOS With unity or unreal it's one click as long as you're using a Mac. https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/export/exporting_for_ios.html https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/export/expo...
        fulafel 3y ago
        If you know you might be targeting iOS, you'll be using GDScript, right? It's one of the first choices that comes up in docs or online discussions when you research which scripting language to use.
      - fulafel 3y ago
        Seems so: https://godotengine.org/showcase/ https://godotengine.org/showcase/
  - dkersten 3y ago
    I’m not sure, I haven’t used it myself in a few years and back then my experience was like yours. However I do know that it has improved a lot since then, especially with the 4.0 and beyond releases. Is it there yet? I don’t know, but it’s improving constantly and making strides and things like what’s happening with Unity will only gain Godot more support. I think it’s just a matter of time.
  - bluescrn 3y ago
    Open source and consoles are a difficult mix, due to NDA issues. Not necessarily a showstopper, though: https://w4games.com/2023/02/28/godot-support-for-consoles-is-coming-courtesy-of-w4-games/ https://w4games.com/2023/02/28/godot-support-for-consoles-is...
- boppo1 3y ago
  Can UE5 be used to make lightweight games? Is it possible to target wrak hardware if you don't use Nanite or Lumen?
  - gmerc 3y ago
    Absolutely
dkersten 3y ago
Godot. For 2D (especially mobile) games Defold is a strong contender that can boast billion dollar have releases.
minimaxir 3y ago
Nothing has, yet. Even with the current announcement cost terms, switching engines mid-development could be more expensive. For new projects, Unreal Engine does have interesting terms for indies.
__loam 3y ago
Definitely Godot.

There's a lot more indies talking about Unreal, and also Godot. Too early to see how much of that talk will translate to shipping finished games, though. Artists are excited by the potential of UE5, as Unity's rendering tech has stagnated somewhat. But making a UE5 Nanite/Lumen game is likely to be limiting your audience rather a lot, with high hardware requirements.

tick_tock_tick 3y ago
I've heard a lot about Godot but the last time I really looked into it, years ago at this point, it wasn't quite ready for prime time. Is it ready nowadays? Looking at their showcase it seems I've played a few games using it without knowing.
- badsectoracula 3y ago
  > Is it ready nowadays? What does "ready" mean?
  - bluescrn 3y ago
    "Can you develop and ship a non-trivial game with it, ideally on multiple platforms, without spending loads of time debugging the internals of the engine?"
    - badsectoracula 3y ago
      What does "non-trivial game" mean? Also what does "spending loads of time debugging the internals of the engine" mean? I have worked on small and large (AAA) games with both custom and 3rd party engines and all of them needed a lot of time both profiling (to make things faster) and debugging (to avoid/fix[0] bugs) the engine internals. Where is the threshold where that time is "loads"? Without being specific on the requirements how can one respond with "yes" or "no"? [0] "avoid" for the 3rd party engines that we tried to not change much as it'd affect engine upgrades later, "fix" for the custom engines
      - squeaky-clean 3y ago
        For one example. > Projects written in C# using Godot 4 currently cannot be exported to iOS With unity or unreal it's one click as long as you're using a Mac. https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/export/exporting_for_ios.html https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/export/expo...
        fulafel 3y ago
        If you know you might be targeting iOS, you'll be using GDScript, right? It's one of the first choices that comes up in docs or online discussions when you research which scripting language to use.
    - fulafel 3y ago
      Seems so: https://godotengine.org/showcase/ https://godotengine.org/showcase/
- dkersten 3y ago
  I’m not sure, I haven’t used it myself in a few years and back then my experience was like yours. However I do know that it has improved a lot since then, especially with the 4.0 and beyond releases. Is it there yet? I don’t know, but it’s improving constantly and making strides and things like what’s happening with Unity will only gain Godot more support. I think it’s just a matter of time.
- bluescrn 3y ago
  Open source and consoles are a difficult mix, due to NDA issues. Not necessarily a showstopper, though: https://w4games.com/2023/02/28/godot-support-for-consoles-is-coming-courtesy-of-w4-games/ https://w4games.com/2023/02/28/godot-support-for-consoles-is...
boppo1 3y ago
Can UE5 be used to make lightweight games? Is it possible to target wrak hardware if you don't use Nanite or Lumen?
- gmerc 3y ago
  Absolutely

dkersten 3y ago

Godot. For 2D (especially mobile) games Defold is a strong contender that can boast billion dollar have releases.

minimaxir 3y ago

Nothing has, yet. Even with the current announcement cost terms, switching engines mid-development could be more expensive. For new projects, Unreal Engine does have interesting terms for indies.

__loam 3y ago

Definitely Godot.