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I just got started with a Unity project a few weeks back. My only goal right now is to build out a concept to see if it even makes sense to invest real time int

I just got started with a Unity project a few weeks back. My only goal right now is to build out a concept to see if it even makes sense to invest real time into. If I get to the actual money piles and it turns out the terms of doing business with Unity are too intolerable, I would consider swapping paths. There are a lot of developers who seem interested in the idea of making games, but they get so caught up in the intense tribalism around the various approaches that nothing meaningful comes of their efforts. I recall discussions around how quickly projects were able to be migrated to Godot. So, what's the harm in beginning somewhere else?

evanmoran 2y ago
As someone who has worked in the game industry for years both in AAA and indie, I’d say the switching costs are quite high and proportional to the team and code size. The reason it can be so challenging is a late change can easily double your preproduction time as you have to port over existing systems/tools/workflows and the bigger teams have many more of these systems. Usually this means bigger studios only changes engines at the start of new franchises or when fully rebooting old ones (For example, the new Mass Effect is porting from Frostbite to Unreal 5, but it’s only viable because it’s a super high budget reboot with new creative direction and the time to do it) It easier to switch if you’re indie, of course, but the reality is if your game is great it’s better to launch with the engine you have. And if your game is struggling gameplay-wise porting it to another engine isn’t going to help make the game better and puts the release at risk.
jncfhnb 2y ago
Porting a game to another engine is going to be a monumental task.
ClimaxGravely 2y ago
If you were really paranoid you could use a framework like ceramic where unity is just one of the many output targets. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it though. https://ceramic-engine.com/ https://ceramic-engine.com/

evanmoran 2y ago

As someone who has worked in the game industry for years both in AAA and indie, I’d say the switching costs are quite high and proportional to the team and code size. The reason it can be so challenging is a late change can easily double your preproduction time as you have to port over existing systems/tools/workflows and the bigger teams have many more of these systems. Usually this means bigger studios only changes engines at the start of new franchises or when fully rebooting old ones (For example, the new Mass Effect is porting from Frostbite to Unreal 5, but it’s only viable because it’s a super high budget reboot with new creative direction and the time to do it) It easier to switch if you’re indie, of course, but the reality is if your game is great it’s better to launch with the engine you have. And if your game is struggling gameplay-wise porting it to another engine isn’t going to help make the game better and puts the release at risk.

jncfhnb 2y ago

Porting a game to another engine is going to be a monumental task.

ClimaxGravely 2y ago

If you were really paranoid you could use a framework like ceramic where unity is just one of the many output targets. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it though. https://ceramic-engine.com/ https://ceramic-engine.com/