choosing a game engine is easy, actually

picking the right game engine is actually not that complicated.
wishlist my game store.steampowered.com/app/28...
forgot to mention: if you're making a mobile game, unity has the most built in features. unreal does support mobile export, but it's like using a drill to staple a paper.
sign up for my cool newsletter with secret sauce tips & tricks + my socials
samyam.dev/
my unity tutorials + source code 🤓
• Unity Tutorials
sam-yam.itch.io/samyam-full-s...
if you liked this video you should totally watch
• I made a game in Godot...
• I Made an ENTIRE Game ...
correction in final graph:
-phaser io is open source
-unreal is kinda open source because you can download the source code and change it as you fit
-cocos has 2 engines (2dx c++/lua) and creator (typescript), both open source except for creator's editor
some assets i mentioned in the video
unity fast script reload assetstore.unity.com/packages...
gm live yellowafterlife.itch.io/gamem...
godot preview is actually called Little Camera Preview godotengine.org/asset-library...
Some video background music by@ContextSensitive
affiliate links in desc

[@samyam]

help a fellow indie dev out and wishlist my game on steam! store.steampowered.com/app/2862470/BUMBI/

[@AyrenJagar]

Thank you. Godot for 2D mobile ? iOS and Android? I just can't use Unity after their policies.

[@sicfxmusic]

In my wishlist. Good luck!!

[@samyam]

@@AyrenJagar Yes Godot supports Mobile

[@mahdiheydarzadeh4391]

I'm a game developer with 10 year of experience, marry me :D

[@FromFame]

As someone who's done visual scripting for 11 years bc c# was too difficult, and sold 2.1M units of game products - It was disheartening to see you refer to Visual Scripting like it's some lazy solution... Would you like me to call you lazy for not knowing how to code in the binary that your system operates in? Let people work with what they can.

[@panpanplusplus]

And here I am, sitting and writing my own engine in C++ instead of writing actual games...

[@QuietOrder]

And trying to optimize each and every function...

[@austincottle6789]

great way to understand the tools though!! it's super helpful to know what's under the hood.

[@panpanplusplus]

@@austincottle6789 It is hard to get over the hood now. I be like "Unity, bruv, I've seen this functionality work with 200 kb of ram in under 6 milliseconds. Why u doin it while eating tens of megabytes and wastin 150 milliseconds?!" It just aint it after C++ and I struggle to overcome myself and just enjoy game making like decades ago. I used to write in hecking Blitz Basic and don't think about premature optimization >.< good ol times...

[@hectormejia499]

this is the way

[@SanyaBane]

You should start with writing your own OS 😜

[@finesseandstyle]

Me after I've already chosen an engine and actively working on my game: _Interesting_

[@katiescape]

uh same

[@Vahron]

The best engine for your game is the one you're using to actually build and complete the game.

[@FreeSalesTips]

Continue using that engine to mature and complete the game. You can change engine if there's something expensive in your current workflow that makes it worth the investment to rework the entire project. If you want to evaluate a different engine, you can try starting a new game project or perhaps you can use the different engine to enact prototype ideas.

[@lol-xw6rd]

Fr

[@Loki_Dokie]

Choose what YOU like, I was going to use Unity, but decided I preferred the python type language of gdscript, and I can always learn C# later. I won't listen to reviewers, there's no point other than just knowing what each does and doesn't do, but my decision will be my own, such as yours will be :)

[@FlatterTundra9]

"Don't expect to be making an open-world MMORPG in your first week while never having opened an engine before" I didn't think I was going to be called out so directly, damn

[@fabiolean]

MMORPGs are so stupidly complex to create and manage there's a reason there's essentially only ever been two profitable ones.

[@FlatterTundra9]

​@@fabiolean I just want to make one for me and my friends to play, but I did come to the realization that I don't have enough experience to even build the fundamental gameplay systems for a regular RPG, much less a grand multiplayer one. My project now is a procedurally-generated maze with an object you have to retrieve. Much more approachable, I think.

[@3nertia]

@@fabiolean For the idiots in the back like me, what are those two profitable mmorpgs?

[@anarchosnowflakist786]

@@3nertia runescape and wow I'd guess ? though saying they're the only profitable ones is probably a big exaggeration

[@DageLV]

Nah, its easy. Just open the dropdown, select MMORPG, pick from another dropdown what theme you want, select the artstyle you want, then from another dropdown select how bad or good you want the servers to run and your game is ready for shipping. Quite simple.

[@_dvs]

crying and throwing up when rpg maker gets left out

[@samyam]

there’s too many 😭

[@KHJohan]

Thlamming your pp in the car door kind of pain?

[@aouyiu]

Yeah, though to be fair it is a bit more rudimentary and focused than the ones mentioned. It's good for making specific kinds of 2D games, really good actually, and much easier than say Godot or even GameMaker. Maybe an honorable mention.

[@FireFox64000000]

Well if it makes you feel any better that was my first game engine. Made me go down a whole rabbit hole with Ruby that ended up with back-end web development and Ruby on rails and my sudden realization that I hate back in web development. Yes mistakes were made.

[@_NekOz]

​​​@@FireFox64000000 I started working in IT support and somehow ended up doing frontend because I had some basic web development knowledge. I hate my job too, mistakes were indeed made.

[@pixels_per_minute]

I'm currently in love with Godot. I'm using Unreal for my game design class, but it's overwhelming and is just not clicking for me. Unity is a hit or miss with how much I enjoy using it, and the company behind it is unpredictable. Godot, however, just works for me. I understand it's limitations aren't for everyone, and it needs at lot of catching up to do, but this little engine is doing a lot for me, both physically and mentally. Hopefully the fact that Slay The Spire 2 is being developed with it, will get even more eyes on Godot.

[@readyforlol]

I'm a 3D artist and worked on a couple games as freelance on Unity as well as a handful of game jams. Worked as much as I could in HDRP, even if my devs wouldn't budge from URP most of the time. Then I tried Godot, and have literally never touched Unity since. It's just so much simpler and faster for me. Everyone keeps saying it sucks for 3D, but the only thing I've found missing is full blown raytracing. SDFGI gets me 90% of the way there anyway for half the performance cost for my purposes, so I'll just stick with it and prove them all wrong :p

[@thechugg4372]

Hope you will, right now there is literally only 1 game that's 3d on godot

[@pixels_per_minute]

@@thechugg4372 Godot has yearly showcases of notable games made with the engine. Many of which are 3D. You'll see that Godot is competent at 3D, just not so much the graphically intensive rendering some other engines have, like Unity or Unreal. That stuff costs millions in R&D to create, and you need experienced graphics programmers to build it all for you. I also don't see Godot taking all too long to improve even more. It's come a very long way in a single year after gaining traction.

[@Polygarden]

Same here. The thing which most people quickly forget about Godot is that it has full native Linux support. (editor included, no other engine does this) I'm guessing that the landscape will change quite drastically in the next 10 years, especially with the Steam Deck and Proton running on Linux.

[@juxyper]

how does its runtime performance fare against unity? I'm actually more interested in making simulations than games, unity has very good tools for non-game stuff but if godot just does things better for simple 2d-like stuff i want to look into it a little bit too

[@samuelhugo3387]

i bounced around untill I landed on godot and immediately fell in love, the way its node system works just makes sense

[@ivanonlyone7160]

yeah this engine is great for beginners and small simple games

[@echoless3484]

​@ivanonlyone7160 It can still end up working very well for large games, too, unfortunately the constant updates make that kind of hard.

[@KashTheKingYT]

@@echoless3484Fr

[@tnt3t]

​@@echoless3484I don't really agree with this... At least not yet

[@ExzaktVid]

I feel like in a year or two when godot settles down it will become very mainstream. For now I wouldn’t make any huge projects in it.

[@FrankJonen]

Much better advice than these "you have to know every single engine" channels. Pick one and get good with that is a much more valuable skill than withering your life away learning pieces of them all.

[@Kkubey]

Sounds more like a thing for those wanting to land a job in the industry?

[@askeladden450]

I disagree. If you use one engine, jump into another and feel lost, you have been learning wrong the entire time. You should be learning about core stuff like rendering techniques, programming patterns, optimization techniques etc, rather than the editors themselves. Its the same when learning programming. Learn stuff like OOP, data structures, algorithms and patterns, and you should be able to become fluent in any language in under a week. Having spent 5 years in unity, i was able to become completely fluent in godot in under a week, and completely fluent in UE in 2 weeks. Now, not only can i adapt myself to any job posting, but also choose the best engine for the job at hand. In addition, using different engines gives you different perspectives and techniques that make you a more complete dev.

[@Kkubey]

@@askeladden450 I think it's still okay for free time devs to not go through the entire process, "no code" has gained quite the popularity too. We can't really decide whether we want everyone to become a full fledged software engineer or let people do their project at hand with software as a tool and a much lower original time investment. That being said, if you want to be a professional, you really shouldn't skip those steps and with limited knowledge your ability to fix problems will be more than limited.

[@3nertia]

@@askeladden450 And where is the best place to learn about the fundamentals without being bored to tears, please?

[@askeladden450]

@@3nertia lots of great channels on youtube. If you want to learn rendering and optimization, SimonDev, Acerola, Vercidium etc are great. If you want to learn Game Design, GMTK and others are great. If you want to learn to make animations good and punchy, New Frame Plus, Video Game Animation Study and many others. If you want good prgramming patterns, CodeAesthetic is really cool. There are too many to list here, but you will find them if you search for them. Then there are also dev log channels like ThinMatrix, Sebastian Lague, which are really enjoyable to watch. Notice how none of these teach you about any specific engine, but general principles and techniques that can be applied everywhere. Ofcourse if you want to get really good and deep into stuff, you will have to endure the 'boring' by reading books, articles and especially research papers.

[@JonathanbmillerZIG]

FYI about 5:53, Godot has had multiplayer for years. I just made a multiplayer game in Godot 4. Server-client, peer-to-peer, RPCs, etc. Godot 3 has multiplayer as well.

[@GameDevelopmentBeyondTheBasics]

One big caveat missing from Unity is it's no longer free to do console ports like it used to be. You have to subscribe to pro for $2k/y before you can make those builds now. It's also a bummer that Microsoft no longer supports submitted builds using the XDK since that means I can't use the older Unity Editor I originally made the game with which means my last console game will never get updates again 😅

[@mandisaw]

Last year or 2022, XBox said any Unity users accepted to their dev program can have a free Pro seat. So if you've already published to console, I assume that should qualify you. Can't confirm whether Sony & Nintendo offer the same, but you could probably check / do some research.

[@kodaxmax]

oof, thats actually a big one

[@3nertia]

I wonder how Unreal Engine 5 handles this situation?

[@3nertia]

@@mandisaw Yes, because it's not enough work already just trying to make a game lol

[@mandisaw]

@@3nertia If you're selling it, then yeah, making the game is only the beginning, I'm afraid.

[@szymonharbuz9052]

One thing to add about Godot is how lightweight it is - which makes it super approachable for amateurs, children and beginners - and those of us who just don't have much money. While they have some limitations compared to the desktop version, Godot has both a browser and an Android version. I'm currently making a game in Godot on a

[@not_halls]

also... you can always make your own game engine no... dont do it if all u want is to make games

[@kaijuultimax9407]

Making your own engine is for a team that can dedicate a programmer to it. If you can't manage/afford that, don't do it.

[@kodaxmax]

Peak attention disorder. Just build your own engine so everythings just the way you want it, swear youl learn what a character controller is right after your finished.

[@not_halls]

But really tho If u even try to make a game engine just for fun, u learn a lot

[@kodaxmax]

@@not_halls you will learn more from making a game, any game and in a fraction of the time.

[@kerduslegend2644]

I believe learning assembly and building your own compiler is way more fun

[@nicholasjackson8709]

I love the mostly nonbiased video. Just an overall breakdown and telling the audience the most important thing, there is no wrong answer, just tey them. I've tried ue4, godot 3.1, and rpg maker. Every engine has pros and cons, see what works best for you.

[@SamGarcia]

I miss the days of GameMaker (user since 2004) pre-Studio when we made stuff like legit antivirus software that actually worked since the program back then was super focused for the PC, and it was a massive community in the pre-Studio days, which Godot hasn't reached yet (and that community was deleted to make way for Studio). When consoles and Mac exports started happening, it became diluted. The simplicity of GameMaker tanked as well as GM tried to compete with Unity for some reason.

[@BFedie518]

GameMaker 8 was the second programming I ever did (first if you don't count Scratch). I loved it. Studio went far too long without a real free version. I couldn't justify spending that much money on a hobby I dipped in and out of. By the time they changed the pricing model, I had already discovered and learned Godot. I wasn't/am not about to switch back.

[@evanseifert8858]

I really enjoyed using GameMaker 8 too. It's the most success I've had making games.

[@gentronicus]

Clicked because LÖVE was in the thumbnail... No mention of it in the video?

[@amogoose2971]

it's community is very small

[@plotlessplot]

@@amogoose2971 And yet, one of the biggest indie games of the year (Balatro) was made using LÖVE 2D. It's a shame it doesn't get more visibility, as it is a genuinely nice framework to start learning game dev.

[@Mr_Yeah]

@@amogoose2971The community around Balatro might change that

[@darkfrei2]

The best game engine AND framework!

[@hazelsnep]

:c no love 2d

[@shaolindave00]

The thing about Unity is that while the engine and tools are great, the company running it is trash. The fact that they reverted their decisions is irrelevant because they’ve tried this before and will do it again. EDIT: since the trolls and shills are deciding to parrot the usual lies. Allow me to preemptively shut you down: 1) yes, we all know the details of Unitys terms. They’re trash. It’s also irrelevant as they’re likely to change at any time. 2) yes, we know it wasn’t intended to affect most developers, including most who are complaining. That’s irrelevant for two reasons. First: it’s still wrong for the ones it does affect, and second: it’s subject to change. 3) Yes Unity needs to make money to exist. They can do that in ethical ways, by setting prices and allowing customers to agree to it. But they changed the prices after the fact. And it’s subject to change again. 4) yes, Unity has never been free. They’ve always charged a certain amount at a certain point. Key word “certain”. Now they charge an uncertain amount at an uncertain point under uncertain conditions measured with uncertain metrics. And this already uncertain situation is subject to change again. If you still want to use Unity, fine. I don’t care. More power to you. It probably won’t work out well but do whatever you want. But if you want to “educate” me on what Unitys “actual” nature is, don’t bother.

[@VeraRothweil]

This is why I went away and never looked back, but it was kind of heartbreaking to leave an environment behind that I had become so comfortable with. But the trust that they're worth the time commitment, is gone.

[@viniciusschadeck4992]

This is why i'am totally out of unity, and i invest a lot on it in the past, now i'am looking for godot, but also, writing a game using almost only javascript, i mean, i have maybe 2 libs and a npm package to make a exec of my code using chromium as base, soo, it is almost a install and go solution, i just have to make it a installer and will be really easy to pack arround, send a zip file that almost no one understand how to run is kinda the worst way to deploy a product right?

[@marcar9marcar972]

@@VeraRothweilyeah the bad thing is most of these companies are planning to do the same thing now and for even worse stuff (like charging extra depending on the game’s content, like if it’s objectionable). To some extent this is mandated by the government through ESG which is basically money the company gets for being anti-consumer. Your best bet is open source.

[@radicant7283]

People like to rip on godot, but like blender, they can never take it away from you.

[@albingrahn5576]

This is why I went with Godot, since jumping from one big company to another felt a bit naive. Fool me once...

[@mufelo]

Maybe it was said in there, but it is worth noting that even though Unreal Engine has a steep learning curve because it has a lot of stuff.. it has a lot of stuff. In order to level set Unity for a lot of life quality tools, you need a bunch of paid assets like Odin Inspector, Animancer, etc. where as with UE, you get a state of the art animation system, Gameplay Ability Framework and a ton of other stuff like PCG frameworks for free out of the box. I guess where I am going with this is that depending on your project, the "Free Unity" license might add up to few hundred $ worth of assets or a large amount of hours spent on implementing those things yourself.

[@mandisaw]

Tbh many of those "must-have" assets are low/no code options for folks who just aren't that well-versed in what the engine can already do. If you can code & read docs, you likely won't need most of that stuff. As for Unreal, its built-in systems are "opinionated" - great if you're making a game inline with its assumptions, but frustrating if you're not. Unity's modularity & extensibility is its strength IMO. You can drop-in replacements for any of its built-in systems, and have the option to tailor your game's systems specifically to what works for you. Whether you use assets for some of it, or code it yourself down to the lowest-level, the engine itself doesn't "care".

[@samyam]

I didn't have those must need assets for 5-6 years and I was fine

[@mufelo]

@@samyam it honestly does depend on the types of projects and how much effort you put into things. There is also inherent value in implementing these systems at least once to understand how the sausage is made, so to speak, and perhaps it is fast enough for your projects. A lot of UE's systems are an overkill... but if you are creating a multiplayer skill system from scratch, you will be spending a LOT of time figuring out prediction, proper replication, etc. Do you need all of that to the same extent? Probably not in most cases. Ultimately you as a dev need to make those trade offs depending on your project and the currency there is often time.

[@Einxeld]

@@mufelo what is a "multiplayer skill system" mate? If you simply want multiplayer, unity has many ready to use packages like FishNet

[@Th3Ey3]

@@mandisaw riiight and UE doesn't let you tinker with its code... lmao..

[@DarthBiomech]

To anybody eyeing Unreal, do keep in mind that it, for most cases that do not aim for AAA game graphic quality, is a bit like mowing your backyard lawn with a John Deere Ultra-Harvester 9000 designed to clear up multiple square kilometers of fields.

[@reessoft9416]

Exactly. People talk about ditching Unity because Unity actually wanted to make some money from something they gave away for nothing, and talk about moving to Unreal instead. Unreal has a revenue "tax" of 5% itself, and isn't that useful for indie developers, unless you've got plenty of AAA assets lying around (or you've bought some). It's complete overkill for most indie games, and C++ is tougher than c sharp.

[@DreamyAileen]

Ehh, I disagree. Just because Unreal _has_ the capability to do the ultra-realistic AAA graphics thing doesn't mean that's the only thing it can do. You can do damn near anything with Unreal, you just have to figure out how

[@DarthBiomech]

@@DreamyAileen Like I said, yes there isn't anything it can't do, but I feel like Unreal is overengineered and way too excessive for most indie games.

[@Zumito]

as a unreal engine developer i want to know waht is that "dokumentation" that you r talking about?

[@aeliusdawn]

The real documentation is the friends we made along the way.

[@FireFox64000000]

Want to hear something funny? When I was learning unity I had one bitch of a time ever finding anything in the documentation. No matter what I did I couldn't find it. Now I can find almost anything I need in the unreal documentation.

[@TheMasterOfSafari]

​@@FireFox64000000I don't know how that is even possible, Unreal's Documentation is VERY lacking compared to Unity, regardless I am happy with Unreal for 3D.

[@Mr_Yeah]

It's some text and images that explain what the engine does so that you don't have to decipher the source code of Unreal every time something's not as expected

[@Dextrostat]

Try Unreal Engine 2, that shit is so scarce and trying to do Replication either Native or Unreal Script is a major pain in the ass. Luckily some modders have some docs but holy shit this version of Unreal makes me ready to make a game in Unreal Engine 5 lmao

[@elarquerooscuro9975]

Great video! Just as a side note, I think the godot addon you refer to is called Little Camera Preview. I also got confused at first cause GameFromScratch covered them both in the same video xD

[@samyam]

Ohh yes you are right haha

[@Crawldragon]

Godot is an awesome game engine but I have two big bugbears with it: For one, it's sometimes easy to get into arguments with its physics engine when you need it to behave precisely, for example making a platformer with pixel-perfect collisions. For two, while the documentation for the 2D engine is fantastic, the documentation for the 3D engine is _painfully_ sparse. All of the people who seem to know how to use it well seem to be too busy working on the engine to actually write the documentation for it, which is a shame because as long as you don't need the advanced graphical features of the established engines it seems like it's actually really good.

[@AL-lh2ht]

Also what really kills it is the issues it has with making app games.

[@crimsondespair_9505]

Yeah, I kinda agree with you. 3D isn't THAT hard once you know 2D but any advanced features are undocumented because they literally JUST got implemented. It's not that big of a deal, all the main features are well done and any help you need can be found on Reddit or Discord. But I can understand the pain.

[@mxBug]

@@AL-lh2ht by "app games" do you just mean mobile ?

[@Oneiroi0]

Tbf, the 3D is very new in the Godot. Most contributing people are currently focusing on the functions and bugs right now.

[@jamesonshekmeister]

Thanks for helping me lower down my options, so I can get started. When it comes to making a game and doing it yourself because you can't find anyone in your area, it can be a bit overwhelming and hard to stay motivated to make your game a reality. I've had many ideas for games, and have written down the ideas, but when I open up something like GameMaker, Unity, or even Godot, my brains decides to just go into Dial-Up Mode. Being neurodiverse and lacking self-esteem is already a personal problem I have to deal with on my own, but it's nice to know that I can do a process of elimination on which game engine to start my game idea on. Thanks again! Really helpful! 👍

[@rowboatfleet]

best engine is rpg maker in every situation hands down no matter what

[@samyam]

brb gonna make a 3d open world rpg mmo in rpg maker

[@rowboatfleet]

@@samyam good luck

[@Mr_Yeah]

@@samyamI can imagine something similar to RuneScape in RPG Maker

[@MCNeko6554]

@@samyam are you done yet? 😂😂

[@SaltedMallows]

@@samyam Actually RPG Maker does have a plugins for 3D and Multiplayer components. Good luck finding someone who's actually gonna turn it into an MMO though

[@TheMeeelting]

fiiiiine ill wishlist your game :) Great video! Edit: Done. Maybe reduce the contrast on your game a bit? Bright red on blue kinda burns the eyes. Game looks fun!

[@samyam]

I’m changing the art now, thank you!

[@Shadic4101]

I like this aggressive version of Sam

[@darecagames]

Great video and very informative, samyam. I would like to add that Unity is free as long as you do not exceed $200,000 in earnings but this is NOT per individual game, that is, it is the global money earnings. On the other hand, it is Unreal, you have to exceed $1,000,000 but it is per game.

[@MarcosCodas]

Thank you for mentioning GDevelop! Super happy to be on your radar. - Marcos, from GDevelop. If you have any feedback on what we can do better to be higher on your recommendation list, let me know! I'll pass it along to the team.

[@nuclearsu]

3:00 Having a project like Godot being open sourced is also important so that Godot can't pull a "unity price per download" move. It also means you have more freedom with your development (not required to make an account and log in) and it's a lot more accessible (free, and very small computational requirements; fast to run). I also agree that Godot has some controversies. It definitely has a 'cult' following, and has some bad actors in play (which most Godot users sympathize with???) But I try to disassociate with that part of Godot's community. For any of you wondering, one example of a bad actor that Godot users idolize is: Yuri Sizov.

[@Zhawn7]

Who's Yuri and what did he do?

[@nuclearsu]

@@Zhawn7 He was a prevalent coder in the community who worked on the game engine, but he commonly engaged in fights, and was an instigator of these fights. By "fights" I mean heated arguments on the GitHub repository thingy. He also used to be an employee of the Godot foundation. Besides instigating fights, he was a Russian supporter, and mocked Kyiv citizens who were being shot by Russians during the 2014 capital riots.

[@rx.78]

I tried so many times to get into Unity but I just couldn't get into the way objects were handled and it always felt like it took a century to open the editor and test a game. It also felt like any time i ran into an issue the solution was always just get some paid asset on the asset store. Ive moved onto godot now and thankfully this has all just clicked for me. The nodes and scripting system just feel right to me. Definitely helps me work faster and get results i want as a solo dev who works w 2D.

[@veiledmelancholia]

I went through the same dilemma since starting out so I just picked Unity, however, I quickly didn't vibe with the engine and liked Unreal better. It's just a personal preference matter, you can't decide by asking people and watching youtube, you gotta pick whatever engine, it won't feel so different after switching up so you're not losing experience

[@crimepuppy]

Your videos are the best. Thanks. Wishlisted the game a while back!

[@samyam]

Thank you!!

[@kroanosm617]

Great breakdown. Exactly what I needed to decide which engine to use. Although I still hold major resentment towards Unity, it seems that they will be best for my project. Thank you!

[@IdealIdleIncremental]

Great analysis and valid points. For me, I'm sticking to Unity!

[@foldupgames]

I'm gonna say this - if you don't want to learn to write ANY code, you don't actually want to make games. You just like the IDEA of making games.

[@nerdmassa9086]

Why?

[@foldupgames]

@@nerdmassa9086 Why? Because making video games is about programming. It's like saying you want to paint but don't like brushes. If you get into visual coding (like in GameMaker) you'll quickly find yourself stuck, while just coding would be faster.

[@nerdmassa9086]

I wouldn't be so extreme, you can still make a good game with just visual scripting/drag and drop, and even enjoy it. Is it better, of course not, is it possible/enjoyable? Yes! I made an ecology sim using Construct 3 and I love working on it.

[@foldupgames]

@@nerdmassa9086 Carry on, have fun, and best of luck! Happy if I'm proven wrong! In my experience, I got into game dev with Game Maker drag and drop, but I was so severely limited that I didn't even know how limited I was. I argue that you'll eventually need to write some code or else be handicapped by the lack of knowledge. Even GML is simple and limited, but I see now how much I needed it. But still - prove me wrong. Please do! Yes, I know people make stuff in Blueprints, and yes I know I'm being a bit extreme to make a point.

[@nerdmassa9086]

Wait, I didn't refuse the idea that programming is better then visual scripting for gamedev, and that the second can be a limitation; I refused your assumption that without code writing you don't actually want to make games, but just love the idea. I'm a programmer as well as a gamedev and I agree that programming is on another level, but I use Construct 3 because my project pre-dates my programming career. I could start from scratch with Unity or Godot and make a bigger, better, more complex project, but it's not necessary as i do love my game and working on it, and players seem to like it as well.

[@aouyiu]

I was told by a lot of people (on KZbin) that nobody besides AAA game devs should be using Unreal Engine 5, as that's what "the engine was made for". While C++ is a very complex language and UE5 has a ton of features really only AAA games are using, I doubt their statements that solo devs/non-AAA teams shouldn't use it. Though I haven't used it, but I do code in C++ so I'm unsure. I really don't want to go through the stress of trying to learn C# for Unity, and Godot and GameMaker seem too elementary for my prospects. I'd just rather start using UE5 from the get-go since it is my end goal eventually.

[@samyam]

I’ve seen a lot of solo developers use it successfully, if it’s your end goal go for it!

[@paulie-g]

Firstly, C# is trivial for a C++ dev. It's got very nice ergonomics as well. As for Unreal, it's got its own flavour of C++ that takes a lot of getting used to.

[@funguy398]

So for a statistics: there was a horror gamejam with ~50 entrees. 1 uses UE ~7 RPG maker, Game maker and smaller ones ~7 Godot Everyone else Unity And this one with UE got around 10th place with very polished small game with beautiful graphics, one bad thing about this UE project is a 2GB game when other competitors have html5 browser games or 100mB games. Dont think about language when choosing an engine, if you know at least one language you can grasp any other

[@AL-lh2ht]

In the past that statement was true, but unreal made a lot of improvements to compete with unity and now has none of the best visual scripting engines.

[@paulie-g]

@@AL-lh2ht Did they axe blueprints? Or nerf them somehow?

[@lehisluguer9300]

Great Video !.. People should just pick the one that better fit to their needs.. I have used Unity, Unreal and Godot over the years.. it took me a while, but im happy to give a try to all those engines, to finally discover Godot was the one that fits better to me..

[@reptilzum1616]

Gamemaker does actually have raycasting, its a function called collision_line

[@CassyCodes]

Thank you for this video and going into such detail. I use Godot, and I think you gave an honest review of it. Besides the pricing policies, the main reason why I use Godot is that I have a mini PC and Godot runs really smoothly on it.

[@smokeback]

awesome video having more control over your own coded scripts allows more creativity

[@matrixfull]

lovely video as always! your voice is always so encouraging!!

[@RenderingUser]

Waiting on bevy 1.0 rn

[@bluesillybeard]

I think it's worth mentioning making a game without an engine. Not to be confused with building your own engine - I mean, building a game, but without an engine. Cobble together a programming language and some libraries (My goto is Zig + Raylib + zig-ecs + Box2D), and just build a game the 'traditional' way. This is best if you already know how to code. Just choose your favorite language and start putting the pieces together. For the (admittedly very few) gam jams I've done, it's worked quite well.

[@edvonherr1596]

I would personally love to see a video on this workflow if you're ever inspired to participate in another jam.

[@bluesillybeard]

@@edvonherr1596 Added it to my list of video ideas

[@brucebarratt99]

liked before i even started watching. such a good topic for the moment, and I know you're gonna do good

[@billyfighter6945]

This is a really good video! I've already made a few projects, and I've been struggling to figure out how to make Open world in Unity, but I think I may switch to Unreal.

[@nanometerstudios]

If you look at the scratch community, you can find people making full on 3d rendering engines and 3d games, for example the mast.

[@pewpew518]

Working in Unreal C++ as im watching this video. As a former unity dev, Unreal C++ is not very hard. Its the C# with different syntax. Also you don't have to change engine source. You can just copy past engine code into a new file and modify that; that way you don't have to compile the whole engine (Doing that right now lol). You can also just extend engine classes.

[@doublegarts]

You are so smart. I really appreciate your videos! ❤

[@Arc618]

Appreciate this breakdown Sam. Considering my Java background, im leaning towards Unity since C# has a similar coding structure. Happy developing everyone 🙏🏾

[@RonenGoldstein]

What game engine do you recommend for making digital card games? Sometimes I don't want to get too into the weeds of programming draggable shapes to make card items

[@Ghorda9]

dragable shapes is really easy, you also don't even need to make the cards dragable to begin with

[@aouyiu]

Godot or UE5, I'd say Unity otherwise but you said not too involved with coding. I'll counter with this though, getting into the weeds of the programming in your game will prove extraordinarily valuable, especially when it comes to bug fixing and improving the game. It gives you not just more control over how your game works, but I think more importantly, a deeper understanding of how your game works. Even for a simple digital card game.

[@MiDnYTe25]

Damn I wish I knew about FSR about a year ago when I started work on my game lol, thanks for that top tip! Great video, too!

[@molochz]

PICO-8 > Others

[@Gabi-Alex]

I have some experience with Unity and Unreal, but I discovered Defold from this video and that engine looks like it was made for me. It even has a prototype for the game I'm working on, so learning should be faster by messing around with it.

[@Cyberfoxxy]

Step 1. Not Unity

[@Splatenohno]

Why the hate on unity?

[@jaysoncooley1865]

I love Unity!

[@Dark.Mefisto]

​@@Splatenohno As a Game Designer I hate Unity. It's incredibly unresponsive, problematic and unintuitive

[@Splatenohno]

@@Dark.Mefisto As a Game Developer I don’t mind Unity it’s works for me

[@Dark.Mefisto]

@@Splatenohno It's okay ^^ I mean we all like different tools and despise others I'm just saying personally I hate it, but I'm glad you like it

[@Dogo.R]

Bevy also exists, historically gains github starts at the same rate as godot and has historicay had half the stars, but is newer, hence less stars. Godot has spiked in stars but thats just from a unity incident hype cycle... questionable to what degrees those count as size. star history: #bevyengine/bevy&godotengine/godot&Date

[@viniciusschadeck4992]

I did a mmorpg that really worked without open a game engine, also, i just code down on java, has a server that not handle any graphics only the players monsters and item positions, also a grid that works as the world, and some logic to keep players to not fly arround with client hacking, or dupping itens The client just got the close stuff and make it visible on screen listen to commands to send to the server a new attack, with timestemp that helps get both sync well enought to not have to deal with higher complex programming on network... But was a simple one that never get the massive multiplayer point, the most player was about 8 me and some friends attacking each other for few minutes, and killing some random creatures...

[@SecretZoneGames]

Thank you for this video, Im thinking of switching from unity to godot and it helped me get my mind clear

[@ragerungames]

By the way, in Unity 6, the Scriptable Render Pipeline (URP or HDRP) will be the default, and we'll have the flexibility to choose or switch between different render pipelines quite easily.

[@samyam]

Great!

[@fiendishhhhh]

Any Love2d people in here?

[@raypuiaascii4653]

Here. I don't understand the thumbnail, one of the most popular indies right now is made in LÖVE.

[@fiendishhhhh]

@@raypuiaascii4653 Which one?

[@darkfrei2]

Hi there!

[@fiendishhhhh]

@@raypuiaascii4653 Which one?

[@raypuiaascii4653]

​@@fiendishhhhhBalatro

[@CSSpacePenguin]

I totally get wanting to go more lightweight. Even for open source projects, reading code that someone else wrote is, imo, harder than writing/reading your own code.

[@TheShelfman]

this is a solid video Sam! very nicely done😁

[@samyam]

Thank you!

[@Rai2M]

I tried Godot like 1.5 years ago, got disappointed and switched to Unity which i tried before Godot but got disappointed and... you've got the idea. After the controversial decision "pay-per-install" i switched back to Godot. I don't like it, actually. I'm an old school so i like frameworks (HGE, LibGDX (but i hate Java, lol), XNA, etc...) more than engines. But i'm also lazy and don't want to give a damn about different platforms differences, i just need a solution so some sort of game engine is the way. Godot is SORT OF ok for 2d games (but only if you don't mind not having access to some basic features like exact width and height in pixels for certain elements) but... it's a huge BUT, actually. In my own opinion it's lightning fast for prototyping but it's incredibly hard to make a final polished product in it. I don't insist, it's my own experience, i believe that there are lots of people who don't struggle with issues i had to face in Godot. Choosing a right game engine is like: while (1);

[@Nipah.Auauau]

To be honest you're never going to find an engine you're 100% satisfied with and making your own engine from scratch means you're now making an engine and not a game. You need to just pick something that doesn't outright cockblock you and stick to it. All engines will have SOMETHING (or lack something) in them that makes you go "oh god, why??"

[@amasuri796]

@@Nipah.Auauau yeah, all these years of gamedev and i've come to the same thing trying out new engines is often like "oh wow i love this new feature how did i live without it" at the same time with "oh god i miss that feature why don't they have it??"

[@MCNeko6554]

If you're still unsatisfied with Unity and haven't seen the new Godot 4.2+ then I'd recommend revisiting the new version. Godot is changing insanely fast. I wouldn't be surprised if they released 5.0 next year and were on par with Unity lmao

[@fullmontis]

I don't get what you mean by not being able to access pixel size in godot

[@GaBoyInKy]

Added. Wishing nothing but great things to come your way.

[@samyam]

Thank you!

[@TommyLikeTom]

You absolutely can preview the game in godot while running it. That's what the local/remote tabs are for. You can even make changes during runtime

[@CodeMonkeyUnity]

Great overview of all the engines! Nice!

[@samyam]

Thank you! 😁

[@zentec010]

Unity is better in my opinion; C# is just the way to go. Not having to worry about memory management is the greatest thing. Unreal throw's a lot of free stuff at you, for helping you build your game. I think you should try out both see which has the best compile times for you and what works best they both work differently and who they work does affect your game and game play.

[@mandisaw]

.NET has a lot of libraries & plugins as well. C++ has a ton too, but they mostly aren't compatible with Unreal without significant work on your part. And teams using Blueprints won't have access to any of it. (I think custom Blueprints are possible, but have never seen anyone do it.) As for the free assets, Unreal's store ecosystem has mostly realistic stuff. The few stylized things I've seen have all been way too high-poly for any project I'm doing. Feels like it's mostly pre-render artists and devs who either are PC-only or aren't ever reaching the build/optimize stage.

[@tofast4ya]

I hear a lot of devs say they want to use C#, but non seem to be interested in Stride (formerly Xenko) which is build on top of .net 8 and uses modern C# 12 / F#; has async and ECS build in, with bepu2 and avalonia ui coming next update; it can be run entirely within VS and is Open Source MIT licensed. I guess it is more about the marketplace and less about the engine... and as for out of the box tooling i think UE is currently on top, thanks to all that fortnite money. EDIT: It also supports NuGet.

[@mohamedeffat54]

Subbed, Thanks a lot for the breakdown, this video is really well thought out. and it came right on time, I just finished Thor (Pirate Software) guide on making games and I'm amping-up to make my own. oh and wishlisted, good luck with your game and wish me luck on my starting journey 💜

[@samyam]

thank you and good luck to you as well!

[@justcatsalt]

I was looking into this exact issue a few days ago, I'm glad this video came up to verify what I found! I've messed with unity, unreal, and godot now and I have to say godot feeks far more natural to me then the other 2 so far, I also love the open nature of it, thanks for the amazing video!

[@bentheafrican]

how about CryEngine? I'm currently using it for my own personal projects. It's funny how the game dev community has forgotten about it.

[@samyam]

there's so many engines haha

[@bentheafrican]

@@samyam i would like for people to talk about it more often😅

[@lukajolich7669]

Probably because it just couldn't compete with Unity and Unreal. A lot of people wanted it for its graphic capabilities, but Unreal arguably is better there now. Plus, support has been rather low and people have questioned whether it will continue to be supported at all.

[@bentheafrican]

@@lukajolich7669 I understand, Crytek should be the one to blame for it. They have given up on their own software which made CryEngine Developers to go to either Unity or Unreal. I still use it though but the lack of proper documentations or tutorials has me on the verge of giving up. I recently just found out about a small community of few people who still use it, that keeps motivating me to still learn the ins and out of the engine and one day to fully make a actual finished game. It's really sad to see CryEngine dies slowly or being forgotten.

[@MortissCoffin]

I love Cryengine! They're currently working on Cryengine 6 with the new Crysis 4 in development. And a new reworking done to it FlowGraph (visual scripting) like Unreal's Blueprints. Can't wait!

[@rebekahmarinos2260]

I tried all three and still can’t decide because I like and dislike things about all of them 😅 I also have a hard time choosing which game I want to make too which makes it even harder 😂

[@samyam]

try joining a game jam!

[@rondevz]

I fell in love 😂 good video 👌🏻 I've used Unity in the past but Im currently trying Godot 3D side.

[@famaral42]

great video, great info. Do you have any thoughts on Love2D and Solar2D. Specifically about how easy is to export to different platforms

[@NorthstriderGaming]

Unity 6 is also about to bring some quite nice changes and improvements which help improving its suitability for large scale worlds, such as automated light probe placements and the GPU Resident Drawer which gives a huge boost to gameobject instancing

[@willianschneider1778]

lol and then "reloading assemblies for 30 minutes each change", those new features are useless with that. let unity die.

[@masonwheeler6536]

Professional coder here. Insisting on not coding is not "because you're LAZY;" for most people it's because they don't have the knack for it. Talent is a real thing. There are some areas where some people are just born with an ability to "get" how to these things. Whether it's art, music, playing a sport, or writing code, _your brain is either wired for it or it's not,_ and if it's not, you'll never be particularly good at it no matter how much study and practice and effort you put into it. I'm good at coding. I always have been; even as a grade school kid with no experience, the concepts involved just made sense to me in ways other people say they don't. I have the talent for it. Conversely, I have no talent whatsoever for art. I don't even try to create art assets, not "because I'm LAZY" but because I suck at it and the concepts involved just don't process properly in my mind in such a way that I could ever hope to become good at it. So I buy or commission them instead.

[@Catterz1]

Agreed, albeit i'm not a professional coder but more so someone getting into the basics of a language through schooling but still getting fairly high marks on my projects/assignments. To say someone is 'lazy' for not coding is, to an *extent* saying coding is 'easy' which is an extreme oversimplification. Yes sure it's not difficult to get started on understanding the syntax of a language but the difficulty lies in comprehending the overall logic and flow of how a program works and not many people can wrap their heads around it, even I have a difficult time and I do better than my peers.

[@ArtofWEZ]

I love unreal as a 2.5 D artist, it's jsut so much fun to make games in when your mind doesn't think in rows of code.

[@nyn2k259]

I'm now starting off trying to make a game, I have 3 of the game engines & let me tell you. I can't understand NOTHING can't code can't visual script and no matter the tutorial I find they just do not make any sense although Unity dashboard is so much more easier to understand as too where everything goes. I want to make a board game & a card building deck game maybe you have some suggestions for someone like me as to what game engine to use & what tutorials to start with. I want to understand how they come up with the code... like jump etc so I know what to write in order to make the player do stuff. Thanks.

[@godmode3611]

If you add WebGL, XR and Mobile to your diagram, it becomes more obvious that Unity is the best choice for a more versatile engine.

[@samyam]

I added XR in a side note in the video, and mobile in the description, both putting Unity first because it does have the most features for that

[@godmode3611]

@@samyam I forgot to add WebGl =D

[@charlieking7600]

Thumbnail with Godot being a cult is pretty true.

[@RocketManEqHuoJian5]

i really confused with mathmatical relations in direction or position set in games.Could u make a video about common vector relationships in games? really appreciate that

[@MrPsychopath017]

Great video. I really like 2D and 2.5D games and this video helps me a lot to understand pros and cons!Great video. I particularly enjoy 2D and 2.5D games, and this video has been very helpful in helping me understand their advantages and disadvantages!

[@YarikTH]

Using only engine icons for a video is a bad choice. They can't be googled, so they are useless. And there is no timestamps per engine to find where you mentioned specific engine. P.S. finally found them. In the 14:20 near the end of the video. What a perfect place to finally place a legend to all the images throughout the video.

[@theInfra-Recon]

While I think Unreal is cool, new developers should start with Unity. If you can't make something in Unity then you're gonna have a tough time in Unreal, especially if you lack programming fundamentals.

[@darkestdaysgame]

I literally went to unreal cause of visual coding and relatively easy multiplayer setup - which I don't need for now but is nice to know its there.

[@PurrpleSnow]

Great video as usual! I think everything you said is very true and objective. There's also another point to consider that we might not always think about: the size of the projects and versioning! That's one of the reasons I didn't choose UE. I find Perforce a hassle and git not suitable for this engine (but I really love UE). On my end, I use Godot after having tried everything else; it's clearly not perfect but suits my needs. GDScript is simple, effective, and if needed, you can switch to C# or even Rust quite easily

[@monoinyo]

I'll never understand the distaste programmers have for visual scripting. We are all working with some abstraction of 1s and 0s, there's reasons to go deeper and the same can be said for staying near the surface.

[@samyam]

I don’t have a distaste for it, I think it’s a great tool! I just think in most instances coding will get the job done faster and it’s a great skill to learn.

[@finesseandstyle]

I'm an experienced programmer and I love the visual scripting. However it isn't "free" to use as it introduces some overhead especially for the expensive operations. Also it can't do everything as I've personally experienced and dealing with C++ is a massive pain

[@MrMpa31]

There definitely seems to be a certain amount of snobbery in the programming community.

[@mandisaw]

It's not distaste or snobbery, it's wisdom & warnings. Visual scripting has costs/flaws, and is severely limited in terms of what you can build and how easy it is to maintain or expand. If you're still learning the basics, it hides a lot from you - stuff that may bite you later. And you're tightly bound to that system - your skills & project aren't transferable/portable at all. If a carpenter tells you that chainsaws & table saws are fast, but can be dangerous, they're not being elitist, they just want you to keep all your fingers 😅

[@MrMpa31]

@@mandisaw Irrelevant. If someone can achieve their goals and end product using "inefficient" methods, who cares. The end product is all that matters. Also, you may discourage someone completely from even trying when you gatekeep in this way.

[@godmode3611]

It is easy. Pick Unity. Does well in all types of developments.Has more community, assets and learning resources. Uses C# that is a great language, unlike c++.

[@not_kelbaz]

Then lose all of your revenue because 10 people downloaded your game 😀

[@samyam]

That's not how it works they changed it

[@hinatsu4095]

You know, I love Unity, but I don't think it is that easy. I mean,it is versatile, it probbably has the best multi platform support, handles both 2d and 3d games. Even on mobile it is posible to develop stunnish 3d games unlike Unreal and Godot. Unity is capable of doing everything, but it is not the best in many specific situations, i.e. for large 3D games in general, both on PC and consoles, UNREAL is much better. And for more compact and easier to digest 2D games, GODOT and GM are better options, because they were designed with those situations in mind, even knowing that they have smaller communities and less user-friendly languages. Unity on the other hand, tries to do everything, it adds a weird layer of complexity where the others don't.

[@suicune2001]

Exactly. That's why I'm sticking with it.

[@1x5x7]

Performance-wise, C++ is superior

[@Reflexivaa]

Great informative video! Thank you :)

[@jameshughes3014]

I love unreal in concept, but doing anything in Unreal feels like fighting with a huge machine while trying to guess the magic words to get it to do anything correctly.

[@EROSNERdesign]

I take offense to your "lazy" comment for non coding folk ... do you illustrate all your art assets or do you purchase them? Do you write all your music assets or do you buy them? Why do "programmers" call anyone who doesn't code or use tools like visual scripting "lazy", "buffoons", "Code clowns" or "fat mamma's boys" yet when it comes to assets for their own games, they will happily grab premade assets instead of learning how to create art. Seems like a double standard to me.

[@MrTutiplengo]

I agree. But on the other hand, I've never found Visual Scripting to be useful. As a coder I focus on writing the functionality of the game. With Visual Scripting, it feels that I need to traverse huge menus just to make a conditional statement, whereas in coding, I just write "if". UE's Blueprints actually seem easier to use, but I need to delve deeper into them.

[@samyam]

It was not meant to be taken seriously, more so saying it’s possible for anyone to learn if they really give it a chance

[@mandisaw]

Everyone should try both art and code. Helps you to know what you're looking at, or how to talk to team members in either case. But that's not why coders warn about visual scripting. It's got major flaws/costs, that aren't necessarily obvious to non-coders, or at the start of the project.

[@mandisaw]

And I think anyone calling folks the names you said is just an asshole, dude 😅 #NotAllCoders

[@indieguy7297]

Momentum is important. Unity is stagnating while Unreal grows in leeps and bounds every year. It's only a matter of time that Unreal eclipses Unity in almost every facet of gamedev, if you're just pickikng up game making now, you want to pick the product that's going to be relevant. If you're wanting to take your chances, there's Godot that could emerge as an incredible engine i the coming years. Unreal will continue to push the envelope and increasingly more powerful hardware with INCREDIBLE new possibilities. Unity... no one knows what where they'll be in 5 years, but we just know that right now, it's not exciting. At all. Why learn a legacy piece of software on the way out?

[@DylonDylonDylon]

So true. Biiiig true. Not to mention, with UE5 you can build ANY type of game without knowing any language based programming. You'll spend more time making a game and learning "Game Design" instead of building tools to make the game you want.

[@Danny-he4hi]

Aren't older Unity versions exempt from the whole pricing change? Like if u use Unity 2017 etc?

[@christhian0512]

I just wanted to do make a roll the ball down a hill game on unity, but got stuck trying to create the level can't find a way to just draw curves, I only see tiles (squares) or creating tons of geometrical structures one by one, I'm missing something that might be super simple but has kept me from working on it for months

[@albiceleste101]

Unity still the best

[@Scar32]

so for a long time I found creating my own world that I can play around in is really cool. I was at a bit of a toss up between unreal and unity but after seeing unreal is really good at 3d stuff I just got it but it just didn't work on my computer which sucks so I installed unity. Im mostly worried about switching in the feature since switching programming languages is really hard and I don't want to go though it when going to the other platform. Also watching these videos about how good unreal engine is at 3D stuff just makes me want to really try and get unreal but my computer is a little old so im not even sure if it will work with my laptop, it's a 2019 MacBook Pro

[@BastetFurry]

For those more adventurous there are the game specific libraries, two i like are good old libSDL and libGDX, the later is great if you want to code for mobile. And the former lets you compile your code for any modern platform under the sun. Both are FOSS by the way.

[@Paruthi.618]

Good coverage of game engines

[@Cazra-VaporwaveWitch]

I've been using Unity for VRChat world development, but for other gamedev projects, I've used Clickteam Fusion, which is a good no-code engine for making 2D games, with some new capabilities to also write your own shaders with HLSL. I really wish that it had an option to write scripts to program the games instead of being forced to always use its no-code interface though.

[@wentworthmiller1890]

Should be interesting to hear your thoughts on how you read / refer to the books shown 0:23, like Jason Gregory's, Game Design Patterns, C++, CTCI etc. - and how they benefit your gamedev journey short and long term. Maybe a video, if not done already?

[@Cameo221]

9:00 I've heard that the fast script reload plugin is inferior to Hot Reload, which is really paving the way in making things faster 🙂

[@iancherabier5920]

Nice video, very complete! 😊

[@flamethrow868]

I would say that the best game engines to learn/start would be something like ctJS or PhaserJS (With Phaser 2D editor), they are very robust but also incredibely beginner-friendly, no visual scripting but the coding is done in such a way that it breaks you easily into the mindset for programming for video games, using only the basics of JavaScript. All of this make it easy to move to whatever game engine you want later on