Why I don't use Unity, Godot or Unreal Engine - Which Game Engine I use?

I won a GameJam using another Game Engine. Let's talk about about Godot, Unity, Unreal, GameFrameworks and ultimately what is my Game Engine of choice.
00:00 - Intro
00:40 - My background
01:01 - Non-engine approach
05:05 - My reasoning
07:08 - Choosing an engine
13:58 - Closing words

[@Zizaco]

WIshlist my game: store.steampowered.com/app/2609620/Awful_Marco_Bros/ or get the source-code: forms.gle/iyPiTjGYCo5jbTdUA

[@scriptworld]

You should have mentioned that it costs 24 dollar a month which is quite a lot to be honest. Especially if you are a hobbyist! The big engines let you code and take a share when you sell your game and thats more fair tbh. You only pay if you earn money. With Construct you have to pay upfront which always hurts more in the beginning, but MAY be worth it in the end :)

[@Zizaco]

Indeed, I should have mentioned it. I agree with you. I think it's a fair price and I pay for it myself. 1 - I don't have much time, and it allows me to save time. 2 - even for solodev / hobbyist, most hobbies are more expensive than that.

[@scriptworld]

@@Zizaco of course, if it saves you time and you actually make money with your games, thats worth it for sure! me, who just likes to tinker around with some game programming, that is a little blocker for me :/

[@Reanzuki]

24 dollars a month for a hobby still seems accessible to me especially if you are already familiar with web dev. If you have zero programming experience or experience in a language supported by the free option then the free option would probably be a better choice.

[@jamesmunroe6558]

I completely agree. This is a huge turn-off, especially when there are such good viable free alternatives out there.

[@MandosaWright]

Damn, good thing I checked comments before searching for the engine. I almost wasted my time. But in all honesty my time is actually worthless...

[@Inf4mousKidGames]

"Unity was Mac only" that explains the Mac UI elements for over a decade in the Windows version

[@Zizaco]

Exactly!

[@CoolModderJaydonX]

Wait, what?

[@Inf4mousKidGames]

@@CoolModderJaydonX most Mac devs like to be lazy with UI of their apps and will straight up use tools to port the Mac UI on another platform. This happens when porting mac apps to windows though.

[@litjellyfish]

Yup remember when Unity was small. Must be in 2008 or so. I just mailed David Helgasson and then one hour later I was on a Skype (yes we used that back then) call with him pushing to port Unity to windows and also and animation features (it has not curve editing etc at all back then) - feels like a complete different universe

[@drakenskag]

RIP my fav flash games. nothing will ever replace you in my heart 😔💔

[@alinbot5836]

You still can play them with Flashpoint tho

[@12DAMDO]

the new Swords and Sandals (best Flash game ever) was made in Godot..

[@12kenbutsuri]

Unity united us to try out new game engines and explore.

[@jamesmunroe6558]

Except Unity betrayed everyone. Back in September, Unity announced that in January 2024, they're going to start charging everyone 20 cents per install. They modified the terms later that month to make it look like they rescinded that change, but it still applies to future versions of Unity. I don't trust these guys. #StallmanWasRight

[@chaos3088]

Currently have to wait until unity has fixed their pricing problem

[@dibyaudhdas1978]

I'm just after learning so much from brackeys tutorials, I need to look for new one. To this day, I haven't found such a well detailed and perfectly explained course is that.

[@user-pl4pz2xn2c]

i'll never touch unity after that fiasco

[@ClearTheRubble7]

I loved the old days of Unity, late 2000's, and it laid a great foundation for me to learn game dev. Then the prices shot up and the whole Unity atmosphere changed. I fled for the hills, exploring other engines and learning that hey, the whole world isn't Unity after all...😂

[@windwalkerrangerdm]

I am so happy Construct is gaining traction. It's such a joy to use, and Construct 2 helped me transition from Math programming into game programming. Great video, and congrats on the win.

[@yolamontalvan9502]

Thank you Unity for helping find Godot, Cocos 3D and maybe Phaser.

[@Zizaco]

Indeed! Let's look at the bright side :)

[@pianoatthirty]

What I love about your story is how you show it's not the tool, but pure creativity that always wins. You also have the unique skill of being very well-versed in many languages - it seems like you'd be able to make a game in any engine! Construct seems cool, but learning a tool that is subscription-based makes no sense to me. The moment you don't pay, you lose access to a tool you've spent so much time learning. Godot really feels like the best choice for most people wanting to dabble in game development.

[@nile1528]

I love your "being productive" approach. I really like how you explain your thinking path to see which tool(s) may suit you the best. You make me realise again, that there is a lot of different possibilities that I should be considering, if again I just take a look at my game, what do I actually need, what can help me speed up the process? Looking into my specific needs. You made me think a bit better I appreciate it.

[@Zizaco]

Awesome, thank you!

[@patrickmuenster]

Thanks for sharing yout thoughts and also thank you for the comment on Phaser. After you praised Phaser at the beginning, I felt like an idiot because it took me ages to get into it and both the doc and editor versions were hell. For the same reasons I'm also working with Construct 3 for a couple of year and GDevelop. And I'm really happy with it.

[@joanfase2693]

Very inspiring story sir! I really like your approach, how you seem to see game engines / frameworks as tools and just try to find the one most fitting your particular needs. Lately I tried to learn Godot but your content made me realize I just follow the "hype" and didn't think about what I wanted to accomplish, what my strong points are and what tools are best suited for my personnal use. Thanks a lot for making me realize that! I'll be sure to follow you from now on, seems like I can learn a lot by doing so. Good speed sir!

[@FoozleCC]

Nice job on the video! Totally agree that C3 has done a great job of building out examples that are easy to pick up and learn from. Cheers

[@SputnikFive]

I’ve been using Construct 3 for game development for a few years now for one of my client’s web games (and a couple mobile games), and was really surprised when you announced it as your game engine of choice. Despite writing over a dozen games with it, and paying $400 a year for the license, I guess I never really considered it a “real” game engine. While you can do a lot with very little “code”, or events I should say, I find the non-coding nature gets in my way sometimes. Maybe throwing some JS in there is the way around that. Subscribed and interested to see what you do with it!

[@Zizaco]

I know right? Since Scirra added better scripting support (with modules) and now TypeScript, I don't feel it gets in the way of making any kind of game (2d or basic 3d). It's easy to get caught up with all the optimization and theoretical technical scenarios (and I'm guilty of that!). With Construct I can focus in shipping games and only code what matters, not what is expedient

[@Shodan-0101]

Well done and congrats with the award! Well deserved!

[@Zizaco]

Thanks! :)

[@novantechstudio]

You mentioning Dark Basic brought back some memories.

[@WoodyGamesUK]

Game engines like Unity and Unreal aren't just useful for high fidelity graphics, they should increase productivity even for the most basic stuff like manipulating sprites (spawning, destroying, moving), add some code logic, physics if you want (but even that is up to you), and other useful things like input, sound... You don't really need anything else to make a game, and it's up to you to organise it the way you want. You can really do anything, there's not one type of game that is more suitable for an engine. If the engine doesn't make these tasks easier or make you gain time, then it's not useful and you should try another engine, or framework, whatever. I see engines or frameworks as a way to give easy and fast access to the simple building blocks that you need for any game, be it the simplest type. Then the rest is left for me to do. That's why I think it doesn't make that much different which engine or framework you're using, when it comes to making a game.

[@Zizaco]

I agree with you. Currently, I'm all about productivity, that's why I went with a Game Engine once again. My point is that people who require high-fidelity graphics have a more limited choice of engines (Unreal, Flax, Unity and not much else). In my case, I'm free to also pick from Godot, Construct, Defold, Solar2d, GameMaker, Gdevelop, etc. As a bonus, these engines tend to be less bloated.

[@envilonscript]

Great video! Good luck with your next project. :)

[@Zizaco]

Thank you!

[@pixelart0124]

Thank you for making this video. While watching it, I realized something deep about myself that's really important. I'm grateful to you. Thank you.

[@Zizaco]

I'm glad the video was helpful in some way, shape, or form. Take care buddy :)

[@lorenagonzalessaar6488]

I like your channel and the explanation 😊

[@Vercidium]

The point about context switching is spot on. I use Mac + Typescript at work, and Windows + C# at home, and it's not easy switching between the two

[@Zizaco]

the struggle is real!

[@RikusLategan]

Congradulations with your jam success, and an amazing video, too

[@Zizaco]

Thanks Rikus!

[@arimill1045]

Been programming for near 14 years now, Unity always kept me out of game dev, then I found pygame during the unity controversy and realized I'm living this video. Keep up the good work!

[@WillSams]

+1 Programming for 17 years myself. Found Unity and Godot to be unproductive for me. Great thing about Godot is that it's GDScript reminded me I should give Pygame another look. Wow, it all felt right this time around especially when using an editor like LunarVim! Pygame unfairly gets a bad reputation! Python 3.11 plus pygame.sdl2_video is a bit of a game changer.

[@HumanityAsCode]

Bevy has been a really fun engine for me so far. Writing web games in JavaScript has always been a tough sell for me but it's a much tougher sell now that I can use WebAssembly. I can write my game in whatever I want and run it on the web in 3D

[@Zizaco]

JavaScript is indeed a tough sell, but have you tried TypeScript? :) WebAssembly ecosystem is in its early stages, but I agree with you that it holds great potential for multi-platform solutions in the future. I'm a big fan of Rust and Bevy. I can't wait to see what's to come!

[@Yous0147]

I'm also trying out Bevy and it is quite nice although I feel like making a game in Rust requires that you rewire your brain on how to make applications. The component based approach is super cool, but as an analogy it sorta feels like working "on site" with a portable set of tools and components that you take with you and unpack, as opposed to working "from home" with a library of books and a workstation on hand. I'm like you though, JS (or TypeScript despite it being better) I really do not like using at all, and that's despite loving the strengths and simplicity HTML5 can afford me, but the headaches in having dealt with confusing errors, obfuscated object and return types (especially from libraries), breaking changes and having to deal with versioning with package managers all together on top of focusing on developing a game is too much for me.

[@mfcfbro]

I used Construct 2 back in the day and it was great then. Makes me want to pick up a copy.

[@igorthelight]

Construct 2 is still a thing. It can be used offline while Construct 3 can not. Construct 3 is much more modern and have more features but it's subscription based. If you just want "buy once" - Construct 2 could still be your choice. Of course it will not support any new features but it was updated just a year or two ago, so it's not THAT obscure.

[@thechosenone729]

For 114 euros a year im staying with Godot.

[@mfcfbro]

@@thechosenone729 Totally fair. I didn’t realize it was a subscription license when I wrote that. I’m using unreal and enjoying it. I’ll stick with it. Lol

[@TackerTacker]

@@igorthelight Construct 2 is no longer an option if you not already own a copy. You can no longer buy it. I would also not recommend an engine that no longer gets any updates.

[@igorthelight]

@@TackerTacker I didn't know that it's not selling anymore. So fair point!

[@rodneyabrett]

I don't know if you ever saw the GDC talk for the making of Thumper. It's really impressive how that game was made in this low level pure code way. I even ran that game on a really old Surface Pro and it ran very smoothly without any frame drops.

[@anarchoyeasty3908]

Dark Basic was the programming language I learned how to program on. I will always love that engine :)

[@Zizaco]

It was great! With a few lines of code you could get a lot going on! And later they released the "professional" version: DarkBasic Pro 😅 And have you tried Blitz3d at the time?

[@anarchoyeasty3908]

@@Zizaco I had heard of blitz 3d but I was like 10 at the time so I never learned it or anything. But blitz was big back then and then if you wanted to go c++ you also had ogre3d as well. Early 2000s good time for indie game development lol

[@Ferenc-Racz]

Hi. I just found your channel. I see there is not much content yet, but I think this is a relative new channel, so I subscribed. Thank you for the video. I will wait for the followings. :)

[@Zizaco]

Yes I'm still new to the whole KZbin thing. 😅 Thank you for subscribing! :)

[@anthonypimentel7218]

​@@ZizacoI'm gonna subscribe too, nice vid!

[@TheSensei88]

This reminds me of a Game Engine I used a long time ago, when I did not know how to program, I don't remember it's name but had LOADS of examples and tutorials incorporated that allowed me to create a few different games. I recently looked for it everywhere but could not find it, this is not it but has seemingly all the features I liked from that one, plus: it's typescript! Gonna test it now, thank you for the video!

[@Zizaco]

YW! Maybe you are talking about Clickteam Fusion, formerly known as Multimedia Fusion. The ability to combine (no-code and code) with a clean API is what makes Construct interesting IMO.

[@BastetFurry]

Yep, sounds like Klick&Play to me.

[@TheSensei88]

@@Zizaco Well, I'm sure it's not that one, but yeh, combining a graphic interface with the posibility to add code was what it also did. But I guess it's not important anymore, I don't even have the games I started to make, they are forgotten in some old hard drive from a PC I used to own. Guess I could start over with this one now that I also program lol

[@TheSensei88]

@@BastetFurry And nope, I'm sure that's not the one either!

[@CorTec]

Awesome review , you give really good insights

[@catalinpreda4666]

thanks for sharing this! I'm working with TS on the web as well and now I'm trying to pick up Unity thinking C# seems nice and I could use that on the backend if I learn it; but I would definetly try this to play around with 2D web games

[@Zizaco]

Glad it was helpful! C# is awesome. If you have the time and don't mind the context switch, go for it!

[@PaconskY]

I first tried Construct when it was Construct 2, and it was great. back then I barely ever coded anything, so the visual scripting sounded good, and boy was it good! I could prototype and try different ideas so fast, without looking up tutorials. So if you are new or almost did not code at all, its a great way to try to make some games. I did not get far with it at that time, but your video made me want to try it again.

[@De_Wouter]

What about Phaser Editor? I was planning to look into it because some quick prototyping is what I'm currently missing in Phaser.

[@Zizaco]

I gave it a try, and I think it is very helpful! It's an generic level editor that can work well for most games. At the time Phaser Editor had less features and it was not a good fit for the game I was making (hex grid tiles) so I decided to make my own editor. TBH, I should have mentioned Phaser Editor on the video. Yet don't forget that this editor is "mostly" a level editor, one still have to put a lot of work to make a game (or prototype) out of it.

[@LeonardoTx1000]

Sir! Thats not Mindustry... thats Factorio! Anyway, great video.

[@Zizaco]

You caught my mistake! 😅 BTW mindustry is also made using a game framework: libGDX

[@igorthelight]

A small story about Factorio: it was created in Allegro. After a few months of tweaking it, developers decided to switch from it (to SDL) because it's very outdated and cumbersome (there is an article where they explain that in details). They were REALLY trying not to call Allegro "shit" xD

[@Maverick_Mad_Moiselle]

Godot does support C#, you can even code in C++ with it if you like.

[@Zizaco]

Yes. Unfortunately the C# support is still lacking. I'm happy to see they're working on improving it.

[@ClearTheRubble7]

Wow! I wasn't expecting Construct 3 to be your final choice at all, but it's where I ended up, too, along with PlayCanvas, since I'm developing an html5/webgl game that uses both engines. I started with Unity back in 2007, then fled when their price structure went through its first major change. Babylonjs is also great, but both PlayCanvas and Construct 3 do most of the heavy lifting, as you said, allowing me to just concentrate on artwork, animation, game mechanics, and the "light coding" of JavaScript. Thanks for an entertaining video, and an assurance that I've made the right choices!

[@ywenp]

Which version of Construct are you using? The free version seems limited, and the paid version is a bit pricey (and it's subscription-only, it seems...) That pricing model seems a bit of a bummer when compared to the concurrence.

[@Zizaco]

I pay for it. Indeed, Construct is not the cheapest option, but for me, it's worth the price.

[@FlygOnLiTe]

This was insightful for me coming from a web dev background and getting into games. You mentioned that you were spending a lot of time building your own editor while working with phaser, were you extending the phaser editor? What did you mean by this?

[@Zizaco]

At the time Phaser Editor had less features and it was not a good fit for the game I was making (hex grid tiles) so I had to make my own editor from scratch. TBH, I should have mentioned Phaser Editor on the video. Yet don't forget that this editor is "mostly" a level editor, one still have to put a lot of work to make a game (or prototype) out of it.

[@darknetworld]

Dev have freedom chose, skills level and understanding. That why game engine are made for users that like to do must. It will have pros and cons any game engines.

[@MangaGamify]

I still base on case studies, as Tupac Shakur once said -- "I'm not saying I'm gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world" In short, everyone wants to be the spark if not influencer but those things don't actually have popular case studies except extreme outliers like Stardew Valley, those are not the top

[@DoomCatcher]

This is fantastic timing for me. I'm currently looking into unity alternatives and deciding between dsfold, game maker and construct 3.i was thinking myself with how construct 3 uses java script which ice been thinking about learning is very useful.

[@nowonmetube]

Why not GDevelop?

[@DoomCatcher]

@@nowonmetubenever heard of it ill have to check into ut

[@nowonmetube]

@@DoomCatcher yes please do 🙏

[@DoomCatcher]

@@nowonmetube Wheres the best place/video to get a good break down of what its strengths are and why to use it over other engines. I've recently been looking into construct, defold and game maker. So far Im liking the look of game maker but I have very little experience with any of them and have just mostly been going of forum posts I've created and Im open to be being told why develop maybe better.

[@wojtekczerski8534]

Great video with well thought out points! I appreciate the effort in making it accessible for non-developers. As a fellow programmer, I would suggest considering specialization in a specific path to enhance your expertise. Keep up the good work!

[@Zizaco]

Well said! Thanks! : )

[@engame1702]

Your video speaks to me ngl, i've been dabbling on many game engines and game frameworks heck i've even tried to made my own game engine. But it lead nowhere.

[@happygofishing]

Bro really called faxtorio mindustry 💀

[@purringraven3648]

"Mindustry", proceeds to show Factorio

[@alexsilva42361]

Really nice video you make! Can you explore in details, maybe, doing some tutorials, about the workflow to work with javascript/typescript into the Construct 3? I think that is lacking videos about that on KZbin. It will really help people who want to dive into this process.(I'm one of them, I have to admit). Thank you for the video you made! Have a nice day!

[@Zizaco]

Great suggestion!

[@Zizaco]

Hey @alexsilva42361. Scirra just dropped a video about a workflow to work with TypeScript on Construct 3. Check it out: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gqa5Zot4m9plqpI

[@Yous0147]

I very much share the exact same background and inclination you have to try and find a more code-first game enginge/framework. I just think we have one core difference which is that I don't like working in Javascript or Typescript, despite really enjoying HTML5, and although I've tried construct (as well as other JS based engines) they just don't mesh well with me. I've tried LibGDX for Java, MonoGame for C# and most recently I'm trying Bevy for Rust to see how that feels to work on. I think, what I really want is HTML5 but without Javascript and instead with a more typesafe language such as the 3 mentioned before, I feel like the closest thing to that is developing something custom with HTMX or something similar.

[@Zizaco]

I like Rust and Bevy. But my priority is not to make games as optimized as possible, so I prefer to pick something that prioritizes productivity. Have you looked into Haxe? It's a very "portable" programming language that can compile to any platform. Maybe that's what you are looking for :)

[@user-bz1wx6uu1b]

Great video. This is very appealing. Do you know if it'd be possible to build a board game that has some 3D capability with Construct3?

[@Zizaco]

Hey, It is possible. If you look at the examples here: www.construct.net/a/20712?t=construct3 you'll find many examples. Check the following examples: "Living Card", "Alchemist", "Farming Lines", "Interior Designer", "Card Memory Match", "Connect Four", "Slide Puzzle 3d". (These are pixel art, but you could make it in different styles). Here's a few more examples build with Construct (with better/3d graphics): codecanyon.net/user/zupga (check the live preview)

[@user-bz1wx6uu1b]

Thanks a lot!!@@Zizaco

[@LawZist]

Great video, but it seems that you must pay for construct3 as the free tier as not enough. do you pay?

[@Zizaco]

Indeed. I pay

[@engame1702]

Please i want your opinion, what maked you choose over construct 3 over gdevelop 5? isnt contruct 3 a monthly subscription and gdevelop 5 is opensource? do they have a lot of differences?

[@Zizaco]

I need to check Gdevelop more in depth tbh. The main thing missing for me are flagship games and games that were ported to other platforms (like Mighty Goose with Construct). Still, I have to give it another try.

[@SputnikFive]

Was that an iOS or MacOS project in Xcode around the 1 minute mark? Looked a lot like my old Objective-C projects before switching to Swift.

[@Zizaco]

Tbh, it's just a random video from the interwebs :P

[@MT-nn2ii]

Why I wasn't surprised haha, my first free Android game for toddlers (superbolidos) was built with Contruct 3 and it's true that it's relatively easy to learn and effective immediately for any type of project, you stay focused on the essentials with this engine without being tempted to get lost in the code. :)

[@partymantis3421]

You are not a masochist for enjoying coding, you are gifted! Thank you Zizaco for sharing your wisdom, helping us all! Shine on you crazy diamond !

[@Zizaco]

Wow, thank you!

[@nazarigonzalez8620]

Hey Zizaco, great video, I am subscribed to see your progress. I have a silly question, what's the game you show at 8:33?

[@nazarigonzalez8620]

11:13 seems interesting to me too!

[@Zizaco]

Thanks! Both are example projects that come with Construct. You can play it in your browser by going to editor.construct.net and browsing the examples. You can also see the source code and modify it there in the editor.

[@charlesabju907]

Dude went and made the best case for Construct. Just when I was falling in love with Godot. Back in the day I'd use ClickTeam Fusion and it seems Construct drank from that water, but improved the concept in every possible way.

[@kabaoum1519]

Being able to code in your most proficient language to avoid context switching is a huge benefit. I stopped using unreal after 4+ years because the context switching was starting to wear on me. I found I was way more productive with godot because gdscript is so limited and it's so similar to python that the context switching cost is almost non-existant for me. What packages do you find useful from npm? as a webdev I'm somewhat horrified by the prospect of pulling in npm packages for game projects. I worry a lot about packages being both inefficient, hard to understand, not fitting well with the problem space and having dependency management added to the already complex art of building games isn't something I'm keen to takeon.

[@Zizaco]

I agree, gdscript would be almost zero context switching for someone who works with python. Good for you : ) Dependency management got a lot better in the last few years (package-lock.json, semantic versioning, and more). It's true that it is not ideal to bloat a project with all sorts of dependencies, but sometimes it can be quite helpful (even if it's to fork things to make it your own). So far I've used packages for MessagePack, Voronoi, Curve Interpolator and Wave Function Collapse.

[@totfosk]

Zizaco thanks for the video and the information :) ! I wanted to ask you what do you mean when you mention "your editor"?

[@Zizaco]

YW! By "editor" I mean a visual level editor. A tool where I can place the planets, ships, obstacles, enemies, etc. So that I can build levels visually. Game engines often come with such editors, while game frameworks don't. Search for "level editor" on google images to get an idea.

[@totfosk]

@@Zizacothanks for the answer! Man, then, you created a GUI editor for Solus Sector to work with phaser while creating the game? Impressive

[@Zizaco]

It was a very icky and buggy editor... It was not impressive at all 😅

[@pieperson444]

first of all, congrats on the game jam! are there any game engines you would reccomend for non-realistic 3d? not as simple as sprites in a 3d environment, but more stylized than realistic rendering. i used to use unity but i'm trying godot right now.

[@Zizaco]

Thanks! Godot is a solid choice. If most of the gameplay is 2d based (with 3d graphics) Construct 3 with the 3do plugin may also be an interesting option. See this example: kzbin.info/www/bejne/inS6iWekmaqdjq8si=BejdSKtcHDToq7vI&t=181

[@lordkjwilliams]

What if you create a full functioning program that is not a game, from using a game engine? How do you explain to others why you used a game engine to create something that it was not intended to do? Thanks

[@nowonmetube]

1. Because it's fun 2. It's better to use the tool you know than a new tool you don't know how to use. Is there a phrase that's similar to that?

[@johnavernia1026]

Why do you need to explain? I made a to do list for grocery app for my mother and families using godot. As long it works, it doesnt matter. I can use node js to do that, but I like using godot because it was easier to do the UI.

[@Jyodann]

It's okay to use tools that you are familiar with since it helps speed up your development process, and if the application can achieve the same goals and give the users a good experience, users usually don't think too much about the engine/tool it has been built with.

[@Zizaco]

Indeed! I've seen a few apps that were made with Godot for example. It can definitely work! If you are picky with performance, then apps made with game engines tend to use more CPU & GPU because they clean/draw everything on every frame, contrary to most desktop apps that only draw when there is a visual change (example: notepad don't need constant 60fps) [over simplified explanation].

[@nowonmetube]

@@Zizaco thanks for the information, that makes sense

[@RedPlanetPictures1]

You mention at the beginning of the video running on consoles, with a picture of a Switch, but according to Construct's website consoles aren't supported? (other than running in Edge browser on Xbox) I was very tempted by Construct as a first-time ever game dev who hates coding, until I saw their pricing model combined with the inability to release on consoles, so ultimately settled on GM. But if there's some workaround you're aware of for releasing on consoles (specifically Switch) I'd love to hear it! That might change my mind although the pricing is still irksome. GM just updated their licensing model and the free version has no engine limitations, so being able to work with it for free with the option to pay a pretty small cost later if you want to commercialize is very enticing, even if it is less beginner friendly.

[@Zizaco]

Porting a Construct 3 game to consoles is similar to getting a Godot game to consoles. You need a third-party porting company. There are many C3 games in consoles. Check this websites: www.madewithconstruct.com/ Here's an example of a porting company: www.ratalaikagames.com/games.php AJ Ordaz talking about his C3 game on switch: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e2q8qWdppcxpoMU About pricing, it's all relative. For me having the ability to use TS, npm, and making games much faster are worth it. All my other hobbies are more expensive than C3's license. =P

[@tony355367]

I also agree that the concept of game design must ultimately return to tabletop games, not just beautiful graphics.

[@JonathanPriceArt]

I made my first (and so far only) released game in Construct 3. I started to lean away from it because of the feeling of my projects being held hostage by its subscription (which recently went up in price). I still love it and consider it the easiest engine of them all (as someone who dislikes traditional scripting and has given up on learning any programming languages) but I'm looking into other tools for the time being. But honestly, I feel like there's a 20-50% chance I'll just give in and stick with Construct though--I'd rather just keep paying them than keep wasting time trying to learn a new tool at this point in my life.

[@Zizaco]

Awesome! I would love to check the game you made. Indeed it costs, but so far it has been worth the time saving benefits for me :)

[@carlosleyva-calistenia6400]

Here it comes too much text. I hope I don't get you bored. I know you aren't looking for advice, but I think the fact you have given up on learning languages is a shame because you CAN actually program. I think almost any human can. What you may lack may be the true basics of programming: making algorithms. It's way easier than you think if you have a technique for doing so. Search for something called "top-down, stepwise refinement". If it helps, it's in the 10th edition of "C++ How to Program" (Deitel & Deitel), chapter 4.10.1. That's where I learned that form. As deceptively simple as it looks, it's quite powerful. Back in my day, when I was at university, my algorithms used to outperform the ones from the cool (and obnoxious 😛) kids that loved to brag how good they were at math and programming. Another thing I would suggest you is to try another language and by that I mean a DIFFERENT language, not yet another C clone. You may find a language that actually reflects the way you think if you try one that is actually different, like Haskell, Prolog or Smalltalk. I've been programming regularly for almost 30 years by now and I even took a formal programming degree at my university (though I never cared to work in that field) and I tried many languages in all those years. As of late, I've been openly vocal about how if had to teach someone how to program, I wouldn't go for the usual stuff people want to learn because it's cool, like Python (I personally like that language), Typescript, Rust or (gasp!) C++. I would go for F#. I you like the way it works and really like to learn solid programming principles, Scott Wlaschin has a website with tons of articles about it and wrote a book called "Domain Modeling Made Functional". In that book he teaches you a way to program with F# that feels like you aren't programming, but just describing what your program should do. Anyway... too much text. I hope at least I could convince you to not give up on programming. There's nothing wrong with you. Maybe it's just that you haven't found yet a way of programming because you haven't found a language that actually suits you and you like the basic skill of making algorithms (that last one can be learnt in a single afternoon, since it's a natural way to think for all humans).

[@pegasusearl]

I used to use Construct 2. Nowadays I'm using Godot and Unity professionally. There are many people when they asked me what is the best way to learn how to program a game, I always told them to use Construct, most of the times they will roll their eyes. I felt like people underestimate the power of Construct game engine, it's powerful enough. It's even better for beginner. Event sheet in Construct is basically real programming, except you had a logic brick you can work with and every time you pick a logic brick it will show you what other logic bricks are relevant. Which means you don't have to learn any syntax and you will have a list of what you can do with certain things directly as you editing it, no need documentation. You just focus on making games and have fun. And you won't pull your hair out because how slow Unity is when making minor script modification. I don't use Construct anymore since they do subscription now and not a cheap one. If not, I would probably use it along with Godot. I wanted to buy Construct 2, but last time I checked they didn't sell them anymore. I wish I had purchased them back them.

[@sergi_diaz]

Construct 2 is really fun, GDevelop is free and is very similar, has evolved quite in these years, not perfect but the change is smooth and for funny little quickly projects its useful, you should try it ;)

[@lewis4929]

whats construct like when porting? is it an engine just to make web games? or can it export to console?

[@Zizaco]

It can export to Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS out of the box. You need a third-party porting company to bring it to consoles. Here are some examples of games that were brought to consoles: www.madewithconstruct.com/

[@SirBrAZy]

I got a proyect in visual basic 6! what i will like pass to another language but i cant programe.. i need help!!

[@krosse77]

Concerned Ape himself has said that you shouldn't take the approach he did with Stardew Valley.

[@Gepitonium]

Very interesting! 👍 Subscribed!

[@Zizaco]

Thanks for the sub!

[@amirhm6459]

I use Unity while ago and UE recently, now I'm back using pygame for prototyping, feels so direct. Using lib is much better for people with programming background. Because not need to learn all the nitty gritty high level game engine editor stuff

[@ManaPie]

Got me interested, but it seems Construct requires a monthly/annual subscription?

[@Zizaco]

It does. I find it worth it.

[@GiorgosKyrenes]

I am also a FE dev and I was happy to see that I can use TS and NPM with Construct! But then I took a look at the pricing (way too expensive) :( I was hoping for an Unreal type of business model, but I could try the free version anyway.

[@Zizaco]

Indeed, it's not the cheapest engine out there. 🫤 I find it helps to analyze its time saving benefits in billable hours. I (personally) found that it helps me save a lot of time. So far it has been worth it. :)

[@isaidstream4547]

Yes, you are right!

[@TackerTacker]

Very well said 👍

[@viktorhugo1715]

Even using construct 3, I would really recommend giving a try to Godot U can program in almost any language with it and Gdscript is kinda eazy, plus in Godot composition is so eazy to do and state machines that heavy coding almost doesn't exist (and it still being very optimized and user friendly)

[@viktorhugo1715]

There are pretty much plugins for everything in Godot, so every error that the engine has it still being easily corrected with some plugin or a bit of c++ programming since it's open source

[@Zizaco]

Indeed. Godot is an excellent choice! Especially for those familiar with / fond of Python. I am keeping a close eye on Godot, particularly the increasing support for other languages : )

[@raassh23]

I really love Construct, I've been using it since Construct 2. It's great if you want to create web games, but for other platforms, it can be a pain in the ass. For example, performance really suffers on mobile, some features may not be available, etc. It can be really hard to make good UI too, i wish we at least have some kind of easy scroll view

[@Zizaco]

Indeed, it's always hard to optimize games for mobile. Even with other game engines. My approach for UI in Construct is the following: 9-patch objects + labels + hierarchy. I could get some pretty decent results relativelly quickly. You can check the UI in my games on itch or download the source-code of my latest game (link in my latest video)

[@raassh23]

@@Zizaco Hierarchy was a game changer, i remember having to use pin behavior everywhere in C2 and early C3 with subpar results. Sub layers and the ability to change layer interactivity are also useful when creating UI. I think the new dynamic layers feature will make it easier for creating and showing pop ups, but i don't have time to play around with it yet

[@raassh23]

@@Zizaco Scirra is also always pushing to use HTML elements for UI, but the fact that it can only be on top makes it hard honestly even if you don't mind writing HTML. There's hope tho, i saw Ashley showing off HTML element that renders behind sprite objects on his twitter, so we might get that in the next few releases

[@raassh23]

Yep, we finally got HTML layers on the latest beta, seems like HTML UI will really be the future on Construct 3

[@Zizaco]

That's true! I haven't used HTML UI in Construct yet. But I did used that with Phaser. It might be interesting to give it a try. We'll see.

[@ChristopherCricketWallace]

Dark Basic!!! That takes me back.

[@sophisticated]

We use C# with Godot for the same reasons that you've mentioned. It works well. You don't have to use GD script.

[@ScottAllanJensen]

Just as a side note you can use C# with godot its not perfect but it has and is currently getting better intergration. That begining said every project will have the right kind of tool to use for it. So in your case seems like you found the right one for you.

[@Zizaco]

I'm very happy to see the growing list of supported languages in Godot! I think Godot have a bright future!

[@grzegorzpedrycz2630]

When we can expect a video about your aproach for work in Construct nad JS ;)?

[@Zizaco]

soon : )

[@grzegorzpedrycz2630]

@@Zizaco let me know why you choose a construct than Gdevelop;)

[@Zizaco]

I just answered your other comment. It's mainly because Construct 3 has more examples of real games that were ported to consoles (just in case I want to do that in the future).

[@FullyBugged]

Nice video, and that's great you found your game engine of choice! Even if 'not surprised because less known, you might have been interested during your search, and with your specific background, by the open-source 2.5d ORX engine (no GUI editor, but that does not make it a framework). Well, maybe some day, 'just for the curiosity of it, you'll take a quick look at it and it's data driven approach? It's worth to check!

[@Zizaco]

Thanks for the comment. ORX seems interesting. Kinda like Bevy but for C++

[@FullyBugged]

​@@Zizaco yes, kinda, from far ;). Bevy is promoting itself as Data-driven, but is actually not and is more data oriented. An other difference, ORX is C, or C++, Bevy is Rust. and ORX is older too and 14th yearly version, Bevy is not 1.0 yet ;). So Orx is crazy optimized already. Not perfect, but for a one man engine, is very strong, and its real data driven approach is super interesting for "pros" on the long run. (that was my "picky" two cents).

[@leslieviljoen]

I only used graphics and sound libraries for decades. When I tried Godot: wow, so many conveniences!

[@nowonmetube]

Could you explain please? And tell me what Godot has that GDevelop doesn't have for instance?

[@leslieviljoen]

@@nowonmetube I've just started with Godot, but I had a sprite following a path and rotating to face ahead as it went. And there's conveniences to help move diagonally such that a character doesn't go faster diagonally than vertically or horizontally etc. Maybe these are in GDevelop? My previous experiments have been in GOSU and SDL and way back, my own low level VGA libraries.

[@JohnCena-te9mi]

I downloaded Godot, created empty project, compiled release build, started: 50% CPU load. That's a big HMMMMMM

[@leslieviljoen]

@@JohnCena-te9mi hmmmmmmmm!

[@saulogamedev]

Great video! New sub here! Really love the content so far. have already made more than 10 games in Construct 3, most of them published on Steam. This engine taught me how to make games in a professional, practical, and user-friendly manner, especially for someone who is an artist and not a programmer like myself. I recommend it if you have never made a game and are starting on this journey. However, in terms of publishing on consoles, which is where you can diversify your income, it is quite lacking. This reason led me to migrate to Unreal. If you're developing for mobile, web, and simple games for Steam, it's very worthwhile. But anything beyond that, you might have serious problems finding publishers or even a team to create games.

[@Zizaco]

Thanks for the sub! :) Indeed, it's always complicated to bring games to concoles. There are many games made in C3 that release on PS4/5, Switch and Xbox, but it was always through a third-party porting company. BTW: É nóis!

[@saulogamedev]

​@@ZizacoHue Hue, it's a BR? Hahaha

[@Zizaco]

Sim mano!

[@eric_mosqueda]

What are some good JS libraries to use in Construct?

[@Zizaco]

The ones I showed in the video were the ones that interested me the most. @FoozleCC posted a video on algorithms for Enemy Separation while Pathfinding where he shows some libraries that he's using.

[@ekagaurangadas]

Can you use a descent IDE with Construct?

[@Zizaco]

Yes

[@grzegorzpedrycz2630]

Btw did you consider Gdevelop engine for you work ? Its even more pawerfull than Construct and both working with JS as a native language

[@Zizaco]

I need to check Gdevelop more in depth tbh. The main thing missing for me are games that were ported to other platforms (like Mighty Goose with Construct). Still, I have to give it another try.

[@grzegorzpedrycz2630]

@@Zizaco you should, from what i read there are few game ported on Nintendo switch from Gdevelop. And open source foundation gives us plenty of possibilities ;)

[@Zizaco]

I'm glad to hear that! Can you please share which games have been ported? I'm interested in learning more about it. This makes GDevelop an even more interesting option.

[@grzegorzpedrycz2630]

Sure I will try find that info, btw did you try phaser 2d editor? For fan of that library like you it should by very helpful;) ?

[@Zizaco]

Yes. I gave it a try, and I think it is very helpful! It's an generic level editor that can work well for most games. At the time Phaser Editor had less features and it was not a good fit for the game I was making (hex grid tiles) so I decided to make my own editor. I think I should have mentioned Phaser Editor, Ogmo-editor and Tiled on the video. Yet we shouldn't forget that these are "mostly" level editors, one still have to put a lot of work to make a game out of it.

[@bramble-east]

My guy, that is Factorio, not Mindustry.

[@Darkyahweh]

What does Construct charge?

[@Sworn973]

2:37 "Mindustry" and show factorio....?

[@Zizaco]

my bad

[@parabug]

Indie and retro games have that good old times feeling the 50yo developer in me is always going back to.

[@lollol012]

What's your opinion about Phaser vs PixiJS +SoundJS?

[@Zizaco]

TBH, I haven't given PixiJS much thought. Since Phaser brings more things out of the box that go beyond rendering (scene, inputs, splines, tweens, hex tile map, etc), I think I would recommend it over PixiJS.

[@BastetFurry]

Being more on the retro side of things i tend to stick with C and C++, the only "game maker" i know of for the Breadbin is SEUCK and yeah.... 😅

[@atursams5501]

What is the name of the game and game competition?

[@PixelsLaboratory]

It brought tears of joy when you mentioned DarkBasic and Blitz3D ♥ we're so alike :)

[@ecbrd8478]

Great video, really made me want to try Construct 3... until I went to their website and saw the pricing section.

[@Zizaco]

😂 indeed it's not the cheapest engine out there

[@igorthelight]

Small cheat - buy Construct 2! ;-) It's a little bit more outdated but it's almost the same in it's core!

[@eugene_tkachenko90]

@@igorthelightEven more smaller cheat - there are some countries that get x5 times less price than others. So VPN and select Turkey, you'll be surprised.

[@robinandersson99]

Got really excited but when i went to get construct 3 i noticed it cost nearly $25/month and im broke :(

[@DocHollidayGames]

I made my Steam game in C3, but I am having some regrets. My game could sorely use Steam Workshop integration, and I just can't figure out how to get that implemented in C3.

[@Zizaco]

Hey Joseph. I'm curious to know why are you having some regrets? @__sleepingpanda wrote an interesting article about releasing C3 games on steam. Maybe it can help: twitter.com/__sleepingpanda/status/1721948609678082543

[@DocHollidayGames]

@@Zizaco The biggest regret is lack of Steam Workshop integration. I got achievements working great in C3, but I can't find a way to set up Steam Workshop so users can share levels made with the level editor. Also, Greengrinds and Greenworks both lack the option to allow the overlay to open directly to the game's main storefront, so I have no way to, for example, make a button in the demo that opens the overlay straight to the main game so they can wishlist or purchase the full game.

[@Zizaco]

Oh the Workshop I got it! Indeed, there is no built-in support. I don't know how tricky it is to integrate with the Steam Workshop with other engines, but UGC is often not a simple thing to do. Even thought there is no "built-in" support, as a web developer, It seems totally possible to achieve via Steam's Web API partner.steamgames.com/doc/webapi to search, subscribe and fetch UGC. You might need a server or some lambdas to get that to work though (to secure your API Key). I haven't tried to use the Steam Overlay yet, but I remember playing steam games made in C3 that had the overlay working. Maybe this video can help: kzbin.info/www/bejne/emK9d2mmo9h5m6Msi=Qd7TXjYr-QRf8UFo Please let me know if you get it to work!

[@Zizaco]

Hey@@DocHollidayGames I'm preparing my game for the Steam release and I just found a way to use the Steam Workshop: You can create a code/javascript block within your event sheet, require greenworks and use the API const greenworks = require('./greenworks'); greenworks.ugcGetItems(...); github.com/greenheartgames/greenworks/blob/master/docs/quick-start-nwjs.md github.com/greenheartgames/greenworks/blob/master/docs/workshop.md

[@DocHollidayGames]

@@Zizaco Thanks! I’ll give it a shot

[@bookvee]

I weirdly kind of miss darkbasic... I still have the disc somewhere.

[@xeridea]

I am with you on benefits of not using a big game engine, I am making a game that would not be great in an engine. To get stuff on the web though, I would rather use SDL then emscripten to publish. This has the benefit of not dealing with an abomination of a language known as JS, a language that is a bandaid on the terrible language, or the horrible package manager that goes with them. Also, funny you talk about overhead of game engine, then use JS rather than a compiled language. I know modern JS engines are highly optimized, but it still isn't going to be comparable to C++. Not that this would actually matter for many indie games, just throwing it out there.

[@Zizaco]

As you said, C++ level of performance doesn't matter for many indie games. That's why I decided to go with an engine after all. We differ in taste, I'd rather use TS than C++. I know where you are coming from. I criticized npm a lot in the past, and it got better. Nowadays it actually works well. Even Rust went the same sort of package management strategy with Cargo/crates.io.

[@xeridea]

@@Zizaco Does NPM still duplicate packages for everything that needs anything? Back in the day we used for some web stuff, and the packages would be like 500MB and hundreds of thousands of files for Ember. Part of the issue is a lot of JS "devs" don't want to make anything themselves so rely on NPM for basic functionality, which given the duplication strategy of NPM, is an exponential problem. I use composer for PHP, don't really have issues with it, and it isn't bloated. Haven't tried typescript, but feel it would be odd using a bandage for a language, when the underlying language is flawed and needs a major overhaul, that will never happen because it is popular. I feel they should go Python 3 method and just break backward compatibility. Sites would opt in to new version, and there would be transition pains, but it would be worth it long term. They can keep trying to bandage JS with new versions, but some core issues such as equality operations need fundamental changes. There are things I like about JS, but it has too many issues for it to be my main language, and the TS approach, even if it works ok, is at odds with my mind knowing it is a bandage on a disaster. Maybe I look into it sometime, but for my work, the JS I normally do is not in depth enough to delve into it (I do more backend, and we don't use JS framework). I know many like JS, it isn't too hard to get started, and does ok for many things, and it is fine for those who like JS/TS. I just don't understand morphing it to do things it was never designed to do when at it's core, it is flawed, and improvements have felt more like fixing basic issues in sometimes convoluted ways rather than meaningful improvements on par with other languages. PHP started out a simple scripting languages, and definitely had issues the first few versions, but I wouldn't say it was ever fundamentally broken (at least since I started around 5.2), and it has had vast improvements while mostly keeping compatibility. And I never had to rely on a language built on top of a language just to get something workable.

[@Zizaco]

@xeridea I think Composer is great (I even have some stuff on packagist)! In fact, I criticized NPM because I wanted it to be more like composer :) NPM It doesn't install many copies of the same packages anymore. Now, it evaluates the dependency tree with semantic versioning and only installs one version per package (unless you force it to do otherwise), like composer. JS kinda did what you described. It's called "use strict". It's not perfect, but it made things better. It seems like we may have some similarities in our background, so I think you would enjoy TS if you gave it a try. If you want to see TS within a familiar environment, I suggest checking out AdonisJS.

[@heckensteiner4713]

I used to love Construct 2 (still do)! I tried Construct 3 since they gave a $50 dollar discount to those who owned Construct 2. One of the things I was most looking forward to with C3 was better mobile performance, which was really bad on C2. It wasn't any better like they promised, which was a huge disappointment. I've since switched to GDevelop, which has gotten really freaking good in the past couple few years, and it's free! I'm sure C3 games are better on mobile now (mostly because mobile phones are better), but I don't see any reason to pay for C3 while GDevelop exists.

[@Zizaco]

If you want to bring your game to consoles though

[@thanatosor]

Vampire Survivor shipped with Phaser and only port to Unity once it’s famous. Also Defold seem to be also a good choice in your case.

[@Zizaco]

I'll definitely take a look at Defold (since it's possible to use TypeScript with it ts-defold.dev/ )

[@thanatosor]

@@Zizaco Defold use LuaJIT which is way much faster than JS/TS while also much more simple & straightforward to write.

[@Zizaco]

what I meant is that is possible to use TS with defold (TS -> LUA -> LuaJIT) with ts-defold. I'm not so sure about the performance. JS/TS also has JIT compilation.

[@thanatosor]

@@Zizaco TS seem to be transpiled into Lua. LuaJIT is fast enough.

[@somecallmejunior]

What's that game at 8:30? Looks great

[@Zizaco]

It's a sample game that you can find in construct's website (with source code): If you want to see how it was made (and see it in the editor, online) go to: www.construct.net/a/20712?t=construct3 ,click "browse examples", and search for "zombies". That's an example of how quickly you can put together this sort of game in construct.

[@WanP1su]

What's about GDevelop with Javascript?

[@Zizaco]

I have to give it a try!