Free or cheap
Professional grade
Lots of tutorials
Active community
Fast prototyping
Easy to learn
=
Unity
Game devs, start your game engines!
I know what you’re thinking.
Why not go with Unreal Engine?
I get it. I’ve been there.
Content
How do I decide between Unity and Unreal Engine?
How do I start learning how to use Unity?
How do I decide between Unity and Unreal Engine?
When it comes to choosing what game engine to use for your first game project, if you have to decide between Unity and Unreal Engine, just be happy. Because you have access to two professional grade and user friendly game engines for free.
You can create pretty much any kind of game, for almost any platform, with both engines. So your first game project can be done with either, for sure. The short version is: Unity is the best choice for Browser/Mobile and mostly indie games. Unreal Engine is the best choice for PC/Console and mostly AAA games.
You’ll probably end up learning how to use both Unity and Unreal Engine at some point. Just pick which one you would prefer to learn first.
I’m impressed by the games made with Unreal Engine 4. Plus I’m eager to learn how to use the Blueprint system, its visual scripting tool. Coding games without code. Awesome. I even started building the game with it at first but changed my mind…there’s something with the way it works that doesn’t suit me. Too complicated for the simple game I’m making.
On the other hand, Unity is an impressive all-round engine and it’s UX is remarkable. Sleek and simple. Documentation and tutorials quality is through the roof. Super fast prototyping and comes in a Personal edition which is free. What’s not to like? If you start earning more than $100k you’ll have to go for the Plus or Pro editions for $35-$150 a month. Think you could build your own game engine for less? Think again.
So there, Unity it is.
How do I start learning how to use Unity?
Unity has shipped tons of great looking games of all genres. The community is super active and most game developers openly share their experience. So there’s a lot of great learning material out there. Unity also provides very good documentation and Unity Learn has well crafted step by step tutorials to understand how things work.
In particular, the Unity Essentials pathway is a good place to start.
Finding good material is not going to be an issue. You can thank Google for that. Just remember to use it to help you understand the concepts. Only practice will help understanding how to get things done. So do practice. A lot. And when you’re done, practice some more.
Looking at the game concept, it’s clear we need to test a few things. Quick and dirty is the way to go here. The engine gives me the means to do just that.
Game engine: check. Now I let’s find a a code editor.