Unity vs Unreal
Perhaps the biggest dilemma of every indie game developer when creating a new game is which game engine to work with. The two biggest names out there are Unity Engine and Unreal Engine — both of them provide amazing tools and most of the times you can’t identify which game engine a game was built in just by looking at it.
Introduction:
UNITY
Unity was founded in 2004 with the main purpose of turning game development accessible not only for big companies, but also for small studios and indie game developers. It uses C# as a coding language, making it easy to learn and use, instead of the previous JavaScript called UnityScript, which was deprecated in August 2017, after the release of Unity 2017.1, in favor of C#. Plus, it offers a lot of tutorials and courses to help you and, if you’re still struggling, Unity has a big community behind it who is ready to help you. Considering all these features, Unity is a great choice for smaller studios and people trying to get their first steps into game development.
Some of the biggest titles made with Unity:
UNREAL
Unreal was launched in 1998 by Epic Games, followed by the well-known game “Unreal Tournament” in 1999. Unreal engine has always been known for his amazing graphic quality, widely used for most of the top AAA games. Unlike Unity, Unreal’s coding language (C++) is more complex and there’s still no big community behind it. However, it remains a powerhouse of game development since it pushes graphics to the highest while keeping the whole program’s efficiency, which makes Unreal a solid choice for any game developer.
Some of the biggest titles made with Unreal Engine:
Learning Curve
This is where Unity truly shines! Due to its intuitive interface, you’ll find yourself experimenting with the game engine in no time (not to mention the large amount of guides and courses available on the internet, together with a big community).
On the other hand, Unreal uses C++ which is quite difficult for developers who are unfamiliar with this coding language. In theory, you can create a game without putting in a single line of code with their recent visual scripting system “Blueprint”, which Unity is just now trying to tap into with “Bolt”. Yet, without any C++ knowledge, you will struggle anyway. The interface is huge, with endless tool bars which, for some users, can be quite overwhelming. Nonetheless, for users who make the effort of learning how to navigate around the game engine, the main asset will definitely be the variety of ways you can customize your game.
Graphics
In theory, both engines are quite similar graphic-wise. Both of them support 2D and 3D-rendered games and run similar technology: PBR (Physically-Based Rendering), GI (Global Illumination), Volumetric lights, Post Processing, Advanced shaders and much more. This is where Unity falls short.
Unreal is packed with tools and presets that actually work, right out of the box and which can easily be adjusted. Unity, on the contrary, lacks some of the polish when it comes to producing a good-looking result, because Unity doesn’t just focus on gaming but also on “tools” for certain apps. Therefore, it might require an extra effort to achieve what you envisioned.
Toolbox
Unity is filled with tools for Physics, Animation, Event Triggers, audio, among others. However, after you get comfortable with them, you’ll feel like they are lacking something and then the Asset store makes up for it. With Unreal, you will most likely experience the opposite, since the great variety of options might feel a bit overwhelming. Nonetheless, if you can write your own tools with the respective coding language, you shouldn’t have any problems with any of the game engines.
Price
The latest pricing model of Unreal engine made it accessible to smaller developers as well. This strategy turns Unreal into a direct Unity contender.
“Starting today, you can download and use Unreal Engine to build games for free as you always have, except now royalties are waived on your first $1 million in gross revenue. The new Unreal Engine license terms, which are retroactive to January 1, 2020, give game developers an unprecedented advantage over other engine license models. For more information” — From Unreal Engine website.
Unity
The Personal version is completely free until an annual revenue of $100K USD and it comes with all core features, but forces you to use the “Made in Unity” splash screen before your game starts.
The Plus version allows you to get up to $200K USD in annual revenue and will charge you an annual subscription of $40 per month, but allows you to have a custom splash screen and 20% off in the asset store.
The Pro version gives you all the benefits and has no annual revenue limit. This will cost you $150 a month.
Unreal
Unreal Engine is free to use and offers two options, depending on your personal preference:
- Unreal Engine End User License Agreement for Publishing: 5% royalty after you exceed $1,000,000 USD in monetization revenue or other interactive off-the-shelf product. Until then, it’s completely free.
- Unreal Engine End User License Agreement for Creators: 100% royalty-free, but you cannot use it for publishing off-the-shelf interactive offerings.
Other Game Engines
There are also other open source and free game engines which are quickly rising in popularity (e.g. Godot), but they lack support when compared to Unity and Unreal. Perhaps in the future we might have a new contender on the top gaming engines.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, the right game engine for you will depend on what kind of game you want to build. One is not better than the other. Both of them have good and not so good features.
If you want to build simple puzzle games, 3D platformers, logic games, and even first-person shooters or if you’re just starting to get into game development, Unity is the one to go, due to its simplified UI and very well developed and intuitive tools. If you are planning on making AAA games, have C++ coding language knowledge and preferably some experience with 3D programs, Unreal Engine may be the right fit. It’s true that Unity is still the best choice for indie developers due to its simplicity. However, it isn’t exactly free, and the new revenue model from Unreal aims at filling this gap. Unity is not longer the cheapest engine out there and the only one providing a good support, thus it is expected that more indie developers migrate from Unity to Unreal.
