Alternative game engines to the big three
If you have been making games for awhile, or even just considering it, you’ve probably heard Unity and Unreal Engine referred to a lot. If you’ve looked into which game engine to learn, you probably have also heard of Godot as an alternative to the other two. In general, learning one of these three engines will get you the largest bang for your time and effort in terms of employability in the game industry. But that by no means means that these are the only engines you can learn. Maybe you want something easier to learn or more niche. And that’s totally valid. While I would EVENTUALLY recommend choosing one of the big three to learn (I personally chose Unity), learning another game engine is far from pointless.
Just know that generally, being and expert in one system is better than being vaguely familiar with them all.
GameMaker Studio
GameMaker Studio is a great option for those wanting some flexibility in their game and don’t mind needing to learn a scripting language. GameMaker studio has their own scripting language called GML, which while relatively easy to learn and similar to other scripting languages, may be too technical for those who want to avoid scripting as much as possible. Undertale and Katana Zero come to mind for me when I think of games made in the engine.
RPG Maker
RPG maker is relatively quick to learn and can make a pretty solid variety of games. While you will pretty much be limited to pixel art, you are by no means limited to RPGs. If you’re interested in seeing more of what RPG Maker can do, I have a previous article on the subject.
RenPy
RenPy is the best software to use if you want to create visual novels. If you are more of a game writer than anything, creating a game in RenPy may be just for you. RenPy games definitely have a specific style to them, but it’s easy to create story driven visual novels or other text-based games using RenPy. The most popular game made in this engine is probably Doki Doki Literature Club.
Twine
Twine is a text-based software that allows you to create branching stories. It’s incredibly quick to learn and pretty customizeable assuming you are okay with an HTML text based game. SPACE FROG and Please Answer Carefully both come to mind for me when I think of Twine.
This article is a part of an ongoing project of daily video game mini essays. If you like the idea of getting these mini essays dropped directly into your inbox, I am cross-posting on Substack. You can subscribe here for free: https://howtogrowroses.substack.com/
If you want to learn more about me or my games, you can find my website here: https://www.heyitsamanda.com/
