As Elina’s GDD presents, Unity was suggested as the recommended engine. But I felt like it was important to take a look at other options and understand what we might gain (or lose).
So I spent some time researching and comparing: Unity/Unreal Engine/Godot/GameMaker.
Unreal Engine：
Unreal is famous for its high-end graphics and cinematic lighting. A lot of AAA games use it, and visually, it’s incredibly powerful. If we were making something hyper-realistic or visually massive, Unreal would definitely be tempting.
However:
The learning curve is steeper.
It can feel overwhelming for small teams.
Its power is best utilised in large-scale 3D projects.
For our 2.5D puzzle exploration game, we realised that we didn’t actually need that level of visual complexity. Unreal felt slightly too heavy for what we were trying to build.
Godot：
Pros
Completely open-source and free.
Lightweight and beginner-friendly.
Strong support for 2D workflows.
Cons
Smaller community compared to Unity.
Fewer tutorials and troubleshooting resources.
Less proven pipeline for hybrid 2D/3D (2.5D) setups.
GameMaker：
GameMaker is great for pure 2D games.
It’s:
Very beginner-friendly.
Fast for prototyping.
Strong for platformers and smaller 2D projects.
However, it’s mostly focused on 2D. Our project requires spatial depth, 3D scene setup, camera control, and environmental interaction in a 2.5D space. GameMaker didn’t feel flexible enough for that.
Unity：
Unity felt like a good fit and a mixture of engines above:
Strong support for both 2D and 3D.
Perfect for 2.5D setups.
Massive community and learning resources.
Asset Store support.
Familiar workflow for some of our team members.
It’s not as visually extreme as Unreal, and not as lightweight as Godot, but it’s incredibly balanced.
Team Discussion
After gathering all this information, I shared it with the group.
We talked about:
Technical difficulty
Team skill level
Time constraints
Scope of the project
Risk management
At the end, we chose Unity as our development engine. It felt like the safest and most realistic choice.
Leave a Reply