{"id":979,"date":"2026-02-12T21:51:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T21:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/sz3c23\/?p=979"},"modified":"2026-03-02T01:39:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T01:39:53","slug":"engine-comparison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/sz3c23\/engine-comparison\/","title":{"rendered":"Engine Comparison"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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As Elina\u2019s 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).<\/p>

So I spent some time researching and comparing: Unity\/Unreal Engine\/Godot\/GameMaker.<\/p>

Unreal Engine\uff1a<\/h4>

Unreal is famous for its high-end graphics and cinematic lighting<\/strong>. A lot of AAA games use it, and visually, it\u2019s incredibly powerful. If we were making something hyper-realistic or visually massive, Unreal would definitely be tempting.<\/p>

However:<\/p>

  • The learning curve is steeper.<\/p><\/li>

  • It can feel overwhelming for small teams.<\/p><\/li>

  • Its power is best utilised in large-scale 3D projects.<\/p><\/li><\/ul>

    For our 2.5D puzzle exploration game, we realised that we didn\u2019t actually need<\/em> that level of visual complexity. Unreal felt slightly too heavy for what we were trying to build.<\/p>

    Godot\uff1a<\/h5>

    Pros<\/strong><\/p>

    • Completely open-source and free.<\/p><\/li>

    • Lightweight and beginner-friendly.<\/p><\/li>

    • Strong support for 2D workflows.<\/p><\/li><\/ul>

      Cons<\/strong><\/p>

      • Smaller community compared to Unity.<\/p><\/li>

      • Fewer tutorials and troubleshooting resources.<\/p><\/li>

      • Less proven pipeline for hybrid 2D\/3D (2.5D) setups.<\/p><\/li><\/ul>

        GameMaker\uff1a<\/h5>

        GameMaker is great for pure 2D games.<\/p>

        It\u2019s:<\/p>

        • Very beginner-friendly.<\/p><\/li>

        • Fast for prototyping.<\/p><\/li>

        • Strong for platformers and smaller 2D projects.<\/p><\/li><\/ul>

          However, it\u2019s mostly focused on 2D. Our project requires spatial depth, 3D scene setup, camera control, and environmental interaction in a 2.5D space. GameMaker didn\u2019t feel flexible enough for that.<\/p>

          Unity\uff1a<\/h5>

          Unity felt like a good fit and a mixture of engines above:<\/p>

          • Strong support for both 2D and 3D.<\/p><\/li>

          • Perfect for 2.5D setups.<\/p><\/li>

          • Massive community and learning resources.<\/p><\/li>

          • Asset Store support.<\/p><\/li>

          • Familiar workflow for some of our team members.<\/p><\/li><\/ul>

            It\u2019s not as visually extreme as Unreal, and not as lightweight as Godot, but it\u2019s incredibly balanced.<\/p>

            \u00a0<\/h4>

            Team Discussion<\/h4>

            After gathering all this information, I shared it with the group.<\/p>

            We talked about:<\/p>

            • Technical difficulty<\/p><\/li>

            • Team skill level<\/p><\/li>

            • Time constraints<\/p><\/li>

            • Scope of the project<\/p><\/li>

            • Risk management<\/p><\/li><\/ul>

              At the end, we chose Unity<\/strong> as our development engine. It felt like the safest and most realistic choice.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              As Elina\u2019s 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\uff1a Unreal is famous for its high-end graphics and cinematic lighting. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-semester2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/sz3c23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/sz3c23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/sz3c23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/sz3c23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/sz3c23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=979"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/sz3c23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1262,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/sz3c23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979\/revisions\/1262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/sz3c23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/sz3c23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/sz3c23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/sz3c23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}