11–20 of 24 posts
I’d say this to game devs - if open source works just fine for some of the most complex web and operating systems out there it will work great for game dev. Dont be afraid of making the switch.
The lack of interest in developing a custom game engine today surprises me. It should go without saying that using a tool like Unity can help you get going quickly, but when it doesn't exactly fit your original game idea, it can and does often turn into an uphill battle. Directly utilising the SDKs without the use of middleware grants the most freedom, and technologies like DirectX were actually designed to simplify…
Plenty of people do start their own custom engines. The problem is, a general purpose game engine of any relevant quality is comparable in complexity to a modern web browser, most game developers don't have the time or talent to handle that, and once they get past a gee-whiz renderer and maybe loading textures, they wind up in the weeds and never ship anything again.
Don't get me wrong - I've done it. I've got the corpses of several "game engines" including the ersatz one I'm building around a roguelike that I haven't and may never finish, but it isn't a satisfactory general solution for most people.
The lack of interest in developing a custom game engine today surprises me. It should go without saying that using a tool like Unity can help you get going quickly, but when it doesn't exactly fit your original game idea, it can and does often turn into an uphill battle. Directly utilising the SDKs without the use of middleware grants the most freedom, and technologies like DirectX were actually designed to simplify…
99.99...(some arbitrary significant digit)% of "game ideas" are perfectly capable of being represented in Unity or most modern game engines. For the rest, it's easier to change your concept rather than put off shipping for several years to build a competitive engine just to scratch your specific programmer itches. Plenty of people do start their own custom engines. The problem is, a general purpose game engine of any…
But, they simply didn't think about this from their customers' perspective - and this is itself a very shocking circumstance for a million-dollar industry to ignore.
It goes without saying that if you can't think like your customer will, then you're not ready to deliver them a product. If you think your customers are your product, you're in dark territory, as well.
Have Activision been treating their third-party developers like they are chattle? It sure seems like it in this case.
The lack of interest in developing a custom game engine today surprises me. It should go without saying that using a tool like Unity can help you get going quickly, but when it doesn't exactly fit your original game idea, it can and does often turn into an uphill battle. Directly utilising the SDKs without the use of middleware grants the most freedom, and technologies like DirectX were actually designed to simplify…
99.99...(some arbitrary significant digit)% of "game ideas" are perfectly capable of being represented in Unity or most modern game engines. For the rest, it's easier to change your concept rather than put off shipping for several years to build a competitive engine just to scratch your specific programmer itches. Plenty of people do start their own custom engines. The problem is, a general purpose game engine of any…
Plenty of games still have their own custom engines.
Also you have games like Rimworld which pretty much only use Unity for rendering and cross platform support.
This one is going into the textbooks on how to not conduct a revenu model change. Most of their customers are way to locked in for them to change engine in the short or even medium term, but this will have significant future impacts.
Thank God, literally interviewing with them tomorrow
If you don't need the job, really do ask them these hard questions. Your personal financial stability is on the line, so be very careful about joining a company that is this detached from its customers.
Back in the day Unity used to have company wide discussions before most very major decisions (even when they still had 500-1000 employees). That’s long past. Hardly anyone in the company knew anything about the new price model before it was announced.
> Unity will limit fees to 4% of a game’s revenue for customers making over $1 million This is 20% cheaper than Epic, correct?
...but with the added expense and logistical burden of having to track all your installs nonetheless.