Have you ever found yourself deciding against a game you would otherwise check out because of what game engine it uses?
No. You can make just about any engine do just about anything, especially if you’ve got low-level access to it. If this question is implying something about Unreal, just level set your expectations for the performance things that usually come along with that, but it’s not a foregone conclusion either.
I agree - An engine at the end of the day is just a tool.
This isn’t intended to be a bash a specific engine thing. I recently had a discussion with a friend who noted they very specifically avoided certain engines and I was wondering if that was a common sentiment or if he’s just odd.
Certain engines form certain reputations, but those people need to see enough counter examples to realize that the engine is just a contributing factor to what the resulting game is. Unity had “a look” for years, because so many devs used the default lighting, but then you realize that stuff like Cuphead, Hollow Knight, and Subnautica all run on Unity, and that reputation fades.
One of my favorites is Batman: Arkham Knight. It uses Unreal Engine 3 and looks shockingly good despite it. Goes to show how much art direction matters.
If you played it at launch though, it did have a rough time scaling up to PC hardware that was better than consoles. It was pretty infamous for that back then.
Fortunately, no. I played after a few years.
Wasn’t that because of Denuvo?
Another good example for Unity is Escape from Tarkov. Yes, EfT is a Unity game. It’s hard to believe.
If it’s anything other than unreal engine then no. If it’s UE then I will wait and then read about issues. If I see the same lazy bs then I’ll pass.
I would say indirectly, if the game engine does not work on Linux then I’m not interested.
If a games is made in UE5 I will definitely double check if the game can even run on low end hardware. And even if a game can run they often look like dogshit on low settings. Like I tried Exit 8 and it ran like shit on my low end PC. And that is a game that just takes place in a hallway.
Same for Steam Deck. UE5 games can ‘technically’ run, but they look a lot worse than other games. It’s the only game engine I check for.
Personally yes, but I have a good reason I think. I am a Godot gamedev, so I feel a sort of kinship towards other Godot games. Like I really want to support them for whatever reason haha.
I have huge respect to Mega Crit for this. After the Unity Engine controversy 2 years ago, they re-made all of Slay the Spire 2 (StS2) that was currently on the work to Godot and becamse sponsors of the project.
Currently I’m loving StS 2. The changes are mainly content and a bit of QOL, so it’s clear that changing engines represented a huge effort for them with respect to the noticeable impact to the players, and yet they still did it.
Increasingly yes, Unity is spyware and UE5 games all play, look and feel the same.
At this point I almost entirely write off UE5 games. I assume they’re smudgy upscaled underperforming dogshit until proven otherwise. Unreal Engine 4? Cool, no problems. Unreal Engine 5? Fuuuuuuckkkk no.
I found that games I don’t like often use a particular engine, however I haven’t been in a position where I thought the game looked awesome but didn’t get it specifically because of the engine
Which engine?
UE5 as of recent :3 though the engines will switch around every so often I feel like
If I see it’s Unreal 5, I fully expect it to look like shit and perform weird, so it has some weight on my decision.
Nah. Good games can be made on any engine. So can bad games.
Yes, sort of. I absolutely hate the visual artifacts from TAA and from upscaling, which are both much more commonly used in UE5 games.
I’m also much more likely to try custom-engine games, just because I think people making their own engines is pretty cool ! I have only implemented very basic stuff myself, but it was very interesting to do !
UE isn’t a deal breaker, but so many games built on it just look like wet plastic and run like shit that I’m immediately suspicious. I’d rather play a game that has flat shading and less detailed textures with some actual personality and performance.
Kinda, if it uses an open source game engine then it’s a plus.
what notable FOSS engines are there?
Godot, plus there are plenty of frameworks (love2d, raylib)
bobeff/open-source-engines: A list of open source game engines. https://github.com/bobeff/open-source-engines
Yes, because of some shit the company pulled I’m no longer interested in games made in Unity.
Yes. I heavily favour Godot.
