- Unity 5: free for up to $100,000 revenue / year, no royalties. Deploys to Mac, Windows, Linux, IOS, Android, Blackberry, Tizen, PS3, PS4, PSVITA, XBOX 360, XBOX One, Web Player, WebGL, GearVR, Oculus Rift, Samsung Smart TV, Windows Phone 8 and Wii U.
- Unreal Engine 4: free, 5% royalties after $12,000/year. Deploys to Windows, XBOX One, OpenGL (for Linux, Mac, PS4, IOS, Android Ouya) and WebGL.
There’s some talk about whether UE4 or Unity5 provides the same visuals but frankly that’s the remit of the teams who can produce AAA (Triple A; link) quality assets. If you can afford them, then you’ve got a decision to make.
Jeff LaMarche on the MartianCraft blog describes how his team have switched their primary game engine from Unity to Unreal. But it’s his project, his team; I do think it’s worth remembering that you can change. I’ve been working with the game dev and animation team in the Image Centre in South West College because they’re able to work with both toolsets. I recommend if you have a novel gaming or “interactive experience” project, get in touch with them.
Firstly thanks for the mention, very kind!
I sat up until 2am last night actually using both of these tools in an attempt to discern if one offered a better package than the other. Before going to bed I questioned why I had actually done so. I wondered if carpenters ponder over which brand of hammer they use or if a painter contemplates the aesthetic potential of one brush over another. Maybe they do but it seemed an arbitrary and somewhat redundant exercise. Then this morning while checking my to-do list for the day I realised choice, association and individuality are inherent in the human condition.
I have been using game engines for over ten years. I have designed, coded and created games using almost a dozen different toolsets. I guess the most important thing right now, regardless of where I go in my ramblings on which if any of the two are better; is that all game developers have two fantastic and relatively affordable choices available to them.
All things are metaphorical, or so my Mum always said.
Unreal is a furnace.
Unity is a melting pot.
In the words of Kurt Cobain “what the hell am I trying to say?”
Beauty is relative.
My Mum’s wedding ring that I carry with me everywhere is beautiful, small, quaint, shiny but not overly polished, confident in what it represents and knows it means something to certain people.
Gaudi’s Sagrada Família which I recently saw while in Spain is also beautiful. Colossal, towering, elegant, majestic, a spectacle.
My take right now is probably somewhat obvious but nonetheless perhaps somewhat insightful. Unreal is a beautiful thing, it offers shader technology and aesthetic prowess that I haven’t seen yet in Unity. That isn’t to say Unity can’t compete, I haven’t had enough experience with version 5 to confidently make a judgment. First impressions would suggest Unreal still holds the visual superiority.
Unity 5 have made significant steps in the right direction. It has expanded core functionality to offer a more robust toolset and visually it has developed itself into a competent and significant tool.
Unity appears more affordable. I don’t usually let economics sway my evaluations but I realise it is something that plays a significant part in the choice people will make. Unreal is free, everything that Epic offers for nothing including source code modification. However as stated above 5% is claimed after 12k is reached. That said you pay nothing up until that point. The equivalent level of service from Unity costs $75 a month. So on a game project that may last say 5 years – a developer would pay $4500 to develop a game that may or may not do well. There is no such risk in development with Unreal.
I could write about this topic for hours. Time I would love to invest in the discussion but which I simply do not have. However I have shared some thoughts.
For me right now I don’t know if I want to make a call. My head says Unreal, my heart says Unity. As someone that will be teaching students game engines I am leaning very much towards Unreal exclusively. Time spent evaluation Unity 5 may change that perspective.
Thanks for commenting, Paul. I’d love to have more of a debate about this topic – maybe something for the micro-conference/NICHE2 thing we’ve been talking about.
I agree that visual superiority is important but it is but one component of the development of a game. Would it have improved “Thomas Was Alone”?
I feel (and feel is not objective) that Unity is friendlier than Unreal. Feedback from industry is that C++ is more challenging to work with than C#. Feedback from industry is that despite the overheads in Unity, Unreal still has difficulties in mobile.
For me the hope is that I reach $100K in revenue now. Just because we haven’t made it big so far doesn’t mean we won’t make it big.