The Troubles of the Unity Engine

The Unity engine is regarded as one of the most beginner friendly options for game development. The downside of the user friendly design of the engine is that many will use the engine to create games that, let's be honest, shouldn't exist.

I think many of us are familiar with the types of games I'm talking about. Games that feature iffy controls or physics that don't make any sense. However, I think it's also important to look at some good games that were made using the Unity engine, such as Cities Skylines, Ori and the Blind Forest, and Cuphead.

A lot of highly regarded games were made using the Unity engine, so why doesn't Unity get the recognition it deserves? The answer is in the pricing models. Unity is free for beginners, but it comes with the downside of requiring the Unity splash screen whenever anyone opens the game. Once you buy Unity Plus, you have the option of using any splash screen you want, including the option to remove the built in Unity one.

The removal of the Unity splash screen makes the game appear more professional, but it also removes the credit Unity deserves. When Yooka-Laylee was confirmed to be using the Unity engine, it lead to people being concerned about the game's quality. While I do think the game has some issues, it's remarkably unfair to blame the engine for those issues. Unfortunately, Yooka-Laylee ended up being somewhat controversial, and I have seen a lot of criticisms for the game be unfairly directed at the engine.

Whenever a developer is asked why they chose to use the Unity engine, they almost always respond by bringing up the flexibility of the engine. Unity allows for a lot of creativity, and it's quite rare for something to be impossible, or even very difficult, when using the Unity engine.

I think the Unity engine shows that not every game idea needs to be made, but anyone with an idea can make a game. All it takes is an idea and the desire to learn.