Hey, it’s SnakeF8, and I expect some backlash for this…

…but hear me out! I’m not a fan of what’s going on with Unity at the moment, but I will not be changing engines. I’d like to…maybe, but I just can’t with this project. I’ve been working on Soldiers’ Descent for over a year now, so it would be way too much for SirDiesALot and I to convert everything to something like Godot. I’m sure you probably know a lot of what’s going on with Unity, but rather than repeating the story like a bajillion others have done, I’d rather cut to the chase and share my thoughts. I know I'm not the first game dev to share my thoughts, yet I'm still going to put my two cents in. Please support game devs no matter what tools they use to create their art. Software used is not a representation of the work as a whole.

Soldier’s Descent is Too Deep in Development

Soldiers’ Descent started development on May 5, 2021, and a LOT has already been done with the project. It would just take too much time to convert everything to a different engine. Although it might not seem like much when playing the tech demo feature-wise, there’s a lot more included in the demo than it seems. If we were to change engines, I would have to reimport assets, reassign variables, and rebuild everything from the ground up. We’re not really pressed on time, but it’s still a time-waster since we’d be rebuilding an entire game just because a corporation did some unpopular actions.

By changing engines, SirDiesALot and I would have to relearn the main component that makes Soldiers’ Descent function. I’ve been using Unity since 2017, so that’s what I’m most comfortable using for a bigger project like this. If we were to make the switch, it would 100% be Godot! Godot is a fantastic engine, but we would still have to study what makes it roar. You can do a lot of things using most engines with the proper creativity such as Payday 2 (That was made on a racing engine!). However, my major concern is that if I were to convert Soldiers’ Descent to Godot, I don’t even know if it will work the way I want it to. Godot uses GDscript and supports C#, but there would still be many scripts that need to be converted to support Godot. Another concern I have is Godot’s 3D engine (4.0 is not out yet). It works, but I don’t think it’s “there” yet if that makes any sense. I really don’t want Soldiers’ Descent to be bottlenecked by us learning a new engine and figuring out what limitations will hinder us. On the flipside, there’s a good chance we will be using Godot for any future projects. It’d be better for us to learn Godot on the side before using it for a major game. Personally, it’s much easier to build a new game from scratch than redo an existing one.

Unity and The Future

Once Soldiers’ Descent’s official demo is fully released, it’s going to be FREE. How Unity’s current revenue system works is that as long as a project does not exceed $100k annually, we do not have to upgrade our licenses. Since we highly doubt this project will even come close to that mark if a full game is released, Unity makes no money.

Why I Say “...Probably”

Drama has a tendency to blow over after a set amount of time, and Unity’s decisions are no different. The average person is probably not going to care months from now, but it’s still going to leave a sour taste in developers’ mouths for longer than that- a scar if you may. Who knows? Unity might backpedal on their statements and be more cautious about their decisions in the future. The engine itself is still amazing, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Keep supporting developers that choose to use Unity. A lot of us make games out of passion, so boycotting our choice to keep using this engine hurts us more than it hurts Unity.