Unity Situation (Part. 2)
Added 2023-09-14 23:32:31 +0000 UTCHi!
Just wanted to keep you updated what's going with the Unity saga.
Common Vision & Announcements
Developers and game studios from all over the world have shared the same frustration with Unity and their latest actions. We are talking hundreds of public announcements (not just indies) and I also joined this wave of announcements today by releasing a short public response.
You can read the public response here:
https://x.com/roadtovostok/status/1702332131870179441?s=20
I decided that this statement was necessary since I started to get a lot of questions related this topic and I felt that it was a good time to tell my concerns publicly since I spent 3 days "low-profile" observing the situation.
If you want to read announcements from other studios, here's a collection that keeps piling up:
https://twitter.com/FuckedByUnity
The Damage
Unity situation is going pretty viral and it's no longer just within the gamedev community. Major news outlets and large content creators have covered the topic and Unity's public reputation have suffered greatly, even if they would revert the previous decisions.
The "engine reputation" is important in multiple scenarios and if people are generally afraid of the engine, the community and opportunities around the engine will fade away over time.
Unity's Silence
There hasn't been any announcements from Unity today and it's obvious that they went into a PR-catastrophe mode. This is pretty standard behavior from companies when you try to regain the control of the situation but the damage is still being done constantly. Basically the longer you keep silent, the more misinformation, speculation and rumours there's going to be.
I would assume tomorrow there's going to be somekind of signal from Unity, but who knows.
Best-case scenario
Since Unity's stock price will go down and the current "value-status" is declining, the company might look like a good acquiring opportunity for larger tech-giants since the engine itself is good and still extremely widely used. Unity might also recognize this possibility if they came to a conclusion that there's no other options. This scenario is quite unlikely but still a possibility.
For example, if Microsoft / Apple would decide to start negotations with Unity this would bring some hope to the community since that would potentially bring new leadership and financial stability to the engine despite the current situation.
Alternative Engines
Since this situation requires planning and futureproofing, I decided that I will spent few days casually messing around with few alternative engines (Unreal & Godot). I think this is necessary in order to gain an understanding what would be the current logical choice if Unity's upcoming response turns things somehow drastically even worse (low possibility) and it forces developers like Road to Vostok moving away from the situation.
I'm definitely not making any short-sighted decisions because +11 years of experience with Unity is a really valuable asset for me, but it's wise to gain that surface-level understanding from other engines (even if Unity would recover somehow).
Q&A
If you have any questions, I'm more than happy to answer and discuss this topic here.
- Antti (Developer)
Comments
Are you thinking of „Verse“ possibly? It was mentioned as an upcoming scripting language in one of the recent big unreal 5 announcements. It is supposed to be for more convenient development but it seemed to me that it was just tacked on top of C++. Which would mean hurdles for deep stuff.
Nubb3r
2023-09-19 16:42:43 +0000 UTCHi! I have been really busy planning and researching some topics related to potential engine switch if the situation comes to that. I have also been doing a bunch of calculations and analysis on which part of the project code base would be easily transferred / modular and which are not. I will wrote some update soon here :)
Road to Vostok
2023-09-19 15:48:13 +0000 UTCwhat's going on now Antti? Latest News are that Unity will rethink the Model but not reverse it. Hearing nothing of you since 4 Days make me thinking if it wouldn't be the best to really switch Engine. All the waiting is hard for us all including you ofc. We all got your back. Just wanna know if you are still developing or if RtV is in a complete freeze Situation right now.
SavRoyale
2023-09-18 17:44:13 +0000 UTCCheers for the update and measured response. Good idea to get a feel for a couple of other engines just incase.
Sam Hardwater
2023-09-16 11:42:18 +0000 UTCI have already dedicated myself to this project so I consider this just a small roadbump and a nice challenge to be strategic about the future :)
Road to Vostok
2023-09-15 15:30:19 +0000 UTCThis is probably the best advertisement UE could ever get. And as impatient as I am - I'd rather wait a few more years so that you can port to another engine. What's the point to continue development in an engine that kind of makes you hope that your game doesn't get successful because then you would have to pay for every install (which is especially bad for indie developers). Even if they cancel this bullshit tomorrow, nobody can know that they won't make changes like that in the future (especially if Riccitiello stays CEO) and if Road to Vostok would have released by than it screws you over even more because obviously it would be harder to switch engines. I'm curious how popular Unity games like Tarkov, Battlebit, Sons of the Forest etc. will react to that since they already released and are way further into development. So Take your time and decide what's best. We'll support you in whatever decision you make (besides cancelling the whole project :-D)
pgml
2023-09-15 15:02:51 +0000 UTCIt sucks that you and so many more game devs have to go through this. I just imagine all of the people out there working on projects, some just started, others who are half way done, some nearly finished, and then this BS happens. It's not right. We are all rooting for you!
M1XED_BAG
2023-09-15 10:03:55 +0000 UTCI don't think that even IF unity would abandon it's goals of these changes it wold be temporary and they will do something else. They merged with a malware company right after the current ceo took charge; who have been the same ceo who is responsible for the star wars microtransaction horrors we remember, and an enemy of everyone who is making/enjoying games. I don't think unity deserves any more chances and even if it would have a negative effect on the development timeline I think unity and all related companies must be avoided like the plague. Publishing a statement in favour of UE5 or some other alternative the better in my opinion. Make unity bleed.
Davoda 1
2023-09-15 09:09:18 +0000 UTCUnity looks outdated anyway, perhaps its a good idea to switch to UE5 engine.
Rottmeister
2023-09-15 07:59:38 +0000 UTCI've played with both Unity and Unreal 5, and there isn't really a comparison in terms of ease-of-use. Unity wins hands-down. Unreal is significantly more powerful, but it also has less room for error; it's much easier to make mistakes that cause bugs or poor performance. Some folks over rely on blueprints, which while handy, aren't very performant for primary game loops. It really depends on the scale of the game.
Silent Gloves
2023-09-15 02:19:40 +0000 UTCI thought Unreal had started supporting C# now?
Tim S
2023-09-15 01:48:37 +0000 UTCHi! In terms of Unreal versions, I think it would be wise to go straight to UE5, even if some aspects are not yet fully stable. I personally would not need most of the new experimental features, but my experience working with Unity has shown that you don't want to stay on the legacy versions if you have a long-term project. I'm also quite uneducated still around this UE topic, so these are just initial thoughts.
Road to Vostok
2023-09-15 00:46:18 +0000 UTCGodot is definitely lightweight and there's a lot of potential. It could evolve to "Blender" of game engines and that would be the ideal engine for many developers. The biggest problem with Godot is indeed the lack of large-scale 3D-project case studies especially when it comes to performance. It's scary to think that you would have to be that case study and figure out the "engine potential" along with the development. Unreal is financially safe, "combat-tested" and there's multiple innovations that make it cool and shiny, but it's also a bit bloated in some sense and the C++ / Blueprint structure is not ideal at first glance. I do also have a slight concern that if Unity really puts Unreal as a clear market leader and there's no competition in large-scale 3D engines, then Unreal would basically acquire a monopoly status within these types of games and there would be no competition which is never a good thing for consumers.
Road to Vostok
2023-09-15 00:40:31 +0000 UTCHey I was wondering about unreal specifically whether you'd be looking to use 5 straight away or go with 4?
Dots The Dot
2023-09-15 00:23:37 +0000 UTCGodot is a great little engine but I've yet to see anything big especially 3D from it. Unreal seems like it would be perfect for Vostok since you're making smaller maps instead of a big open world. But perhaps you could be the first big 3D shooter on Godot!
Tim S
2023-09-15 00:21:00 +0000 UTCMost likely yes. Development wise, I could potentially have the Public Demo 2 ready for end of this month, but it would be really unwise to release something in the middle of this. Basically one year worth of development and demo coverage would bury under the Unity chaos, so it's more about the bad timing and better to wait a little until the dust settles. If I would release the demo now, I think the main spotlight would not be around the actual demo, gameplay feedback and all that stuff that matters to me. This ideology is the same when it comes to general release windows, you don't want to release something to the market, while there's big releases from other studios etc. Currently all the coverage and spotlights are unfortunately around Unity in a negative way and I have no options to fight against that. But since we are talking just a demo, I feel like I'm the "lucky one" here and there's no major concerns around this demo topic. There's multiple studios that have early access launches coming really soon and there's all kinds of legal contracts that require certain release dates, so I feel sorry for those who don't have these priviledges to apply minor delays etc.
Road to Vostok
2023-09-14 23:46:10 +0000 UTCDo you think this whole situation with Unity and you taking some time to look at other engines will affect the Public Demo 2 deadline? That's totally okay if so, it's just been on my mind ever since the controversy started.
Fonzi
2023-09-14 23:40:47 +0000 UTC
