Let's try this again - Godot vs Unity

About 3 months ago, I made a video titled "Godot Is The Best Engine - Godot vs Unity". It's currently my most popular video, sitting at over 8k views. Unfortunately, this is also the video which I'm the least proud of. In fact, I'm decidedly unhappy with this video, even going so far as to re-make it. This re-make is what you're reading now.


So without further ado, Godot and Unity quite simply can't and shouldn't be compared. They're different engines which play to different strengths and fill different niches. I'm not even considering the 3D/2D differential between them, I'm referring to the development ecosystem as a whole.

Godot relied on its community, but Unity has a strong community nevertheless. Contrary to what I said in my previous attempt at this topic, Godot is not better than Unity- I just prefer it.

The reasoning behind my preference is a bit less straightforward. I imagine that a fair amount of it comes down to the fact that Godot happened to "click" with me first, even though I tried to learn the Unity engine long before I picked up Godot.

Strong Linux compatibility, lightweight exporting and a nice looking UI all contributed to this decision, if you need concrete reasons. Good games can be made with almost any engine or framework, unless you're in a triple-A studio or the odd one out in a team of Unity professionals, then just try a bunch of engines and see which one sticks.

Maybe SDL in C is a bit minimalistic for your tastes, or the Unreal Engine is too bloated. These are both valid "criticisms", but some people appreciate building their own engine on top of SDL, while others might appreciate Unreal's built-in facilities.

If you find yourself attracted to one engine for no reason that you can quantify, just practice that engine. Don't feel guilty for using Gamemaker instead of raw Assembly code. Who cares? If you're making a great game in any engine, then you're doing a lot better than most are.

The engine elitism has to stop. I'm aware that I was contributing to the same mess only 3 months ago, but I'm allowed to change my opinions and so are you. I currently believe that refusing to change your mind for fear of admitting past mistakes is one of the most damaging things that anyone can do to themselves. It's aggressively anti-progress.

In short; regardless of which engine suits your personal tastes, don't be a dork about it online. Please. There are enough dorks online to begin with. Don't add to the tire fire.

Either way, thanks for reading. I still maintain that Godot's mascot is objectively better than Unity's, so fuck off.