There have been many questions about the choice of game engine for the game. We never provided clarity on the choice because we had not made it yet. Why not?
- We were not in a stage of development where that choice had to be made.
- Possible investors (if they are publishers or partners) can have influence on the choice.
- We still wanted to do proper tests before we made the choice.
One thing was always clear, our game design does not hinge on the highest level graphics and physics or the fastest performance. It needs to be good, but not state-of-the-art. Additionally, our design is not a fast paced action game but rather a strategic game. The demands on the game engine are within the capabilities of many different game engines.
Another thing we chose for in our project planning strategy is to use as much off-the-shelf technology as possible. So no self-built game engine.
So have we finally made the choice? Yes, but only for the proto-type development. The choice, somewhat predictably, came down to Unity or Unreal. Both are possible. They use different programming languages, each with specific advantages. They offer different licensing deals, different support, different resources.
For early development, for us, Unity offers the most advantages.
This does not mean we can’t change our minds after proto-typing. It is not uncommon in game development to start development in Unity, for several advantages it offers in this phase, only to make the definitive build in another engine.