Submitted 10 hours ago by justdaveisfine@piefed.social to games@lemmy.world
Have you ever found yourself deciding against a game you would otherwise check out because of what game engine it uses?
No. You can make just about any engine do just about anything, especially if you’ve got low-level access to it. If this question is implying something about Unreal, just level set your expectations for the performance things that usually come along with that, but it’s not a foregone conclusion either.
I agree - An engine at the end of the day is just a tool.
This isn’t intended to be a bash a specific engine thing. I recently had a discussion with a friend who noted they very specifically avoided specific engines and I was wondering if that was a common sentiment or if he’s just odd.
Certain engines form certain reputations, but those people need to see enough counter examples to realize that the engine is just a contributing factor to what the resulting game is. Unity had “a look” for years, because so many devs used the default lighting, but then you realize that stuff like Cuphead, Hollow Knight, and Subnautica all run on Unity, and that reputation fades.
The game engine should not be a factor in my opinion, but sometimes I have some feelings. In the end ultimately the game itself and how fun it is is the most important factor.
Custom engines are my kryptonite when you end up with games like animal well and balatro
I’d argue it doesn’t influence the decision making process, but is a good indicator of your taste in video games
There some some very efficient games using UE5, like Satisfactory.
On the contrary, I’m afraid of custom engine games. Even if they ultimately turn out okay, the dev hell required to get them there often sinks the game. See: ME: Andromeda, Cyberpunk 2077. And Distant Worlds 2 (even though it wasn’t technically fully custom).
I would say indirectly, if the game engine does not work on Linux then I’m not interested.
The only time I notice is when it is pointed out that they are reusing an engine for a game sequel and the prior game was a bit clunky or had bugs. More of a concern about it carrying forward parts that I didn’t like than an inherent dislike of the engine itself. Really more of an issue about how the studio uses the engine.
i’d say yes to a degree, games with a custom engine usually seem to be better optimised than those made with some standard engine
Personally yes, but I have a good reason I think. I am a Godot gamedev, so I feel a sort of kinship towards other Godot games. Like I really want to support them for whatever reason haha.
I have huge respect to Mega Crit for this. After the Unreal Engine controversy 2 years ago, they re-made all of Slay the Spire 2 (StS2) that was currently on the work to Godot and becamse sponsors of the project.
Currently I’m loving StS 2. The changes are mainly content and a bit of QOL, so it’s clear that changing engines represented a huge effort for them with respect to the noticeable impact to the players, and yet they still did it.
I was about to say “no” but saw your comment. If I am not sure about buying a game, seeing it was made with Godot makes me want to buy it. I am not a game developer but I support Foss and just love how good and clean Godot is.
If a games is made in UE5 I will definitely double check if the game can even run on low end hardware. And even if a game can run they often look like dogshit on low settings. Like I tried Exit 8 and it ran like shit on my low end PC. And that is a game that’s just takes place in a hallway.
Same for Steam Deck. UE5 games can ‘technically’ run, but they look a lot better worse than other games. It’s the only game engine I check for.
If it’s anything other than unreal engine then no. If it’s UE then I will wait and then read about issues. If I see the same lazy bs then I’ll pass.
After getting burned by the Dead Space Remake shader stutter i am very wary of UE games and check the reviews.
At this point I almost entirely write off UE5 games. I assume they’re smudgy upscaled underperforming dogshit until proven otherwise. Unreal Engine 4? Cool, no problems. Unreal Engine 5? Fuuuuuuckkkk no.
Honestly? I like to think it does. I dislike unreal 5 and if I could I would avoid games developed/running on it, but at the end of the day the game itself is what sells me on the idea of buying it or not, the engine isn’t the reason why a game will look like shit, people are making incredible things on cube dash or whatever that game is called, it’s the developer that decides how good a game looks and runs. Yes the engine can definitely help the dev in those factors.
Having said that, I do have a game that I will not pay a single cent for if it is on an engine. If elder scrolls 6 is on the same engine as Skyrim, fallout 4, 76 and whatever that space flop was called, I will either never play it or at worst pirate it and never give them a single cent. That engine was held together with duck tape and prayers before it was "upgraded the first time, nevermind by the time that Skyrim came out! And this year it’ll be 15 years since Skyrim came out, it’s time to let go of it and develop a new engine or customize an already out there one so that we can finally be free of most of the bugs and limitations of that pre 2000 engine (the creation engine is a fork of gamebryo, which was launched in 1997, so yes, it is a pre 2000s engine)! There are PLENTY of other problems with bethesda but the engine problems are such a blatant and needed change that I will not trust their next game unless they show that they are seriously trying to fix the issues that they have ignored for dar too long (combat, proper RPG choices instead of just accepting every single quest thrown at you and all of them being linear, no actual choices, no consequences for choices, extremely repetitive quests where they’re all get h quests that inflate the game time by just having you travel to he other side of the map and back (but then you can fast travel there anyway and now you are no longer immersed) and so many other problems that I cannot even be bothered to remember RN)
I forgot that this was about game engines and ended up ranting about ESO and bethesda, but honestly, the real problem with the game’s engine isn’t which one is used, it’s almost always who is using and how
Nah. Good games can be made on any engine. So can bad games.
Nope.
I found that games I don’t like often use a particular engine, however I haven’t been in a position where I thought the game looked awesome but didn’t get it specifically because of the engine
Which engine?
UE5 as of recent :3 though the engines will switch around every so often I feel like
Yes. I heavily favour Godot.
UE isn’t a deal breaker, but so many games built on it just look like wet plastic and run like shit that I’m immediately suspicious. I’d rather play a game that has flat shading and less detailed textures with some actual personality and performance.
UE5 for me. There was only a brief time that I couldn’t play those games. It was when intel was having that degradation issue on their i9 processors. UE5 games crashed so much if you had the degradation (I did). I had to hold off on any of those games until I got a new CPU. Now I only am mildly suspicious of UE5 games because they tend to either run flawlessly or be terribly optimized, no real inbetween. I check reviews first on them.
From a political standpoint, yes, it does, to an extent. I strive to use free software, but most games are made using proprietary engines, which is just a consequence of the state of that industry. Blender changed the landscape of animation production, there is no reason Godot can’t do the same for game development.
A second reason would be the concentration of wealth and power we see in big game engine developers such as Unity and Godot. Millionaire CEOs, anti-consumer terms of use, and so on. These are good reasons to lobby in favor of FOSS alternatives, and to pirate games published by dipshits (such as, I don’t know, Krafton).
In the indirect sense that an engine might impact a game’s visual appearance, hardware compatibility, or performance, sure. But I don’t care about the engine specifically as an engine. That’s just an implementation detail.
Unity games give me pause, what with the opt-out rather then opt-in data collection and that there’s so many games lazily thrown together with the default assets.
It can if the engine makes the game run poorly (I wouldn’t buy it) or not at all or if the engine is exceptionally well regarded and runs great it might make me a bit more inclined to buy the game.
If it’s an engine famous for being janky, it might also make me delay buying the game until devs or modders fix it.
Also, if the engine is known for being mod friendly, that would probably make me more inclined to consider buying the game.
No. Although Unity seems to be run by scumfucks who want to be evil but had to backtrack due to the massive backlash they got. Which means they’re just waiting to try again.
No not at all.
UE5 on handhelds is a red flag, but I will check some reviews and performance tests before buying.
I lost interest in Starfield the moment I heard it was (still) using Creation engine and looks like I was right. 🤷♂️
Custom physics based pixels or voxels engines are a plus to me :)
I have a grudge against Phyre Engine and Artemis Engine. So not those. I have no issues with other engines.
No.
But it certainly has some strong indirect effects on my buying decisions.
No. For example, I’ve seen a lot of games use Unreal, and almost all of them ran perfectly fine. It’s almost always the dev or publisher at fault for a shitty game. Usually the publisher, in the case of AAA games.
warmaster@lemmy.world 26 minutes ago
Kinda, if it uses an open source game engine then it’s a plus.