Game engines: which one to choose for your project?
March 13, 2025
We have already had the opportunity to evaluate all the pros and cons of using Unity in game development. It's a great real-time engine that can be used to create a variety of projects, even in different industries. Does it make sense to look at other engines? Our answer is yes. Despite the fact that almost half of the games on Steam are developed on Unity, other engines remain relevant or even gain more popularity, offer unique features, or may simply be more comfortable for beginners.
After the change in Unity's pricing policy, the level of interest in the Godot engine has increased significantly. Its main advantage is that it is completely free and you won't have to pay any money from the products developed with it. The engine appeared in 2001 and was paid for until 2014, when one of the main developers posted it on GitHub. Since then, about 2% of games on Steam have been developed on this engine.
It is suitable for the development of both 2D and 3D games and allows you to work on a project for mobile VR platforms. In the near future, this engine should start working on Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo consoles. The community that has formed around this engine is quite active, they try to constantly improve its performance. An active community allows novice programmers to find answers to their questions about the engine. It is a fairly easy to learn, but quite powerful 3D engine. Games such as Brotato and Halls of Torment are based on it.
The next engine you can pay attention to is GameMaker. It was created by a Dutch scientist whose hobby was games. The biggest advantage of this engine is that it is quite easy to use even for non-programmers. The engine is cross-platform and is used to create 2D games. The functionality is more limited compared to more complex engines, but it still allows you to make a game that will become really popular. The basic version of GameMaker is free, but to export your project to gaming platforms, you will need to purchase the professional version. More than 5% of games on Steam are made with its help, one of them being the cult Hotline Miami.
If you're planning a large-scale project that needs to run on a Windows, PlayStation, or Xbox One computer, CryEngine is a very attractive option. It is perfect for complex projects and has powerful graphics capabilities, although it was created as a preview technology for Nvidia. Famous shooters such as Far Cry and Crysis are running on this engine as examples.
It is very pleasant that there are a lot of training materials dedicated to this engine. Documentation, forums, and tutorials on YouTube provide excellent opportunities to get started with CryEngine. A separate pleasant detail is that since 2016, the developer has introduced a pay-as-you-go payment model.
In addition, more than 14% of games on Steam are developed on the Unreal engine, which is supported by Epic Games. It is the closest to the frequency of Unity use in game development, but it is still more designed not for the indie segment, but for AAA projects that require powerful capabilities for working with graphics, physics, lighting, etc. Its biggest advantage is its flexibility, the ability to create truly original and diverse games on one engine, such as PUBG, Deus Ex and Bioshock, Hogwarts Legacy. The downside is that, like most professional tools, it is not so easy to learn and demanding on hardware, which provides great opportunities for the realization of ideas. However, beginning developers will not have to pay any royalties until the project has earned more than $100,000.
We see that today's market offers a fairly diverse choice, each with its own positive aspects. If you have an idea for a game, or you are wondering which engine best suits the requirements of your unique project, you can always turn to an experienced team to help you realize your vision.