Is Unity Right For Me?

Hey everyone,

I work as a 3D character artist in the AAA game industry.

I have no programming knowledge, but I'm interested in making my own game, as a hobby project.

Given my artistic background and my lack of programming knowledge, I'm wondering if Unity is the right choice for me, over other options such as Unreal.

I'm currently interested in making a 2.5D shooter/platformer, so I can leverage my ability to make 3D models, and I assume only have to deal with 2 axis of movement would be easier for a beginner.

From my research online, it seems like C# is much easier than C++ (UE4), however, Blueprints are compelling for a non-programmer like myself.

However, it seems like there are VASTLY more tutorials, guides, walkthroughs for unity development.

Is Unity the right choice?

Thanks in advance.

 

Did you spoke with your AAA fellow developers?
Sure they would advise you on the matter, from first hand.
Here you may receive biased responses, since you are on Unity forum.
So what you expect me to say?
Sure is right choice.

But I am not worry about engine choice in your case.
I would be worry about lack of programming knowledge. Which typically requires few years of expertise, before even thinking about game dev.
Blueprint ... maybe. But maybe wait, until unity release its own equivalent. Is in works already.

 

This is something that comes up quite often when I talk with other developers. The one thing that I always suggest is to really think about what you want to get out of it. If you want super amazing looking 3D visuals, easily and quickly then maybe Unreal is your best bet. And (in my opinion) if you want anything else then Unity is your go to man.

Maybe I'm a little biased, considering I only work with Unity. I understand that C# can be daunting, but trust me. It's a skill that won't let you down, stick at it. As you said yourself, Unity has some great online tutorials and there's plenty of third part stuff too. I should know this, I founded a company that's sole aim is to run in-person workshops/courses based around the games industry.

Take it from me, give Unity a try. Have a crack at C#, if you have a problem check the online material, or hey even just contact me. I'd be sure to do my best to help you out!

Hope that helped.

 

When choosing which car to buy you typically get in the car and take it for a short drive around the neighborhood of the dealership. Every game engine has a different feel to it so the best way to know if it's right for you is to take it for a test drive.

Start by downloading the Unity Hub (https://unity3d.com/get-unity/download), once it's installed launch it and click the Installs section of the Hub and from there download the latest release. After that it's a matter of choosing the tutorials you're interested in.

For getting the feel of working with the editor, I recommend the 2D and 3D Game Kit tutorials. Both of these tutorial series are reasonably new so the number of problems you run into should be very minimal if there are any at all.

https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/s/2d-game-kit
https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/s/3d-game-kit

For getting the feel of working with code, I recommend the Scripting tutorial section. These tutorials are older but for the most part there shouldn't be any major problems with them as the basics haven't changed that much over the years.

https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/s/scripting

If you run into any problems feel free to create a thread asking for assistance.

 

Unity is generally regarded as the most novice friendly of the small number of game engines geared towards making professional games. It has the largest user base of friendly helpful people, it has the most tutorials and videos (both official and user created), it has a hobbyist/indie tier license that limits almost nothing while asking for nothing,

All that said, it is still a very complex piece of software, much more complicated than some of the alternative engines which are not targeting professional games. Much like how Photoshop is relatively easy for a professional grade image editor, with lots of help and videos available, but it is still far more complicated and difficult than MS Paint. MS Paint though has a pretty low ceiling on what is possible, while Photoshop's ceiling is based more on your skill level using it.

I'd say between Unity and Unreal, Unity is a good choice for what you want to do. You will need to learn C# though (don't need to be any kind of expert, but the basics of C# are required, and you can go far with a mid level knowledge of the language), and you're going to invest a lot of time learning Unity and how it does things before making any progress on your game.

edit: As mentioned in another post, you might want to just ask your coworkers what they think. You may be able to get some in person help with whatever they suggest, which is generally better than getting help on the forums.

 

I'm much like yourself. I can make extremely nice graphics but when it comes to reading and understanding C# and what does what, that's where I have problems. Back in the old day programming with HTML was extremely fun for me. But C# is a completely different story. At least HTML made some sort of sense to me. As far as Unity, I think its the best learning software out there. 1. Because of the amount of people using Unity, that you can talk to. 2. Because of the insane number of YouTube tutorial videos and 3. Because the program it self, is pretty easy to learn. I can do many things in the main Unity program, its script creating outside of Unity, where I have issues.

 

If you are working in AAA, maybe you can leverage some connections. Like, if you are buddy buddy wtiih some programmerss who know this engine or the other, having somebody available on a daily basis to help you when your stuck is probably worth a lot.

 

Thanks for the input everyone. I decided to stick it out and started learning Unity/C#. So far it's really interesting and I'm learning a ton.

 

You can automate many thinks with playmaker and even develop a full game without writing a lot of code. Try it is far easier than blueprint as it is based in fsm.