Unreal Engine 4 FREE...

What if Unity or Unreal took a steam approach to game development?!

 

Am I the only one excited to see what Autodesk's Stingray is about?

 

Yes, probably because you don't use any other Autodesk products.

 

I am curious but not excited - Reason being that if autodesk integrates their dated game ware tech I not interested in stingray.

 

Im curious, what do you mean exactly?

 

But Unity's "free" version is genuinely free*. The Unreal one is not. Assuming you're selling your game, it's at best cost-deferred.

* I admit that the $100k income limit leaves a bit of grey area, in so far as: what happens if a project done with free earns enough to disqualify the developer from the free license? Edit: @Andy Touch, I know you're probably not the right fellow to ask, but since you're the fellow who's here... what would happen in that case?

 

Drop the dev tools and start building a Publishing Platform instead! Yes!

 

Unity is way better than Unreal at some things. For example, Unreal has horrible support for Android, with bad performance and bloated apks (> 50mb) for the simplest casual game. I believe casual mobile games are the most likely target of 1-person indie developers.

 

The supposedly "big announcement". in 16 hours to be exact.
You can watch the event LIVE (or the countdown to event) here:

 

Yeah, pretty much. I haven't had much faith in Autodesk for quite some time. And I haven't used 3D Studio Max for almost a decade. Not that concerned about them integrating a game engine into their toolset. And with the already highly competitive engine scene, I seriously doubt they have the chops to hold their own.

 

Yeah same.

 

With the amount of tech and quality they offer it's worth it, and you can buy a royalty free version if 5% is too significant for you

I'm too far along to switch my project, but it'll probably be the last I make in Unity

 

Comparing engine pricing is somewhat pointless when they both have essentially the same pricing model. I call it "Pay when Successful". Yes, you can somewhat be successful within the limits of Unity Free and Unreal 4's royalties, but this requires certain circumstances.

The real difference is the upfront features. Unreal 4 gives you everything straight up whereas Unity does not.

 

I dont know, I think that the only way that Unity can maintain their commercial model is a partner as Microsoft that can give the money that slowy Unity will be not receive for sales.

 

As do I.

After all, Sara the Shieldmage is going to be an awesome Eastern RPG recalling the greats of the 16-bit era, and is made with our favorite engine, Unity. When I release it, you should totally buy it.

 

Sounds awesome!

Now make it.

 

You convinced me! I will buy it!!

Seriously, I can't wait!

 

Happening.

 

You have a follower on twitch

 

According to a discussion with a Unity person somewhere in this forum, you must buy Unity Pro. The income is the company's income so comes from all other games sold.

 

Steam make their money now through being a portal for PC games.

Actually in hindsight I'm surprised Unreal and Unity have not set up their own portal systems bypassing the hardware and OS providers to provide games with their technology and taking a direct percentage from the sales (at least on PC/Linux)?!

 

Too much competition.

 

Do you not find it suspicious the hippo doesn't mind this thread, and isn't moderating it?

 

Omg... just about choked while drinking water when I read this.

I work a floor above Autodesk... their developers refuse to discuss crashing issues with Maya in the elevator.

I'm not interested in Stingray because a game engine that crashes every 15 minutes is no good to me.

 

A fee based subscription is anti-indie. Anti-growth.

Truly free + royalties is how you grow your user base. Its how you let your userbase have the best shot at making the best games, for EVERYONE.

Truly Free + royalties improves the quality of ALL the Asset Store submissions because you don't have to sell it to a Pro or Free user separately or cater to one side. Instead, you get more sales, selling your cool feature that doesn't work on Lite-Edition, to everyone in Truly-Free.

Truly Free + royalties would even make more money for Unity. Rather than taking lunch money from a few thousand indies, harming their chances at making a good game, you can make a few million dollars from the triple AAA studios who are raking it in.

 

...Well, I DIDN'T.

 

Well well well. How is unity going to respond to this.

 

I guess it means the moderator sign is part of your avatar

 

You'll find out at 8.30am PST / 4.30pm GMT

 

Not really... Unity has something up their collective sleeves but so does Epic Games.

Begun the Engine wars has!

 

you are fired?

 

That's totally the 8:30 announcement.

 

Is it because Unity bought Epic? Now that really would be big news!

 

I understood today that there is where Tencent + Epic want to be in around 5 years.
They've already started today. All their 'hype' driving effectors are now reachable from the same software, the same launcher, the same community. Each product with a different marketplace and different but supporting eachother echo-systems where their public will have access to all of their services, just like Valve does.
They didn't say anything about it, because if compared to Valve the way things are now it's pretty much insignificant, but it's pretty clear to me now what their intentions are.

 

You make it sound like you know what is coming.

 

That gave me a giggle

 

Damnit i need spoilers now

 

This is all true. The best part about truly free is you don't get punished for being a hobbyist, and if you do sell a game, you still get 95% of your earnings (or with steam cut or anything of the like). It's a win win.

Becoming truly free says a lot, it says Unity would be willing to gamble on the power of their engine that we will make successful games and bring them revenue.

 

If it has royalties then it isn't truly free.

 

Because I guessed correctly.

 

You'll have to wait and see. Hint: http://feedback.unity3d.com/suggestions/goat

 

Unity is adding hippo support?

 

For a serious developer, this should change nothing. I am amazed at how simple minded some people look at this decision. No matter how much Unreal costs it can never replace Unity's ease of use, and how quick and straight ford things are to get done with. These people who think its easy to just migrate their project to Unreal are in for a rude awakening. Unreal's learning curve is extremely high. Try to do something in both engines and compare the time it takes you to accomplish it and how long it takes. One good example, if you are up for a challange, is to make a walking character from ground up, that moves fwd/bk, turns and jumps. Try in both and see your results, and those results should speak louder than anything I tell you. I own both Unity Pro and have been subscribing to Unreal for a while, and have never done anything except just play around in Unreal because it is alot less forgiving than Unity and makes one take so many steps that its not worth it in my opinion.
TLDR~Price change effects nothing, since Unity is so much easier to use.

 

What is for you a serious developer?

 

Keep saying that to yourself.

Already done in blueprint.

Unreal Engine is looking to become the next unity and Price affects a whole lot.

 

Theres even a c# build for unreal so porting would be a snap.

 

Oh just because everybody else has already thrown in an opinion.....

All of this guff about pricing and models and 'which engine better' is just short term fluff. It grabs a headline or two and start a forum war, but all that gets washed aside in time.

The real danger UE4 posses to Unity can be summed up in one word....velocity.

UE4 is cracking at an absolutely blistering pace. They drop cool stuff into their users hands every 2 -3 months and seem quite comfortable sustaining that cadence.

So no matter where they are today on a given feature point, over a long enough time frame they are going to overhaul everyone else who can't match that speed.

Slow and steady is not going to cut it, if your opponents can handle fast and steady.

 

True! I love the licensing fees for C# xamarin too. Not.

 

Any serious developer will choose the best tool for the job. Including cost in that decision is no less important than including ease of use. Any serious developer should be capable of learning a new platform, but affording it may be another matter.

A company can easily be over the $100,000 line yet still be struggling to afford its developers. An upfront cost could hurt them more than a "pay when successful" cost.