Source
- URL: https://x.com/valigo/status/2066277108993675586
- Author: Valentin Ignatev (@valigo)
- Posted: 2026-06-14 21:50:27
Thread
1/ @valigo
This is maybe a hot take, but I think game devs hurt themselves a lot by defaulting to either Unity or Unreal.
This is maybe ramblings of aging millennial, but hear me out!
Back in maah days, a lot of studios had their own in-house engines. Sometimes you would load a game and instantly get this Id Tech 3 feeling, or maybe you’d clearly see that “yeah, this is Infinity Engine RPG”, but overall a lot of studios had unique feel to their games.
Today, you load into a game, and you immediately tell if it’s Unity or Unreal Engine. Sometimes just by how main menu performs.
And I’m not even talking about how the game looks. Actually, even though these engines definitely have certain default look, devs seem to be much better about customizing it. I’m talking about how games feel when you play them.
You may call this a skill issue, you may say that everything about how these engines feel is customizable, but the mean always converges somewhere around the defaults. And this 100% affects design decisions, because in video games tech and design (aka an ability to express your ideas) are intertwined and inseparable.
And I don’t take the argument that picking one of these two saves development time. Games came out just fine before them, and they came out sooner. And I constantly hear from game devs just how much time they spend fighting these engines. And yes, in-house engines have some jank and yadda-yadda, but that was their charm as well. Unity and UE have plenty of that too. Especially Unity.
Of course, it’s good that they exit, they let people who absolutely don’t know how to code make and sell games, but hopefully you get the point I’m trying to make.
P.S. I know that a lot of studios still have their engines. And they release games quite often too. Which kinda proves my point
2/ @EskilSteenberg
@valigo
Major Spoiler alert for one of my up coming Better software Talks!
3/ @valigo
@EskilSteenberg
YOOOO I didn’t know I can get even more excited about BCS