Question.
Hello, yes new update and monthly status post soon, but I got a poll for everyone first!
What is you view on Unreal Engine? What is you view on visual novels (presumably with a small mini-game, or two) in Unreal Engine?
Comments (11)
I'd say every engine has their pros and cons. Usually most visuals are in Ren'Py, RPG maker or actually I see Unity more often than Unreal. Though obviously the later ones are more focused on 3D games, I wouldn't be surprised for both of them a visual novel and an isometric map mod to be available. From a pure user experience, Ren'Py sure has some nice stuff to offer and is usually the most rock solid. Even when the script crashes, 1 rollback saves your save game in 99,9% of the cases at least, even ignore can make wonders skipping over missing media files. If RPG maker, Unity or Unreal crash... They crash. <- Fullstop From stuff like animations Unity and Unreal will surely surpass the other two, but many of those games lack even the simplest of menu options being a core feature (no mod needed) in Ren'Py and RPG maker. My intuition would say: Do not do it unless you have the man power (aka. man hours) and programming experience in the team.
Would it change the . . . genre? As in would it change the game from a top-down view? Would it change from 2D to 3D? From a bit of googling and UE5 can do "2D Top Downs". Renpy could do the dialogs and battles, but i think i never saw it used for a "real time" gameplay. So, getting around the world would be clicking on maps. Which if you make it many small connected levels could still be interesting. Personally, i would like it to be kept at least top-down and be able to play one-handed. If it's 2D, 2.5D or 3D is secondary (that still the second highest). I like the "multi-stage fidelity". Where a character has a separate model for world, battle and Story each. But i understand that's more work. But also using 3D means more animation. OK. Hear me out: DOOM Engine! (A lot of editing because hitting enter sends instead making a new line.)
I think pretty much any genre would be possible. Good point about the one handed gameplay :D
My main problem with games on Unreal - they usually have no Android support. And I can only play lewd games on phone. PC has no privacy. Even If RenPy game has no Android support in 9 out of 10 cases I can port it just for myself. No such luck with Unreal.
I've only skimmed through the documentation, but unreal to android seems easier than rpgmaker to android, somehow. Just have to be careful with the graphics, so it can run on a phone
Biggest thing for me is unreal completely tanks my laptop + since I made the mistake of having a mac ren'py games are playable even if built for PC
Unreal is more difficult but has more potential/less limitations.
Yea, I've just started having a look at it, and It's a step up in complexity from rpgmaker for sure :D
I think you'll find it harder to create a scalable, performant visual novel in Unreal than in Ren'Py, but if you plan on having some 3D minigames integrated into it, Unreal could really make something special possible, and I believe in you to deliver on that possibility.
I believe there'd be some really cool opportunities in unreal, like being able to move around in 3d space during scenes and I could probably buy a few systems/plugins to make development easier. A bit concerned about increased system requirements though, cause I don't wanna exclude people on weaker machines.
When it comes to game engines, they are as good as the person or group able to use it. You can have massive games that strain the engine to its limits run amazingly and then another game barely using the engine run horribly. An engine is an engine l. It's how one uses it that counts the most.