It seems done on purpose but I promise it’s not. Right with all the flood of criticism to Unity for having changed its payment system, I was fooling around with Unreal Engine.

I just wanted to try it out and see the differences and my conclusion is that Unreal Engine is very easy to use, the Blueprints are amazing and the free assets available as well. HOWEVER, I’m sticking with Unity.

I don’t know. Aesthetic reasons. Having dedicated more hours and finding it easier to use. Having full control with C# (I don’t want to learn C++ and that’s why I used Blueprints). Exporting projects to different platforms seems like hell and Unity makes it very easy.

But I insist, it’s simple and in a short time you can make very flashy projects like the ones I am going to show you. They are two prototypes of very different games made in a matter of weeks.

LostLands

It’s a two-level prototype. A game with overwhelming graphic quality using basic lighting and free assets.

The idea of the game is to have levels with increasingly complicated routes so that the player has to think before starting which route is best to take. It is about grabbing a number of hammers in a specific order, each hammer adds 10 seconds and until you have them all you cannot cross the door that ends the level.

The tension is generated from the moment you open the first door and see a 10-second counter. The first level is very simple, in a straight line, like a mechanics tutorial.

The second level adds a map that you have to think about better because there is a humanoid shadow that chases you and it’s very heavy.

I leave you some screenshots and a gameplay in addition to the link to itch.io where you can download the prototype and try it out.

You can rate, comment and download the prototype here:

UnReality

The original idea for this game was… a total pipe dream. Starting with high-quality graphics to simulate the reality of an ordinary boy playing on his computer in his room. One day he is abducted by the screen and becomes the main character of his beloved video game.

Here the graphics change to be LowPoly style. As the levels progress, the protagonist, who is trying to beat the game and return to his reality, begins to see “mixed graphics”. That is, high-quality graphics mixed with the low poly, indicating that he is close to achieving it.

Since I don’t have the knowledge or the time to make a game of that caliber… everything has remained in a prototype of a single level.

We are the main character who wakes up in a valley, surrounded by trees, butterflies, mushrooms and soon you realize that you are on a 3D platform. There are signs that tell you how to move and where to go.

There are some gems that you can collect and that are useless and a door with a padlock that marks the end of the level, but first you have to find the key that opens the door.

A few platforms and the key is yours to see how the door opens, you cross the portal and the level resets.

I leave you screenshots, links, and gameplay.

You can rate, comment and download the prototype here:

Unreal Engine

Both games are of high quality (at least in my opinion), without having written a single line of code. Only using Blueprints (which is still a way of programming but more visual). The sounds, the ambiance, the light, and the free assets give it an incredible aspect.

In conclusion, very happy with the experience. I’m continuing with Unity (for the reasons I mentioned at the beginning of the post) but certainly, with the news this week, I cannot rule out moving at some point to other tools like Unreal Engine or Godot (I’m eager to try it too).

Having said that, I hope you like the prototypes, I encourage you to play them, comment and… see you in the next post. If all goes well, it will be about the update of Oh My Shape! that is about to come out of the oven.