Original subtitles

Some of you might be wondering why you would use a game engine as powerful as Unreal Engine to make

2D and 2D 3D hybrid games.

The obvious alternatives would be Unity and Godot.

And yes, on first glance, they are better suited for 2D games and might be the right choice for a

lot of people.

However, there are also many reasons why you might choose to use Unreal Engine over those, and in

the end, it's a decision you have to make for yourself.

One of the biggest reasons for me to pick Unreal Engine over the other alternatives is the general workflow.

With Unreal and Blueprint Visual Scripting.

This system allows you to create entire games without having to write a single line of code through

a node based editor.

This makes it easier for artists and game designers to also help out doing projects, but even engineers

will be able to work much faster using this over C plus plus, and it can cut down development time

immensely.

Unity, for example, also has a visual scripting solution.

However, Epic Games has been doing this for a much longer time, and their blueprint system is much

more fleshed out and streamlined.

The next big reason is that you might want to create 2D 3D hybrid games instead of 2D only games.

In that case, you'll mix sprites with 3D backgrounds and elements, which will allow you to make use

of many of Unreal Engine's amazing features to create a really unique and high quality look for these

type of games.

I would say that Unreal Engine excels over those other alternatives, since with Unreal Engine everything

looks good right out of the box.

With other engines, you'll have to spend a lot of time on lighting and materials to get things looking

right, and this can be extremely hard if you're solo, deaf, or more comfortable with the programming

side rather than the art side.

However, with how the lighting and post-processing works in Unreal Engine, things just look great

right from the get go and let you concentrate on building the gameplay mechanics.

At some point.

You might also want to make 3D games as well, and having made 2D games with Unreal Engine will allow

you to easily transition over into doing that since it works in a very similar way.

Most of the gameplay related things you learn in this course will also apply to 3D as well.

Another reason are the licensing terms.

With Unreal Engine, you don't have to pay anything to Epic Games unless your game makes $1 million

or more in gross revenue.

For unity and other engines, these terms can be a lot more complicated, and you'll get a much worse

deal in most cases, especially after the whole install.

VSCode unity.

Epic games as a company also has a lot of experience creating games, and will often bring the knowledge

they gain by doing that back into the engine, by adding new features and making things more streamlined.

Also, when creating 2D and 2D 3D hybrid games with unreal, you have a pretty high chance of getting

an Epic Mega Grant.

These grants are usually given out to projects that stand out and create value for Epic Games, and

there are many 2D projects and 2D plugins which have gotten financial support through these grants because

they're thinking outside of the box.

Unreal engine is also very expandable and built to be modular, so it allows you to create your own

plugins with ease and create code you can reuse throughout multiple projects.

It also allows you to add on new functionality you might need to improve your workflow.

There are also more successful 2D and 2D 3D hybrid games made with Unreal Engine than you might think.

The biggest player in this field is Square Enix, who created Octopath Traveler, Octopath Traveler

two Triangle Strategy and Live Alive with Unreal Engine four, and coined the terms HD 2d.

This has been working out great for them, and each of these titles made millions of dollars, which

prompted them to also create a Dragon Quest three remake in this style, which is currently in development.

But there are also many smaller game studios using Unreal Engine for these kind of projects, just to

name a few.

And Lily's Backbone, Detained and The Vagrant have also all been created using Unreal Engine four,

and I actually made a full YouTube video showing off all Unreal Engine 2D and 2D 3D hybrid games, which

I attached to this lecture, so please check it out.