Is It Finally Time To Switch Engines?

Hello, guys. This is kind of a one-off video, but I can't think of a better message to share with you for New Year's and for 2026
[music]
um than the following comment I got in one of my live streams. Uh the comment is Let me pull it up here. The comment is something that I've seen over and over and over again and again and again and again during my live streams. And it gets kind of frustrating. And it gets really old. And I'm not sure if this comment was a joke or not. But the truth is is that most of the ones I get during live streams that are this kind of comment, they're not jokes. They're people who are dead serious. And the funny thing is I'll show you the comment in a second, but the funny thing is
[snorts]
Excuse me. And the funny thing is is that I never hear this comment from actual game devs. Like people in the trenches making their own indie games and they're doing it full-time. I never hear this from them. I only hear it from random people with very little credibility.

Here's the comment. Ready? 3 2 1 Here is the comment. I was having a problem in Unity and the person said, "Oh, I know why you're having a problem. Unity, that's your problem."
[sighs and gasps]
So I had to tweet about this. I had to say um the following. I get these kind of comments frequently while live streaming game dev. If I'm being honest, this kind of thinking is the main problem with game devs. They want to pin an issue they encounter on an engine. But guess what? You're going to encounter problems making a game. Problems aren't problems. That's important to remember in 2026 when you guys are making games. If you encounter a problem or you have a bug or you have an issue, it's not really a problem. It's just making games. That's just how it is.
[laughter]
That's just what it is. It's just making games. That's how it goes. Stop making excuses and just solve your problems with a smile. This is kind of a

This is I I I call this like a manly way to make games. It's a tough heroic way to make games. Maybe I'm being dramatic. But stop freaking out about your problems and stop blaming the engine. By the way, I I I've done this during my live streams, I'll admit. I'm guilty of this. But not I don't don't just solve your problems. Smile about it. Put a smile on and know this is this is just what happens. This is how game dev is. Now again, for clarity, I don't know if this person was joking. Maybe they were. Uh so that's why I didn't like post their username. I don't want people to sort of dogpile this person. But I do want to address this, okay? At the end of the day for 2026, I want you guys to stop stop blaming engines. Stop focusing on the engine. Now do I think that Unity and Godot and and Unreal are all the same? No. Do I think that one engine

is probably better than another? Yeah, probably for certain things it's probably better. Are all the features in Unity amazing? No, not at all. Unity kind of sucks in a lot of ways. I would say the most bloated engine, the buggiest is probably Unity. But blaming the engine usually, nine times out of 10, is not the reason why you're struggling to make your game or you're struggling to finish your game or you're struggling to make a succe- a financially successful game. That's not the reason. The reason is you. You're probably the problem. And this is not me discouraging you. This is a way I'm I'm I'm trying to encourage you. I'm trying to say the way to make a game in 2026 and to do it successfully and to make it financially viable, meaning the effort you put in uh what you get out of the effort is more than you put in, meaning you made

some money. The way to do it is to power through and make a good game. You make a good game. Stop commenting about engines. I'm kind of tired. Uh Kind of I want to lead the charge in 2026 to stop talking about engines. Stop treating an engine like it's a religion. It's not. Guys, you don't have to be part of a cult. It's okay. It's okay to like an engine. And it's okay that someone else likes a different one. So let's stop stop worrying about engines. Make great games. Make an awesome game. Let's read some of these comments here and see if Tom- Is Thomas crazy or are people in agreement here? This is [snorts] from Gordon Aubrey, he's a buddy of mine. He's a great guy. People in general have an issue with taking responsibility. If they can pass that off on a tool they are using, they certainly will. Isaiah, great uh uh uh I wouldn't I couldn't say a friend, he's a follower. He's always commenting and and always has some really solid com- comments.

I'm sorry I'm I'm so tired of this "Oh, this engine is the worst. You should make your own engine or change to blank engine." You think we haven't been using the engine long enough to know if we want to be using it? That's a great point. Andrew Pollen says, "I've grown tired of giving a Well, I guess I could say it, right? Yeah, let's say it. Damn. Giving a damn what game engine, painting program, 3D program, OS, etc. people use to make cool things. Just make cool and stop caring what product is used to make it as it really doesn't matter at all." Frequent Z says, "The most important thing is if your game has a look, feel of its own. I want to make a game where you can't tell if it's Unity, Unreal, Godot, or custom." That's so true. That's so true. And I will say the engine the engine does [clears throat] kind of create the look if you're not careful and intentional. An Unreal game will look like an Unreal game if you use things out of the box and you use the assets that

Unreal points you to, right? Same with Unity. It's going to have that look if you're not intentional, okay? So this is true. The engine will determine the look if you're not careful. If you have motion blur and massive poly, you instantly feel like, "Oh, this is Unreal." So make your game so it has its own style. Wow, I totally agree with that. That's amazing. Um yes, in my experience, that's actually a common thing among developers in general. Instead of just solving a problem, they either add another framework or switch to another framework, library, or engine. You know, it's so funny. If I could if I could pin down why game developers YouTubers, content creators
[sighs and gasps]
why they are not successful, it's because they s- they suck at staying consistent. They're always pivoting. Always pivoting.

Stop pivoting and just stick with something. Stick with your engine, stick with your game idea. Get it done. Just get it done. Here's a few more comments. Uh this is more of a separate issue, this is from Fade, but I've heard of of Roblox developers being locked down on just because they make games in Roblox, but at the end of the day, it's still game development. I'm not sure what that means. Let me know in the comments. I can't really parse that. Brandon Acroso says, "Feels weird being on the other end of this. 10 years ago, I was bombarded with why make your own engine yourself instead of just using Unity. This discourse is old as time and it's always the do-nothings that care about which engine was used." I wouldn't say it's just do-nothings caring about the engine. Um I would say you should care about the engine, but the moment you cross over into blaming the engine that that's when I get a real get really really frustrated um because that's where I think the do-nothings are.

They're usually blaming the engine. Let's keep reading here. What else we got? I use Unity and Godot for making my small hobby games. Frankly, problems are everywhere. This is so true. There's a problem in every engine. There's a problem in every engine. Uh Jonathan Earsarp says, "To be fair, you do the same every time you play a game made in Unreal Engine on your stream." Well, I do? I say that Unreal has certain problems, right? So like for example, whenever I play an Unreal game, I always get issues streaming the game. Eight times out of 10, meaning it won't go full screen, right? Uh too much motion blur. The frame rate drops. This is it it's it's a problem with the engine in the sense that the developer doesn't know that they need to deal with this issue. So engines create problems, but engines don't necessitate a like they don't necessarily create a bad game. Certain engines just have certain

problems, right? Danny Silver says, "These comments don't tend to come from seasoned game developers, but highly opinionated audience members who think they have a deeper understanding of game development than developers do, but have never made an actual game." And that really does bring me to kind of my final point here. If you're going to listen to people, I don't I'm not saying you need to listen to me. Uh if you're going to listen to YouTubers and you're going to listen to people on X, on Reddit, and ChatGPT, you need to learn how to weed through the confidence. If someone like acts confident, you need to like peel through the veil and go, "Okay, what what credibility do you have?" Right? The proof is in the pudding. What fruit do they have? Confidence aside, right? People can act confident. And ChatGPT can act confident. Look deep into their portfolio. What credibility do they have

actually? The people who have actual games released, they might they may have an engine of choice and why they use it, but you're never going to see them blaming an engine for why something did did poorly. And why they're not making games or why they're not successful.
[snorts]
Lane, let's let's end with Lane here. Um he says it's about what you prefer and what helps your game's direction. Everyone else's opinion is just background noise. I totally agree. I totally agree. And by the way, it doesn't matter which engine you want to learn. Um you can learn Godot, Unity, Unreal. I just want you guys to be successful making indie games in 2026.