Hey, folks!

I've been researching various engines for the last couple weeks and have narrowed down my choices, but due to the recent changes in some of these engines I haven't been able to find much advice in the way of comparison that isn't a little outdated or aimed at absolute beginners. A little bit about the game: it's going to be a tile-based pixel art horror/mystery game with puzzles. While there isn't going to be any complex combat I do intend to implement some special effects (text and images glitching, character movement changing as part of status effects, etc). I intend for it to be a longer game (I have made a few shorter games). I know C# and Java, and this game will target PC and consoles so I'm not looking for an engine/framework that primarily targets mobile. These are the options I'm most considering (and I have played around with all 3):

Godot

Godot 3.0 just came out, and it seems like a pretty sleek, robust engine for 2D games. The tileset and animation features are really great, and I like the node/scene system as well. In general, I'm not terribly fond of custom scripting languages in engines (which is why I skipped over GameMaker) but I love the open source aspect of Godot, the interface is great, and GDScript seems easy enough to pick up. I'm worried about the flexibility/limitations of GDScript, but can't seem to find many opinions on that. I know that C# capability is technically implemented but it's in alpha and GDScript is designed to work with Godot's other features so If I go with Godot I'll go with GDScript.

Unity

I know and like C#, which is a plus here. It's widely used and there are so many tutorials and assets that you can get. Huge, active community, too. However, I've heard that Unity doesn't always play well with pixel art and I may have to fight the engine to get everything pixel perfect. I like the interface and workflow a bit less than Godot's, but I like C# and the bigger community. Seems like a good compromise between getting to use the language I prefer while having a full engine, but might not be the best choice for pixel art.

Monogame

Monogame is the framework I'm looking at closest, because it uses C#, has a ton of content when combined with XNA stuff, and I really like Visual Studio as an editor. I've heard mixed comments on using a framework as opposed to a full engine. I have fun coding, like the control Monogame offers, and don't necessarily want to rush straight in to the design/scripting portion of the game, but I've also heard even experienced major game developers like ConcernedApe warn people away from frameworks if an engine will get the job done. But then I've also heard people say that if you're not a beginner, the extra time it'd take to use a framework isn't that bad and it's worth it for the control/not being stuck with a ton of features you don't want.

I've also looked at GameMaker (which I found I prefer Godot and Unity to) and a few other frameworks like LibGDX, Cocos2D, and LOVE2D although I haven't delved in too deeply with the other frameworks.

Yeah, unfortunately a lot of the unity opinions I got were a little dated and I wasn't able to find much about the improvements in Unity 5. I was using leftover vector assets to test Unity but I'll grab some free pixel art sprites and see how it works.

On 2/9/2018 at 6:32 AM, Korovva said:

Yeah, unfortunately a lot of the unity opinions I got were a little dated and I wasn't able to find much about the improvements in Unity 5. I was using leftover vector assets to test Unity but I'll grab some free pixel art sprites and see how it works.

Cocos2d Was my engine of choice for 2D games. These days I find my self more willing to add missing features to Unity that to deal with the complexity of engines like Cocos2d.

The simple fact is Unity is full of holes but it makes up for it by being so easy to use.

On 2/9/2018 at 3:01 AM, Korovva said:

Monogame

Monogame is the framework I'm looking at closest, because it uses C#, has a ton of content when combined with XNA stuff, and I really like Visual Studio as an editor.

This sounds good but Monogame has less than Unity from my own tests with it. Maybe the XNA stuff helps.

Go with this it isn't like you couldn't jump to a other engine later if you find Monogame isn't working for you. In the end what matters most is that your comfortable with your tools.

The largest advantage is that Monogame is less used so your game won't end up so similar to all the other games.

Starting from scratch is best for the times you want to learn more than make. Remember there is no reason you can't use a engine now and make a other game from scratch later.