Is Unity or Unreal Engine Easier to Learn?

January 25, 2024

The Unity and the Unreal game engines are the most popular in the world of game development. Are you interested in starting a career in game development and would like to know which of the game engines to start with?

This article will educate you on all you need to know about both game engines and which is easier to start with.

This article is part of a series on getting started with game development and game engines. We recommend you read the series in order, but feel free to jump around.

Unity

Unity is a great tool in the hands of game developers for crafting interactive and enticing game applications. Unity is a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies which allows all levels of developers to create both 2D and 3D video games.

Unity was first released in 2005 and since then, has gradually developed to support a variety of PCs, smartphones, consoles, and VR. It is particularly popular for mobile game development supporting both iOS and Android. It is also a popular choice among Indie Game Developers and small game studios. It is widely considered to be the best option for beginners. Developers using Unity will use C#.

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Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine is a powerful game engine developed by Epic Games. Unreal Engine is a popular choice in the world of game development. If you are a video game lover or a game developer you should know what Unreal Engine is. It is a 3D computer graphics game engine used by game developers to craft “unreal” gaming applications.

Unreal Engine was first showcased in 1998, and it has developed immensely over the years. It has been used to develop millions of gaming applications supporting a wide range of PCs, smartphones, consoles, and VR platforms.

Unreal Engine’s latest release was Unreal Engine 5. This release was launched in April 2022. It is a commercial software written in C++. In 2014, the Guinness World Records named it as the world’s “most successful videogame engine”.

Is Unity or Unreal Engine easier to learn?

Unity is easier to learn. If you’re a beginner in the world of game development, we recommend that you start with Unity. Unity comes with features that make it easy to use. It uses the C# programming language in its scripting API. C# is an easy and beginner-friendly programming language, especially when compared to C++. Also, there’s a large number of resources available online to guide you in every step. A weekend is enough for you to study the basics of Unity and build a simple game you can share with friends.

However, Unreal Engine will be relatively challenging for a beginner. To unlock the full power of the Unreal Engine, you have to be familiar with the C++ programming language. C++ is more challenging to learn compared with the C# used by Unity. Unreal Engine also offers more complex features that, while good for advanced users, can be overwhelming or unnecessary for most use cases.

Unity vs. Unreal Engine for 2D

Unity is better for 2D games. With the Unity game engine, you can start with building 2D video games easily as it offers incredible support for the development of 2D content. As a beginner, this will be useful for starting as it has a simpler user interface. Moreover, developing 2D games is significantly easier than developing 3D games. We would always recommend beginner game developers to start with 2D applications to avoid over-scoping their first projects.

In contrast to Unity, Unreal Engine is not the best tool for developing 2D video games. Unreal Engine specializes in 3D games. The Epic Games created this engine for the sole purpose of action-filled 3D video games just like; Fortnite, Borderlands, and Unreal Tournament. As a result, the engine can be complicated to use for beginners, and especially complicated in a 2D context.

Unity vs. Unreal Engine Features and Plugins

The Unity game engine provides a simpler foundation on which developers irrespective of experience levels can build. Some of the tools available on Unreal Engine like the Multiplayer, Game saving systems, AI behavior trees, and complex animation logic require third-party plugins to be accessed on Unity.

In reality, many of these apparent limitations are actually a benefit for Unity developers. Unreal Engine offers significantly more features, but at the cost of more complex workflows and more hurdles to jump through to accomplish tasks that are comparatively easy to solve in Unity.

Bottom Line

If you’re just starting on your journey of game development, we recommend that you start with the Unity game engine. Unreal Engine is a better fit for larger teams with bigger budgets that can take advantage of the more complex feature-set. As a smaller team, these more complex features can slow you down and inhibit your ability to quickly develop and release your project.

If you are building a game with Unity, we absolutely recommend our incredible suite of tools and assets for game developers. If you want to make your game look great, you will want to use our tools. From volumetric clouds and fog to physics simulations and visual effects, OccaSoftware has everything you need to get your game off the ground and onto Steam.