UNITY vs UNREAL. Which Game Engine Should You Choose to Start Learning in 2021
By: Aykhan Nazimzada
Tags: Unity, Unreal Engine, Game Engine, Gaming, Game Development

This is a different article than what I usually do. Today, I want to address this issue because if you ever try to learn how to make games, you probably heard about the greatest rivalry of all time; Unity vs. Unreal Engine. That’s like the El Classico of game development world. It’s like the NBA play-offs. They’re like the Coca Cola and Pepsi. Well, you get the point. Unfortunately, that rivalry can confuse beginners on which engine they should choose when they want to learn game development and that is really important because if you are a complete beginner, you need to start learning with the easiest engine possible so that you can get a grasp of how things work and learn quickly. So, let’s take a look at what are the pros and cons of each engine, and why you as a beginner should choose one over another.

Unreal VS Unity

First, we will start with no programming. Yes, I said no programming because I’m going to talk about “Blueprints” in Unreal. Basically, you can use blueprints in Unreal to create your game without the need to write code. This is useful for those who want to get into game development but don’t want to get into coding yet. On the other side, Unity has a new feature called “Visual Scripting” which is basically Unity’s blueprints. Same as Unreal, you can use visual scripting to create your game and not write any code. So, both engines are equal when it comes to that.

Now, let us get over to coding because in my opinion, anyone who wants to learn how to make games should start with coding right away. You need to eat that frog right away because the more you postpone it, the harder it will be for you to start learning it. And the best part is that coding is much easier than what you might think.

So, which programming languages do these engines use? Unreal uses C++ programming language to create games. I personally am NOT a big fan of C++. Because I find it hard for beginners to understand it, especially with pointers and memory management. It can get a bit tedious that’s why I don’t recommend C++ as your first programming language if you’re just starting out.

UI of Unreal Engine

Unity, however, uses C# which is a very powerful and easy to use programming language. It’s very easy to get started and very easy to understand. I highly recommend it to beginners who are just starting out. It doesn’t have pointers, and memory management is done for you. So, you don’t have to worry about it. Overall, when it comes to programming, I find that Unity has an advantage with its C# language because it is much easier to get started with C# than with C++.

Moving forward, Unity’s interface is very simple to use and understand. Unity’s core focus was great usability that’s why you can always expect user-friendly tools and an overly simplistic UI that will help you get up and running with the engine in no time.

UI of Unity

Unreal is on the opposite side. If it’s your first time using the engine, you can get a little bit intimidated by its UI. There are a lot of tools and options at your fingertips which can be overwhelming for a complete beginner and you can get lost very quickly. Of course, when you figure out how everything works, you will see how much flexibility Unreal Engine has to offer. But given the circumstance that you are just starting out, it can take some time for that to happen.

Next, the platforms for which we can build games in Unity are numerous. You can use Unity to create games for mobile, desktop, consoles, VR, even web. This means you build your game only once, and you can run it on all those platforms with just a few minor tweaks. Unreal also offers the same experience. You can build your games for multiple platforms using Unreal, but I’m not sure if Unreal has all platforms like Unity has. Nonetheless, for you as a beginner, that is not important because you will mostly develop mobile and computer games when you are learning.

Graphic Comparison

And now, we have the ultimate and main comparison between the engines which is where their battle has initially started. That is graphics comparison. So, both engines have advanced a lot when it comes to creating games with stunning graphics. However, Unreal has always had an upper hand over Unity when it comes to rendering same scenes a little bit better. But the most important part here is that you as a beginner should not care about that at all. When you are starting out, you are not going to create the “Grand Theft Auto 6” or “The Elder Scrolls VI” or “Witcher 4”. In fact, you will never create the AAA (Triple-A) game because games like that require hundreds millions of dollars in budget and teams of thousands of people. (If you attempt, you will end up like “Cyberpunk 2077”). You on the other hand, just want to learn how to code and make games engine has better graphics so which has no relevance to you at all.

You should focus on the main things that I mentioned which are programming, navigating and using the engine. In both cases, I find that Unity is much easier to use and navigate around than Unreal, and as I already mentioned, I find that C# is way easier to learn than C++ if you are just starting out. Of course, I’m not telling you use Unity for the rest of your life, you can learn how to make games using Unity then, move to Unreal because then you will have a solid foundation about how game development works so it will be much easier for you to pick up how Unreal Engine works as opposed if you were to just start using it as a beginner. At the end, this meme comes for the Apple fanboys who consider MacOS superior to Windows.