I am just starting out as a game developer, I need create a demo reel for my portfolio. The question is Should I go with Unity or Cryengine?

I played with unity made a small game and it is really easy, I mean so much easy. And I also played around with Cryengine and I gotta say it really has a steep learning curve. I noticed that Unity is so popular and lot people use it. So if I go with Unity will i be one of those million people who will struggle to get a job in industry? And cryengine is so much hard to learn is popular too but i heard that lot of people back away from complexity and look for other game engines. So is learning Cryengine worth it? or should i go with unity?... Thanks

and I don't want to hear about Unreal engine Its not for me i tried it.

At your stage in the game, producing something is vastly more important than what you use to make it. Use whatever gets you to the goal of a completed project.

Long term, "Unity" or "CryEngine" or "Unreal" are not generally sufficient to get a job without a portfolio of projects AND significant primary skills, either art or programming.

Thanks, I'm going with unity.

Like Promit already pointed out, what engine you use does not matter. But here is my opinion, using tools does not make you a game developer. Anybody can pick up a set of tools and create something passable because somebody else has done all the hard work in creating those tools. Be that guy if you want a job and to be successful.

Like Promit already pointed out, what engine you use does not matter. But here is my opinion, using tools does not make you a game developer. Anybody can pick up a set of tools and create something passable because somebody else has done all the hard work in creating those tools. Be that guy if you want a job and to be successful.

By implication, you would need to therefore write your own compiler, and OS, after first designing the CPU you intend to use.

Like Promit already pointed out, what engine you use does not matter. But here is my opinion, using tools does not make you a game developer. Anybody can pick up a set of tools and create something passable because somebody else has done all the hard work in creating those tools. Be that guy if you want a job and to be successful.

By implication, you would need to therefore write your own compiler, and OS, after first designing the CPU you intend to use.

The topic is about getting a job in the game industry, not designing kernels or wiring transistors. Using tools of course are necessary, but your level of interaction with those tools are whats important. Being able to directly go into the engine that controls the tools is a much more valuable skill and will accentuate your worth to a potential employer to not only use the tools, but be able to update, add features, and get rid of bugs as necessary to accommodate the vision of the final product.

I'm just saying, in a day and age where everyone creates a home-brewed engine of some sort and learns the knowledge required to do so, is much more desirable than familiarity with click/drag operations.

I'm just saying, in a day and age where everyone creates a home-brewed engine of some sort and learns the knowledge required to do so, is much more desirable than familiarity with click/drag operations.

What you need to do to be a game developer is make games.

Back in the late 1990s, there was a game development channel on EFNet. Mostly aspiring game developers, and a handful of professionals.

And they would say "I am adding this to my engine" or "I am going to redo my engine to support that", and we would say, "Just make a game."

And they would talk more about the technology they would add to their engine.

A few years later, I wandered back in. Same people, mostly. Still talking about what they would add to their engine, still never having actually made a game.

If you want to be a game developer, make games.

If you want to be a middleware developer, make middleware.

"If you want to be a game developer, make games.

If you want to be a middleware developer, make middleware."

The term "Middleware developer" is not what people talk about. They talk about "game development", which includes middleware development, they are not two separate, exclusive fields anymore.

Your missing my point, those two things go hand in hand and as I already stated, is much more valuable to be well versed in both, more so the latter because it is generally a more difficult technical skill to acquire that talks years of discipline.

The term "Middleware developer" is not what people talk about. They talk about "game development", which includes middleware development, they are not two separate, exclusive fields anymore.

Your missing my point, those two things go hand in hand and as I already stated, is much more valuable to be well versed in both, more so the latter because it is generally a more difficult technical skill to acquire that talks years of discipline.

As you pointed out earlier, this is a forum for people wishing to break in.

In order to write an effective reusable component (be it a key library, a tool, or an engine component), you need to be extensively familiar with the requirements. That is a level of seniority and experience which doesn't apply to someone entry level.

They are far better served by spending their time *using* an existing and solid framework to make actual games. If they ever do need to write their own engine (or be a key engineer writing an engine for an employer), they are much better served by having made games than they are by making toy engines.

Yes, there are many Unity developers, especially in the Indie scene... lots of smaller studios also start using Unity, and even some big ones started using it for some of their smaller projects.

CryEngine also is surprisingly popular... at least with gamers. The highend games that were in CryEngine by CryTek seem to have formed the opinion that is is a somewhat prodigious engine. Especially by people that never played the games (or had an extremly beefy rig to play them on). Still seems to be going strong with some big AAA Studios... not sure if it is because of the quality of the runtime engine (all things considered, it is quite a miracle that some games built in CryEngine was running at an acceptable framerate on highend rigs given the highpoly, or even badly optimized assets thrown at it)... or if it is just the marketable name CryEngine has with PC Gamers.

Anyway, first things first:

Game Engines are just tools. And its not like a screwdriver and a hammer. More like different kinds of screwdrivers. If you know how to use one of them, you will quickly get up to speed with another one.

IF you are really looking for a job in the game Industry, is a pretty bad idea a) to overspecialize on a single engine (flexibility trumps specialization any day of the week), and b) learn a game engine over another one just because you THINK that CURRENTLY, job opportunities are better.

1) Game Studios will be looking for FLEXIBLE workforce.

- If they hire a programmer that has worked in multiple game engines and can show it (portfolio), is ready to learn anything needed for his job, and happy to relearn something new once the studio pivots an different direction, that programmer will be WAY more valuable longterm than the C++ AI specialist that only wants to work in Unreal Engine.

The project the programmer was hired for might fail and get canceled after 6 months... the studio might switch the engine and thus the language for a new project for a multitude of reasons. They might need to do paid smaller gigs, and might switch to a more suited engine (like Unity) for that.

Even if the project is a success after 2 years, chances are the specialist is no longer needed for the next project, whereas the more flexible programmer might have proven quite valuable in a myriad of ways in the last project, and the suits see that he will be valuable on any new project, not matter in which direction they may go.

- There is also a quite big chance you will work in an engine in a big studio that is proprietary. You will have to relearn many things anyway. If Unity or CryEngine knowledge is more applicable is anyones guess.

2) The game industry changes, rapidely.

- CryEngine might be out of business by the time you are ready to apply for jobs (5 years?)... Unity might be. Who knows. You can bet the new engines that take their place, IF they go out of business, are different... yet most of the knowledge will transfer anyway.

Its completly pointless to specialize in a fast changing industry, ESPECIALLY if you are not already working in it and thus have some years of education or self tution ahead.

To reiterate what others have said, go with the engine that gives you faster results for now. You need results, both for your learning, but also to build up a portfolio. In the end, all the engines are quite similar, once you mastered one, you will be able to quickly transfer to another one. Yes, it can still be a steep learning curve given not all engines are quite as accessible.

But you can bet the game studios you apply for already know that. They most probably are not looking for the specialist in the engine they are using. They are looking for the applicant that shows the most talent and flexibility. NOBODY is productive from day one. If the new guy has to be taught a new engine besides getting to know the new working environment and project doesn't really matter that much all things considered. Might add another month of not being 100% productive.... given that it usually takes about 6 months at least until a new hire really start working at 100% capacity, that is not too bad.

Of course, a guy that can show he is knowledgeable in the exact specialization the studio is looking for, AND the engine they are using has an edge over other candidates. If that is ALL this guy can bring to the table, while the other has an awesome portfolio, is knowledgeable in multiple engines, just not the ones the studio is using, and can show he worked on many things SUCCESSFULLY, the specialist will still have a hard time. Unless the studio hires and fires for a single project.

Oh, and take into account that the ecosystem might be quite different depending on the size and type of dev you apply to. If you are looking for jobs with big mobile studios, Unity knowledge will be way more useful than CryEngine knowledge (taking in consideration that it doesn't matter all that much IF you have a good portfolio and the needed skills). Nobody is using CryEngine for mobile dev.

For big studios, CryEngine might look good, but then many use Frostbite, or other proprietary engines. They will look more into how you applied your skills in the engines you were using in the past (portfolio is more important).

If you happen to not land one of the few jobs in big and AAA studios, you will find that Unity knowledge will serve you better. Not that many small devs that burden themselves with trying to be productive in CryEngine. Unreal Engine, yes.... Unity, yes... CryEngine? You will have a hard time finding any Indie using that. The amount of work needed to make usable tools for CryEngine given the sorry state the out-of-the-box tools are in (or were, my knowledge of that is about 2 years old now) pretty much stop any smaller studio from trying to use CryEngine given the alternatives with GOOD tools.