Hey everyone, I am a guy that is new to game design but isnt new to programming as I do C# work in my day job,

I wanted to make a 3d platormer super mario style game that has heavy 3rd person shooter gameplay, so imagine mario with a gun taking cover behind a pipe while occasionally jumping out to bust blocks and squash or shoot goombas.

I wanted to know yalls opinon on which game engine would help me create this best. My goal for now is to make a prototype to pitch to developers that I can hire on to work on the game.

I looked at Unity and Unreal , but I heard graphics in unity arent the best and Unreal is in C++ and is complex for beginners so

thanks for considering

PurpleBoots said:
I looked at Unity and Unreal , but I heard graphics in unity arent the best

Unless you have an example of how you personally will exceed the graphical capability of Unity then their comment is strictly based on holding a bias towards UE4. Even if UE4 surpasses Unity when graphics are pushed to the limit in terms of realism and lighting that doesn't mean you should throw out Unity. Will you be pushing the graphical capability of Unity with your project? Do you have an artist on board who is going to put your game graphically on par with AAA games that push the envelope? If not then it doesn't matter.

If you know C# I would suggest trying Unity, otherwise try both engines and see what you like. Learning C++ is an option, and so is learning Blueprints if you want. Programmers should be open to taking on a variety of languages either way as they're additional tools that we can use when the need arises. Just don't discount the benefit in working in a language you enjoy and one that is familiar.

I've used both engines for games and they come with pros and cons, but consider that some people will talk great about the engine they like and use, and bad about the one they don't. Such comments like “UE4 has better graphics so don't use Unity” are examples of such comments. Even if true, this only matters for people looking to push their game to the max and get the best visuals possible.

@Rutin Thanks for replying, I wanted my game to have a similar art style to super mario Odys where there are really nice bright and vivid colors, but I heard Unity has difficulty with working around lighting and shading unless you have a whole team that can handle just that aspect. Which is why I hesistate on pulling the trigger on it . Its just me for now making a prototype I was planning to pitch to some contractors

PurpleBoots said:

@Rutin Thanks for replying, I wanted my game to have a similar art style to super mario Odys where there are really nice bright and vivid colors, but I heard Unity has difficulty with working around lighting and shading unless you have a whole team that can handle just that aspect. Which is why I hesistate on pulling the trigger on it . Its just me for now making a prototype I was planning to pitch to some contractors

I would suggest going beyond what people tell you and actually do some research. If you have an artist on board who knows how to do stylized pieces, and you have someone who can write shaders then you can output a variety of results in either Unity or Unreal. Maybe I'm wrong but Mario Odyssey just looks like the textures are stylized and they use PBR which Unity or Unreal can do. See the link below…

https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/7bqrhl/new_tech_analysis_of_odysseys_graphics_engine_pbr/

I found some references of Mario Odyssey in Unity:

https://forum.unity.com/threads/shading-and-rendering-like-mario-odyssey.511350/​

https://www.reddit.com/r/Unity3D/comments/84hybe/tubby_super_cat_mario_odyssey_style_platformer/​

Your lack of experience in either engine will not serve as a good foundation to come to any real conclusions regarding the limitations of either engine. I would suggest you just pick the one you're already leaning towards which seems to be UE4.

@Rutin Thanks for the links, especially the tuby cat one as it showed it could be done, its not as great as odyssy but I think its good enough for a prototype. Another concern I had between Unity and UE4 was the gameplay. For my game I wanted it to be a platformer like mario odyssy, but also a strong 3rd person shooter. I know UE4 is already built for 1st person and 3rd person shooters but how difficult would it be to try to make it a platformer? and with Unity I heard its just an open box so I would have to make the 3rd person shooter elements myself. Do you have an idea on what would be best in terms of creating gameplay? Also what are some good resources so I can do better research and find these things out myself?

thank you

You can essentially make any game in UE4 just like Unity. UE4 has a reputation of being geared towards FPS and TPS games, but any competent programmer can develop a variety of games in UE4.

All you have to do is search around:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=3d+platformer+unreal+engine+4​​

PurpleBoots said:
its not as great as odyssy

Well you have to put forth the work and make it look as good. Get an artist on board… Create a shader (if what UE4 has doesn't meet your requirements) and environment that does what you need. Comparing the “look” of Odyssy which is made by professionals to something an indie made and put on YouTube is not comparable.

Our engine has just reached version 1.0.0 and pack of features. Check out our showcases here:

https://otakhi.tumblr.com/​

Many benefits over the other engines:

(1) You and your coworkers can collect and build a repository of tools and raw media assets, (images, video, audio, 3d mesh, html fragments, css rules, javascript snippets, webassembly modules, etc.) in a central database.

(2) You and your coworkers can create reusable software objects, editors, or end applications by assembling from the above repository of components.

(3) Highly extensible. Anyone can create pack of molecules to add new features.

(4) Build to all major desktops and mobile platforms (Windows, MacOSX, Linux, Windows Mobile, iOS, and Android.)

Our introductory link https://www.otakhi.com/atomdrive​

If you are interested, you can get a free test drive license on condition that you share any bug report and user experience in our forum.

Just to mention a few of our 3D features.

(1) Support Inverse and Forward Kinematic Bone Editing,

(2) Automatic Level-of-Details Management,

(3) Automatic Frustum Culling of Instanced Meshes,

(4) Skinned Instancing. (1500 Skeletal animated instances at one time with low end GPU.)

(5) Powerful particle system allowing for custom shader applied to each particle.

(6) point, spot, directional, and area light.

(7) Forward tiled shading technique allows 1000's point light in the scene at the same time.

(8) Volumetric effect for spot and area light. Volume shaping use material gel and texture projection.

and many many more.

Although I don't have direct experience in this matter, I've heard that Unity has trouble with loading large spaces (hence Mechwarrior 5's long load times). For Mario Odyssey With Guns, large spaces would be an issue worth investigating.