Before Starting – What game engine should I use?

This question is both really complex and really simple. There are a ton of engines with lots of specializations, and it certainly pays to do some homework to see if an engine can even handle the kind of game you want to make. So find a few engines that can handle what you want.

Now comes the easy part. If you already have programming knowledge, pick an engine that uses a language you’re comfortable with. If you don’t have programming knowledge, consider picking whichever engine automates coding the most or can let you get up and running as quick as possible. For example, I used RPG Maker a fair bit as a teen. I didn’t know a ton of programming, but that didn’t matter since the engine hid and automated most of the heavy lifting. Now I use Unity because I’m familiar with (and like) C#.

It’s also worth considering how popular an engine is. Popular can mean better technical support and more frequent updates. It can also mean a more robust community that creates plugins, mods, and possibly even code that you’ll also need. I tend to rely on the Unity community forums and Stackexchange to solve most of my problems, but there’s also places like Reddit as long as you’re polite and offer to help others as well.

Last but not least, consider whether you personally know others who are familiar with a chosen game engine as well. I don’t know any people personally who use Unity, but if I did, I bet my first 100 hours using the engine would have gone a lot more smoothly. I used to get constant code errors that were based in my lack of understanding of the engine. Now all my errors are just due to my idiot coding!