{"slug": "unity", "name": "Unity", "category": "dev-libs", "category_name": "Libraries and frameworks", "description": "Cross-platform game engine and editor for building 2D, 3D, XR and mobile games and apps.", "recommenders": 7, "commenters": 22, "warners": 5, "score": 4.403, "rising": 0.36, "first": "2025-12-02", "latest": "2026-10-01", "why": "HN commenters like Unity for its broad out-of-the-box feature set and for building to iOS, Android, Mac, Windows and web from one project.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 6, "neutral": 8, "compare": 2, "warn": 6}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1], "listed": true, "loved": ["Cross-platform builds", "Feature breadth"], "caveat": "Feature churn", "short_quote": "Unity has great support for most things you want to do out of the box", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://unity.com", "pricing": "freemium", "aliases": ["Unity"], "verdict": [{"text": "HN commenters like Unity for its broad out-of-the-box feature set", "cites": [{"id": 798697648, "item_id": 49918603, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49918603", "by": "voidUpdate", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Unity has great support for most things you want to do out of the box", "excerpt": "Because at my work, clients want the general public to be able to install their apps sometimes, and my department does native apps, a different department does web stuff. If you want Joe Public to be able to install your app, you have to go through the Google or Apple stores. However, we don't directly dev in Kotlin or Swift, we use Unity, which can export directly to an APK, or an XCode project (which has to be comp", "context": "works in a department building native apps for clients", "use_case": "cross-platform native mobile apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fuck Android Developer Verification Program"}, {"id": 767766048, "item_id": 47985378, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47985378", "by": "LazVerry", "date": "2026-05-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Unity remains useful in terms of the sheer breadth of what you can achieve.", "excerpt": "That\u2019s spot on. However, it\u2019s been a while since I really dug into Unity, so things might be different now with tools like Codex or Claude Code (without suggesting we just resort to \"Vibe Coding,\" of course). If you have a way to consult someone\u2014or something\u2014about the hurdles you can't clear on your own, Unity remains useful in terms of the sheer breadth of what you can achieve.", "context": "", "use_case": "game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Best way to develop games for beginners"}]}, {"text": " and for building to iOS, Android, Mac, Windows and web from one project.", "cites": [{"id": 798697648, "item_id": 49918603, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49918603", "by": "voidUpdate", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Unity has great support for most things you want to do out of the box", "excerpt": "Because at my work, clients want the general public to be able to install their apps sometimes, and my department does native apps, a different department does web stuff. If you want Joe Public to be able to install your app, you have to go through the Google or Apple stores. However, we don't directly dev in Kotlin or Swift, we use Unity, which can export directly to an APK, or an XCode project (which has to be comp", "context": "works in a department building native apps for clients", "use_case": "cross-platform native mobile apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fuck Android Developer Verification Program"}, {"id": 783292128, "item_id": 48955758, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48955758", "by": "ido", "date": "2026-07-17", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use unity & have both mac and windows automated building scripts", "excerpt": "That isn't worth the effort Maybe I'm too unambitious as a small indie, but \"porting\" my game to mac merely requires building that target (I use unity & have both mac and windows automated building scripts - I press a button and it builds and uploads both to steam). There's nowhere in my codebase where I had to specifically adapt to one or the other.", "context": "small indie developer", "use_case": "cross-platform indie game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mac gaming is finally getting the overpowered upgrade it deserves"}, {"id": 764158976, "item_id": 47759936, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47759936", "by": "Dan1435", "date": "2026-04-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I wrote it in Unity", "excerpt": "I spent the last two months working on my first ever app game. I wrote it in Unity, and I successfully uploaded it to the app store a few weeks ago. I wanted to find a way to expand the game further than the app version it has, so I went to build a web version, which was challenging at first since the build wasn't succeeding due to me trying using Brotli. So I switched to Gzip which helped the game get successfully b", "context": "first-time app game developer", "use_case": "building a mobile and web game", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: I Created a Web Version of My First App Game"}]}, {"text": " Common caveats are a heavy, editor-centered workflow that beginners find overwhelming and that loads slower than Godot,", "cites": [{"id": 767763744, "item_id": 47985234, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47985234", "by": "LazVerry", "date": "2026-05-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Unity and Unreal Engine have too many features, which actually makes them less beginner-friendly", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve dabbled with a few game engines myself, but I feel like Unity and Unreal Engine have too many features, which actually makes them less beginner-friendly. It\u2019s hard to know where to even start. For pixel art games, I personally recommend GameMaker. It specializes in 2D, and since hits like Undertale were built with it, you can definitely create \"serious\" games. GML (GameMaker Language) is also quite easy to write", "context": "has dabbled with a few game engines", "use_case": "beginner game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Best way to develop games for beginners"}, {"id": 788776001, "item_id": 49298500, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49298500", "by": "ivm", "date": "2026-08-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "there's no way I'm going back to the convoluted editor-centered workflow of Unity/Godot", "excerpt": "I've also been making a game engine based on MonoGame (and prime31/Nez), and one thing I recommend looking into is headless mode for both the game and the editor. I started my engine in the first place because I want to get back into gamedev, but there's no way I'm going back to the convoluted editor-centered workflow of Unity/Godot. And with proper MVVM, you can get the game headless too, so agents can play without ", "context": "", "use_case": "game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: C# Game Engine with its own scripting language and IDE"}, {"id": 755862321, "item_id": 47241395, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47241395", "by": "barcoder", "date": "2026-03-03", "stance": "compare", "quote": "When I returned to Unity I raised that my flow state was constantly being broken", "excerpt": "I'm a long time Unity developer that in the past year picked up Godot. The speed at which Godot loads compared to Unity is staggering, it's just so much faster. When I returned to Unity I raised that my flow state was constantly being broken in a way that it wasn't when using Godot. Entering flow is one of the beautiful things I love about programming. And being knocked out of it often feels like a physical jolt. Lob", "context": "long-time Unity developer", "use_case": "game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Voxile: A ray-traced game made in its own engine and programming language"}]}, {"text": " plus constant deprecation of features in favor of half-baked, poorly documented replacements.", "cites": [{"id": 779949616, "item_id": 48746851, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48746851", "by": "overgard", "date": "2026-07-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Unity is actually really annoying in this regard, because they're _constantly_ deprecating features in favor of new features that are half baked and poorly documented.", "excerpt": "You have to consider the market for Godot: indie developers. They don't need cutting edge features; they need a good workflow, ease of use, a good community, stability, etc. Unity is actually really annoying in this regard, because they're _constantly_ deprecating features in favor of new features that are half baked and poorly documented. It feels like a really unstable platform to build on because by the time you'r", "context": "used to work in the game industry", "use_case": "game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Godot will no longer accept AI-authored code contributions"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Cross-platform builds", "summary": "Exports to Android, Xcode projects, Mac, Windows and web, and can automate store uploads.", "quotes": [{"id": 798697648, "item_id": 49918603, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49918603", "by": "voidUpdate", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Unity has great support for most things you want to do out of the box", "excerpt": "Because at my work, clients want the general public to be able to install their apps sometimes, and my department does native apps, a different department does web stuff. If you want Joe Public to be able to install your app, you have to go through the Google or Apple stores. However, we don't directly dev in Kotlin or Swift, we use Unity, which can export directly to an APK, or an XCode project (which has to be comp", "context": "works in a department building native apps for clients", "use_case": "cross-platform native mobile apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fuck Android Developer Verification Program"}, {"id": 783292128, "item_id": 48955758, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48955758", "by": "ido", "date": "2026-07-17", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use unity & have both mac and windows automated building scripts", "excerpt": "That isn't worth the effort Maybe I'm too unambitious as a small indie, but \"porting\" my game to mac merely requires building that target (I use unity & have both mac and windows automated building scripts - I press a button and it builds and uploads both to steam). There's nowhere in my codebase where I had to specifically adapt to one or the other.", "context": "small indie developer", "use_case": "cross-platform indie game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mac gaming is finally getting the overpowered upgrade it deserves"}, {"id": 764158976, "item_id": 47759936, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47759936", "by": "Dan1435", "date": "2026-04-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I wrote it in Unity", "excerpt": "I spent the last two months working on my first ever app game. I wrote it in Unity, and I successfully uploaded it to the app store a few weeks ago. I wanted to find a way to expand the game further than the app version it has, so I went to build a web version, which was challenging at first since the build wasn't succeeding due to me trying using Brotli. So I switched to Gzip which helped the game get successfully b", "context": "first-time app game developer", "use_case": "building a mobile and web game", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: I Created a Web Version of My First App Game"}]}, {"label": "Feature breadth", "summary": "Supports most things you want to do out of the box, with a wide range of what you can achieve.", "quotes": [{"id": 798697648, "item_id": 49918603, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49918603", "by": "voidUpdate", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Unity has great support for most things you want to do out of the box", "excerpt": "Because at my work, clients want the general public to be able to install their apps sometimes, and my department does native apps, a different department does web stuff. If you want Joe Public to be able to install your app, you have to go through the Google or Apple stores. However, we don't directly dev in Kotlin or Swift, we use Unity, which can export directly to an APK, or an XCode project (which has to be comp", "context": "works in a department building native apps for clients", "use_case": "cross-platform native mobile apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fuck Android Developer Verification Program"}, {"id": 767766048, "item_id": 47985378, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47985378", "by": "LazVerry", "date": "2026-05-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Unity remains useful in terms of the sheer breadth of what you can achieve.", "excerpt": "That\u2019s spot on. However, it\u2019s been a while since I really dug into Unity, so things might be different now with tools like Codex or Claude Code (without suggesting we just resort to \"Vibe Coding,\" of course). If you have a way to consult someone\u2014or something\u2014about the hurdles you can't clear on your own, Unity remains useful in terms of the sheer breadth of what you can achieve.", "context": "", "use_case": "game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Best way to develop games for beginners"}]}, {"label": "Game development", "summary": "Recommended as a sensible engine for people who just want to make a game, including students.", "quotes": [{"id": 780154608, "item_id": 48759663, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48759663", "by": "Mierenik", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you just want to make a game, use a game engine like Unity, Godot or Unreal.", "excerpt": "Depends on what you want to do. If you just want to make a game, use a game engine like Unity, Godot or Unreal. If you want to do graphics, like making engines, simulations, renderers then you should learn a low-level language and a graphics API. For the language I recommend C++, you can also use C or Rust but C might be a bit too difficult and you don't want to fight the language since graphics APIs are already hard", "context": "", "use_case": "making a game", "switched_from": "", "story": "What to Learn to Be a Graphics Programmer"}, {"id": 767764992, "item_id": 47985312, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47985312", "by": "jdw64", "date": "2026-05-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I recommend Unity.", "excerpt": "I recommend Unity. Unity is not that difficult if you clearly understand the Template Method pattern. The difficult part is that students often struggle at a different point than expected. That said, if not Unity, GameMaker is also a good option.", "context": "", "use_case": "game development for beginners", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Best way to develop games for beginners"}]}, {"label": "Visual editor", "summary": "Its editor makes 3D and UI adjustments far more productive than code-only frameworks like MonoGame.", "quotes": [{"id": 756736737, "item_id": 47296046, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47296046", "by": "NotGMan", "date": "2026-03-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Switched to Unity, best choice ever.", "excerpt": "We used Monogame at a previous company and it's a nightmare to be productive in it. The lack of any kind of an editor makes any kind of dev a nightmare: 3d adjustments? Good luck, guess it.. UI adjustments: good luck, try it 300 times until you get it right. Switched to Unity, best choice ever.", "context": "", "use_case": "game development", "switched_from": "MonoGame", "story": "MonoGame: A .NET framework for making cross-platform games"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Feature churn", "summary": "Features are constantly deprecated for half-baked, poorly documented replacements, making it feel unstable.", "quotes": [{"id": 779949616, "item_id": 48746851, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48746851", "by": "overgard", "date": "2026-07-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Unity is actually really annoying in this regard, because they're _constantly_ deprecating features in favor of new features that are half baked and poorly documented.", "excerpt": "You have to consider the market for Godot: indie developers. They don't need cutting edge features; they need a good workflow, ease of use, a good community, stability, etc. Unity is actually really annoying in this regard, because they're _constantly_ deprecating features in favor of new features that are half baked and poorly documented. It feels like a really unstable platform to build on because by the time you'r", "context": "used to work in the game industry", "use_case": "game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Godot will no longer accept AI-authored code contributions"}]}, {"label": "Beginner overload", "summary": "So many features that beginners struggle to know where to start.", "quotes": [{"id": 767763744, "item_id": 47985234, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47985234", "by": "LazVerry", "date": "2026-05-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Unity and Unreal Engine have too many features, which actually makes them less beginner-friendly", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve dabbled with a few game engines myself, but I feel like Unity and Unreal Engine have too many features, which actually makes them less beginner-friendly. It\u2019s hard to know where to even start. For pixel art games, I personally recommend GameMaker. It specializes in 2D, and since hits like Undertale were built with it, you can definitely create \"serious\" games. GML (GameMaker Language) is also quite easy to write", "context": "has dabbled with a few game engines", "use_case": "beginner game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Best way to develop games for beginners"}]}, {"label": "Editor workflow", "summary": "Some find the editor-centered workflow convoluted and its load times slow compared to Godot.", "quotes": [{"id": 788776001, "item_id": 49298500, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49298500", "by": "ivm", "date": "2026-08-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "there's no way I'm going back to the convoluted editor-centered workflow of Unity/Godot", "excerpt": "I've also been making a game engine based on MonoGame (and prime31/Nez), and one thing I recommend looking into is headless mode for both the game and the editor. I started my engine in the first place because I want to get back into gamedev, but there's no way I'm going back to the convoluted editor-centered workflow of Unity/Godot. And with proper MVVM, you can get the game headless too, so agents can play without ", "context": "", "use_case": "game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: C# Game Engine with its own scripting language and IDE"}, {"id": 755862321, "item_id": 47241395, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47241395", "by": "barcoder", "date": "2026-03-03", "stance": "compare", "quote": "When I returned to Unity I raised that my flow state was constantly being broken", "excerpt": "I'm a long time Unity developer that in the past year picked up Godot. The speed at which Godot loads compared to Unity is staggering, it's just so much faster. When I returned to Unity I raised that my flow state was constantly being broken in a way that it wasn't when using Godot. Entering flow is one of the beautiful things I love about programming. And being knocked out of it often feels like a physical jolt. Lob", "context": "long-time Unity developer", "use_case": "game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Voxile: A ray-traced game made in its own engine and programming language"}]}, {"label": "UI tooling", "summary": "One commenter calls it the dark ages for UI.", "quotes": [{"id": 778832483, "item_id": 48677030, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48677030", "by": "phaser", "date": "2026-06-25", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Anyone who's worked on Unity knows it's the dark ages for UI over there.", "excerpt": "I am the freaky outlier that's actually excited about this. My city builder game, Microlandia[1], runs on Deno. The game's graphics and UI is a Three.js/React app, but the real guts of the game are a \"sidecar\" process that is a `deno compile` typescript executable. On Mac, there's a Tauri shell that runs both client and server, and for Linux and Windows we use Electron, (Tauri proved to be quite problematic except wh", "context": "", "use_case": "game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Deno 2.9"}]}, {"label": "Dated C# runtime", "summary": "It runs on its own version of Mono, without the most recent C# features.", "quotes": [{"id": 737905024, "item_id": 46119064, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46119064", "by": "eknkc", "date": "2025-12-02", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Unity seems promising but they have a weird version of mono running things and not so recent C# features available.", "excerpt": "Let's say I want to create a small 2D game. I'm no game dev so nothing fancy, just a PoC. I'm willing to take a code first approach and I love C#. What is my best best? - Unity seems promising but they have a weird version of mono running things and not so recent C# features available. Might be a non issue. - Godot seems more promising for my use case but I feel like they want you to use GDScript. I don't want to use", "context": "not a game dev, wants a PoC", "use_case": "small 2D game in C#", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stride Game Engine 4.3 with .NET 10 Support"}]}, {"label": "iOS build step", "summary": "iOS exports produce an Xcode project that must be compiled a second time, which one commenter calls a nightmare.", "quotes": [{"id": 798697648, "item_id": 49918603, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49918603", "by": "voidUpdate", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Unity has great support for most things you want to do out of the box", "excerpt": "Because at my work, clients want the general public to be able to install their apps sometimes, and my department does native apps, a different department does web stuff. If you want Joe Public to be able to install your app, you have to go through the Google or Apple stores. However, we don't directly dev in Kotlin or Swift, we use Unity, which can export directly to an APK, or an XCode project (which has to be comp", "context": "works in a department building native apps for clients", "use_case": "cross-platform native mobile apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fuck Android Developer Verification Program"}]}], "who": [{"by": "voidUpdate", "context": "works in a department building native apps for clients", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49918603", "date": "2026-10-01"}, {"by": "Jare", "context": "game developer since 1983", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49856563", "date": "2026-09-26"}, {"by": "ralfd", "context": "owns a studio building simulators and serious games", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49818028", "date": "2026-09-23"}, {"by": "oneneptune", "context": "hobbyist game dev", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49234210", "date": "2026-08-09"}, {"by": "ido", "context": "small indie developer", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48955758", "date": "2026-07-17"}, {"by": "deterministic", "context": "wrote two commercial game engines", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48841673", "date": "2026-07-08"}, {"by": "Dan1435", "context": "first-time app game developer", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47759936", "date": "2026-04-13"}, {"by": "frmfrm", "context": "Technical artist and gamedev with 15+ years experience", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47277057", "date": "2026-03-06"}, {"by": "BloondAndDoom", "context": "long time gamer, some game dev experience", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46391886", "date": "2025-12-26"}], "tags": ["for game development", "for mobile apps", "for indie devs", "for simulators and serious games"], "use_cases": ["game development", "cross-platform native mobile apps", "3d level", "game and simulator development", "ubuntu desktop", "cross-platform indie game development"], "compared": [{"slug": "godot", "name": "Godot", "co": 13, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "unreal-engine", "name": "Unreal Engine", "co": 7, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "monogame", "name": "MonoGame", "co": 3, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "gamemaker", "name": "GameMaker", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "stride", "name": "Stride", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "phaser", "name": "Phaser", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "blender", "name": "Blender", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "three-js", "name": "Three.js", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47985156", "title": "Ask HN: Best way to develop games for beginners", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49917761", "title": "Fuck Android Developer Verification Program", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49855018", "title": "One Month Without AI", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49801436", "title": "2DWillNeverDie", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49818027", "title": "Top post in R/gamedev: \"AI models have caught up with Unity dev.\"", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49595286", "title": "I was on Ubuntu's first design team in 2009 London", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"compare": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"compare": 1, "neutral": 1, "recommend": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-04": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-05": {"warn": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {"warn": 1}, "2026-07": {"warn": 2, "recommend": 2, "neutral": 1}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 3}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 798697648, "item_id": 49918603, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49918603", "by": "voidUpdate", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Unity has great support for most things you want to do out of the box", "excerpt": "Because at my work, clients want the general public to be able to install their apps sometimes, and my department does native apps, a different department does web stuff. If you want Joe Public to be able to install your app, you have to go through the Google or Apple stores. However, we don't directly dev in Kotlin or Swift, we use Unity, which can export directly to an APK, or an XCode project (which has to be comp", "context": "works in a department building native apps for clients", "use_case": "cross-platform native mobile apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fuck Android Developer Verification Program"}, {"id": 797705008, "item_id": 49856563, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49856563", "by": "Jare", "date": "2026-09-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I stopped writing my own engines and used Unity, Unreal Engine, Phaser, Godot...", "excerpt": "- I started programming games in z80 back in 1983. I've had several periods of 1-2 years in my professional career where I have not programmed anything; at best I've still guided others (as lead or producer) and at worst nothing at all, not even looked at code (as director). It all came back every time I went back to the trenches. The question in my mind is, what do \"AI-native\" engineers have that they can come back ", "context": "game developer since 1983", "use_case": "game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "One Month Without AI"}, {"id": 797496498, "item_id": 49843531, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49843531", "by": "armcat", "date": "2026-09-25", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "embedded them in a Blender+Unity 3D level", "excerpt": "There is also a 2.5D paradigm. I made a small demo of a 2.5D where I generated pure 2D pixelart sprites and embedded them in a Blender+Unity 3D level. Personally I find this mix very exciting. Demo: https://acatovic.github.io/afterlight-play/ Tool I used to create 2D sprites: https://github.com/acatovic/ai-game-studio", "context": "", "use_case": "3D level", "switched_from": "", "story": "2DWillNeverDie"}, {"id": 797088449, "item_id": 49818028, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49818028", "by": "ralfd", "date": "2026-09-23", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "20 years with game dev tools, 10 years with Unity", "excerpt": "Quoting his post: \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014 Context: I have 30 years of experience with software dev, 20 years with game dev tools, 10 years with Unity. I own a studio that develops simulators and training applications for industry. \"Serious games\" as they call it in Europe. For years I scoffed at AI coding. I would periodically try it, only to find that it was more hassle then it was worth. The hand holding and bug", "context": "owns a studio building simulators and serious games", "use_case": "game and simulator development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Top post in R/gamedev: \"AI models have caught up with Unity dev.\""}, {"id": 793549633, "item_id": 49596852, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49596852", "by": "no_time", "date": "2026-09-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The typeface and text rendering is unmatched to this day.", "excerpt": ">He hired real designers This is indeed pretty obvious when you look at Unity era ubuntu screenshots. The typeface and text rendering is unmatched to this day. And to this day nobody pulled off purple-orange like they did. But I always had the feeling that even at their peak, they were spread too thin to go through with their vision. The DE looks stunning but the rest of the system apps carry too much gnome-isms that", "context": "", "use_case": "Ubuntu desktop", "switched_from": "", "story": "I was on Ubuntu's first design team in 2009 London"}, {"id": 788776001, "item_id": 49298500, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49298500", "by": "ivm", "date": "2026-08-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "there's no way I'm going back to the convoluted editor-centered workflow of Unity/Godot", "excerpt": "I've also been making a game engine based on MonoGame (and prime31/Nez), and one thing I recommend looking into is headless mode for both the game and the editor. I started my engine in the first place because I want to get back into gamedev, but there's no way I'm going back to the convoluted editor-centered workflow of Unity/Godot. And with proper MVVM, you can get the game headless too, so agents can play without ", "context": "", "use_case": "game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: C# Game Engine with its own scripting language and IDE"}, {"id": 787747361, "item_id": 49234210, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49234210", "by": "oneneptune", "date": "2026-08-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "plays nicely with the tools I use; unreal engine, unity, and blender", "excerpt": "I've been a hobbyist game dev for years; nothing published. Over the time I've built a massive collection of assets from various stores and stuff I've built. The solutions for managing assets seem to be largely in house tools studio build themselves and don't share. So I'm working on a digital asset management system that plays nicely with the tools I use; unreal engine, unity, and blender. I don't have anything publ", "context": "hobbyist game dev", "use_case": "game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)"}, {"id": 783292128, "item_id": 48955758, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48955758", "by": "ido", "date": "2026-07-17", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use unity & have both mac and windows automated building scripts", "excerpt": "That isn't worth the effort Maybe I'm too unambitious as a small indie, but \"porting\" my game to mac merely requires building that target (I use unity & have both mac and windows automated building scripts - I press a button and it builds and uploads both to steam). There's nowhere in my codebase where I had to specifically adapt to one or the other.", "context": "small indie developer", "use_case": "cross-platform indie game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mac gaming is finally getting the overpowered upgrade it deserves"}, {"id": 781466769, "item_id": 48841673, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48841673", "by": "deterministic", "date": "2026-07-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I recommend taking a look at a real game engine (Unreal or Unity) and compare.", "excerpt": "> They built a game engine to render text for cripes sake! Nope they didn't. I recommend taking a look at a real game engine (Unreal or Unity) and compare. I personally wrote two game engines used for commercial games. Which included rendering text. It is not hard.", "context": "wrote two commercial game engines", "use_case": "game engine", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Making of Claude Code"}, {"id": 781156721, "item_id": 48822295, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48822295", "by": "officeplant", "date": "2026-07-07", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The average modern Unreal and Unity game feels like shit", "excerpt": ">There are very few games where the engine is what made all the difference. Maybe if you ignore the entirety of the retro gaming scene where people are using old engines and modified old engines because they bring along a lot of the feel and expected behavior. The average modern Unreal and Unity game feels like shit, but some dev's can pull off making new engines behave like old ones we love. It requires a lot of wor", "context": "", "use_case": "game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft Fire IdTech Team at Id Software"}, {"id": 780154608, "item_id": 48759663, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48759663", "by": "Mierenik", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you just want to make a game, use a game engine like Unity, Godot or Unreal.", "excerpt": "Depends on what you want to do. If you just want to make a game, use a game engine like Unity, Godot or Unreal. If you want to do graphics, like making engines, simulations, renderers then you should learn a low-level language and a graphics API. For the language I recommend C++, you can also use C or Rust but C might be a bit too difficult and you don't want to fight the language since graphics APIs are already hard", "context": "", "use_case": "making a game", "switched_from": "", "story": "What to Learn to Be a Graphics Programmer"}, {"id": 779949616, "item_id": 48746851, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48746851", "by": "overgard", "date": "2026-07-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Unity is actually really annoying in this regard, because they're _constantly_ deprecating features in favor of new features that are half baked and poorly documented.", "excerpt": "You have to consider the market for Godot: indie developers. They don't need cutting edge features; they need a good workflow, ease of use, a good community, stability, etc. Unity is actually really annoying in this regard, because they're _constantly_ deprecating features in favor of new features that are half baked and poorly documented. It feels like a really unstable platform to build on because by the time you'r", "context": "used to work in the game industry", "use_case": "game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Godot will no longer accept AI-authored code contributions"}, {"id": 778832483, "item_id": 48677030, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48677030", "by": "phaser", "date": "2026-06-25", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Anyone who's worked on Unity knows it's the dark ages for UI over there.", "excerpt": "I am the freaky outlier that's actually excited about this. My city builder game, Microlandia[1], runs on Deno. The game's graphics and UI is a Three.js/React app, but the real guts of the game are a \"sidecar\" process that is a `deno compile` typescript executable. On Mac, there's a Tauri shell that runs both client and server, and for Linux and Windows we use Electron, (Tauri proved to be quite problematic except wh", "context": "", "use_case": "game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Deno 2.9"}, {"id": 767766048, "item_id": 47985378, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47985378", "by": "LazVerry", "date": "2026-05-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Unity remains useful in terms of the sheer breadth of what you can achieve.", "excerpt": "That\u2019s spot on. However, it\u2019s been a while since I really dug into Unity, so things might be different now with tools like Codex or Claude Code (without suggesting we just resort to \"Vibe Coding,\" of course). If you have a way to consult someone\u2014or something\u2014about the hurdles you can't clear on your own, Unity remains useful in terms of the sheer breadth of what you can achieve.", "context": "", "use_case": "game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Best way to develop games for beginners"}, {"id": 767764992, "item_id": 47985312, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47985312", "by": "jdw64", "date": "2026-05-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I recommend Unity.", "excerpt": "I recommend Unity. Unity is not that difficult if you clearly understand the Template Method pattern. The difficult part is that students often struggle at a different point than expected. That said, if not Unity, GameMaker is also a good option.", "context": "", "use_case": "game development for beginners", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Best way to develop games for beginners"}, {"id": 767763744, "item_id": 47985234, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47985234", "by": "LazVerry", "date": "2026-05-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Unity and Unreal Engine have too many features, which actually makes them less beginner-friendly", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve dabbled with a few game engines myself, but I feel like Unity and Unreal Engine have too many features, which actually makes them less beginner-friendly. It\u2019s hard to know where to even start. For pixel art games, I personally recommend GameMaker. It specializes in 2D, and since hits like Undertale were built with it, you can definitely create \"serious\" games. GML (GameMaker Language) is also quite easy to write", "context": "has dabbled with a few game engines", "use_case": "beginner game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Best way to develop games for beginners"}, {"id": 764158976, "item_id": 47759936, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47759936", "by": "Dan1435", "date": "2026-04-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I wrote it in Unity", "excerpt": "I spent the last two months working on my first ever app game. I wrote it in Unity, and I successfully uploaded it to the app store a few weeks ago. I wanted to find a way to expand the game further than the app version it has, so I went to build a web version, which was challenging at first since the build wasn't succeeding due to me trying using Brotli. So I switched to Gzip which helped the game get successfully b", "context": "first-time app game developer", "use_case": "building a mobile and web game", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: I Created a Web Version of My First App Game"}, {"id": 762811424, "item_id": 47675714, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47675714", "by": "Dan1435", "date": "2026-04-07", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "though I had never used Unity before", "excerpt": "Hi HN, I finally got my first app, \"Brighten Up\", up on the App Store. It's a simple arcade game inspired by an old Flash game I used to play as a kid called \"Light it Right\". In Brighten Up, you tap the rooms to turn the lights on or off before the timer runs out, but be careful around the dog. So far the highest score reached has been 1798, but I'm curious to see if anyone can get to 2000. Having built websites, wr", "context": "first-time app developer", "use_case": "building a mobile game", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Brighten Up \u2013 My First App. Lessons on Unity and Renting a Mac"}, {"id": 757273008, "item_id": 47329563, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47329563", "by": "Heliodex", "date": "2026-03-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "They then suggest Unity as an alternative platform, which I personally think is a much worse option.", "excerpt": "The 2 videos linked here are nearing 5 years old now and have been refuted many times, including by some of the developers mentioned in the article. To condense it as much as possible: The 1st video hinges on a point where they find that developers earn a revenue cut of 24.5%, a number that isn't correct because 1. it's found by multiplying 3 arbitrarily chosen numbers together (the DevEx rate, the default sales fee,", "context": "", "use_case": "game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Roblox Is Minting Teen Millionaires"}, {"id": 756736737, "item_id": 47296046, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47296046", "by": "NotGMan", "date": "2026-03-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Switched to Unity, best choice ever.", "excerpt": "We used Monogame at a previous company and it's a nightmare to be productive in it. The lack of any kind of an editor makes any kind of dev a nightmare: 3d adjustments? Good luck, guess it.. UI adjustments: good luck, try it 300 times until you get it right. Switched to Unity, best choice ever.", "context": "", "use_case": "game development", "switched_from": "MonoGame", "story": "MonoGame: A .NET framework for making cross-platform games"}, {"id": 756432912, "item_id": 47277057, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47277057", "by": "frmfrm", "date": "2026-03-06", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Unity (Expert)", "excerpt": "Location: Berlin Remote: Ok Willing to relocate: Yes (have EU and US passport) Technologies: Unity (Expert), Houdini, C#, GLSL, Shader Graph, Compute Shaders, XR, JS, Game Design. R\u00e9sum\u00e9/CV: https://byfernando.com/2025/Fernando%20Ramallo%20-%20CV%20Technical%20Artist.pdf Portfolio: https://www.notion.so/Fernando-Ramallo-Graphics-XR-Tech-Artist-What-I-m-Up-To-In-2026-2e7985971dce80998ff7c0cfc383b44b Email: fernando.ra", "context": "Technical artist and gamedev with 15+ years experience", "use_case": "game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (March 2026)"}, {"id": 755862321, "item_id": 47241395, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47241395", "by": "barcoder", "date": "2026-03-03", "stance": "compare", "quote": "When I returned to Unity I raised that my flow state was constantly being broken", "excerpt": "I'm a long time Unity developer that in the past year picked up Godot. The speed at which Godot loads compared to Unity is staggering, it's just so much faster. When I returned to Unity I raised that my flow state was constantly being broken in a way that it wasn't when using Godot. Entering flow is one of the beautiful things I love about programming. And being knocked out of it often feels like a physical jolt. Lob", "context": "long-time Unity developer", "use_case": "game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Voxile: A ray-traced game made in its own engine and programming language"}, {"id": 742270177, "item_id": 46391886, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46391886", "by": "BloondAndDoom", "date": "2025-12-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I heard good things about unity+AI", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve been looking for something like this and will try this. Looks great. I tried Amazon prime game stuff (forgot what it\u2019s called) is not too bad but the selection of games are still not non-gamer friendly enough. Party games need to pick and play, I\u2019m long time gamer, if I want to play MP with other gamers I got million games, but I want to play with random people who never gamed aging from 9-60. Now that\u2019s a chall", "context": "long time gamer, some game dev experience", "use_case": "AI-assisted game development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Gaming Couch \u2013 a local multiplayer party game platform for 8 players"}, {"id": 737905024, "item_id": 46119064, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46119064", "by": "eknkc", "date": "2025-12-02", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Unity seems promising but they have a weird version of mono running things and not so recent C# features available.", "excerpt": "Let's say I want to create a small 2D game. I'm no game dev so nothing fancy, just a PoC. I'm willing to take a code first approach and I love C#. What is my best best? - Unity seems promising but they have a weird version of mono running things and not so recent C# features available. Might be a non issue. - Godot seems more promising for my use case but I feel like they want you to use GDScript. I don't want to use", "context": "not a game dev, wants a PoC", "use_case": "small 2D game in C#", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stride Game Engine 4.3 with .NET 10 Support"}]}