Busting GameDev Myths: Unreal Engine is Not Good For Stylized Adventures

Getting Into the GameDev Industry

It was the summer of 2016. I remember that day very well. I had just turned 20 years old, and it was the summer after the second year of my university studies. A sudden thought crossed my mind – I should start thinking about my future career and what I want to do for a living. My major in university was Computer Science, and even before attending university, I already had some basic programming knowledge. However, the courses and studies at the university were not very inspiring, and I felt that if I simply completed my degree without putting in my own effort, it wouldn't lead me anywhere.

I had a peculiar relationship with the programming field – I never had any troubles with it, but I never felt love or a strong interest in it. I say this because I had many colleagues and friends who thoroughly enjoyed the programming process and all that stuff. For me, it was always just a tool.

The thing I truly loved to do was art. During my childhood, I attended painting and music schools, although I never finished them due to various reasons. I enjoyed all of that. I liked to paint and write music. And what I loved even more since I got my first PC was playing games. So, I reached a logical conclusion – in order to create games, it is necessary to use programming to connect visual and sound elements, right? This realization came to me within a matter of two minutes, and I decided that I wanted to pursue a career as a Game Developer. It was as simple as that.

Switching From Unity to Unreal Engine

In late 2018, I began my PhD studies, and all of the PhD students had to work in the university labs. I joined a new group where nearly everyone (about 8 people) worked with Unreal Engine and had a strong preference for it over Unity.

Initially, I learned Unreal Engine to align myself with the others in the lab, and I used Unreal Engine for various media and scientific projects rather than for games. However, to expedite my learning of Unreal Engine, I started my own personal project. It was just a game where a character could travel from one island to another by boat. This project was never intended to be a commercial game; I used it to learn Unreal Engine's features and become familiar with blueprints.

At the time, what excited me the most was Unreal Engine's Material Editor. Unity did not offer this feature out of the box and only started to implement it as an experimental feature if I remember correctly. Overall, after a few months of working with Unreal Engine, I began to feel more confident with it and realized that Unreal Engine, as a set of tools, felt more comprehensive compared to other engines. I hope I don't sound like Unreal Engine's PR, but this was my experience after a few years of using Unity.

Now, the harsh truth that truly excited me about Unreal Engine, which I understand may not be applicable to everyone, was the support I received. I was living in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and I met a few Unreal Evangelists who worked in CIS countries. They helped me immensely in establishing new industry connections and increasing my visibility as an indie developer. It's very important not to feel neglected by the engine team or the engine company. When I switched to Unreal Engine, I immediately felt that they were interested in me as a user of their tools. This was not my experience with Unity. For me, this pivotal moment led me to completely abandon Unity and switch to Unreal Engine.

Is Unreal Engine Only Good for Shooters?

I would say that with the proper amount of knowledge, you can create any game of any style on any engine. For me, there were really no difficulties in delivering the visuals for Selfloss, and I definitely never felt that Unreal Engine tried to turn my game into a shooter.

I believe this myth originates from the old Unreal Tournament games or Gears of War. If other game engines had popular franchises before, people might have also developed biases towards certain genres or styles of those games. I can confidently say that I currently cannot imagine a better tool for myself and my team when it comes to creating stylized games. Furthermore, we have already established internal pipelines to create a unique art style for our future projects.

The Story of Selfloss

Selfloss is an action-adventure game set in the post-apocalyptic whale-worshiping fantasy lands. The old volhv, Kazimir, embarks on his epic journey by boat and on foot in search of a ritual that can cure his soul wound. Use the light of your magic staff to battle Miasm – the mysterious disease that has overrun the world.

Overall, this game has a melancholic vibe and addresses somber topics. However, this is not always done intentionally. It is simply the kind of mood that I personally enjoy, and it naturally influences the game.

About personality and its creation – as I mentioned, naturally, a part of you is always involved in the process of creation. However, I believe it is important for this involvement to be balanced. I have come to this conclusion based on my years of experience. Experience always comes first. The experience you want to deliver to the player should be memorable, fun, and meaningful. That's it. You don't need to pour out your soul to the player as if it somehow makes the game better (and from my knowledge, it often harms the game).

In the past years, I have had difficult experiences in my family that I don't want to describe. These events have greatly affected me as a person. However, I never intentionally tried to incorporate those feelings into Selfloss. Instead, I always prioritized game ideas and character voices over my own personal experiences. Because only this way can you make the whole game design work stably for your service. You don't need to worry about your personality; it will eventually be incorporated into the game if you make it honestly and well. Therefore, you will maintain this balance.

For me, the most important aspect is what I hope Selfloss will become for players. For some, it will be an experience that helps them overcome troubles in their lives or provides new perspectives on their woes. And for others, it will simply be a great game to play.

Stylized Water & Environments in Unreal Engine

Initially, the water system came from the Unreal Engine Marketplace in 2020. It utilized a common Gerstner Wave formula to simulate the appearance of waves and calculate object bounces on the water surface. I believe the plugin was either available for free for a month or was on a significant sale. Since then, I have been continuously enhancing this system.

The most significant change occurred when Epic Games released a new Single Layer Water shader. This shader not only improved performance compared to traditional translucency shading but also introduced additional parameters to control the visual appearance. Additionally, we recently added render target support for the water to enable long water trails.

I am aware that Epic Games has introduced a new method for creating landscapes and a new water system in Unreal Engine 5. However, Selfloss is still on version 4.27, so I hope to quickly complete Selfloss in order to explore the new features in the upcoming project using the latest version of the engine.

I believe that the lighting system plays a crucial role in creating atmospheric environments. With Selfloss, it took some time to gather sufficient information and experience to achieve the desired outcome. I am aware that some developers find the lighting system in Unreal Engine robust and challenging to control, especially when aiming for a more stylized scene. But it is definitely possible. I am also very excited about Lumen. Our next project is highly stylized, and we have numerous exciting ideas to explore the potential of real-time bounced lighting.

Unreal Engine's Ecosystem of Tools

What I like the most is that I feel somewhat safe when Unreal Engine updates one of its engine systems or adds a massive new one. I've never had major issues with updates. However, I had a really bad experience when Unity first introduced their rendering pipelines, and my projects got messed up. I believe that the majority of teams will be using third-party software for their specific tasks.

Nevertheless, the fact that everything can be found within Unreal Engine is a step in the right direction, especially when it comes to the learning process. I taught game development to children for a few years, and I know that initially, it's challenging to grasp the concept that as an indie developer, you need to learn a stack of programs, not just the engine. In the latest versions of Unreal Engine, you even have the ability to rig characters and create skeletal mesh models – and having such options is a big positive thing.

The Roadmap

We aim to finish the game by the end of this year and release it in 2024, although a specific date has not been determined yet. To begin with, you can find Selfloss on Epic Games Store and Steam, and add it to your wishlist if you're interested.

The public demo of the game will be available for a limited time during the Steam Halloween festival, starting on October 26. I cannot provide specific details about platforms at this time, as everything is currently being negotiated.

You can follow me on Twitter, I only post GIFs and videos from Selfloss there. Also, we don't have a publisher yet, so if you are a publisher that's interested, write me.

Alex Goodwin, Indie Game Developer

Interview conducted by Arti Burton