Unity fiasco - Reprogramming the game elsewhere

Most of you have already read it as it is all over the news, but Unity's new pricing model is completely unfeasible to the point I'm forced to stop working in it. Among many other developers, my trust with Unity is completely broken and I won't work any longer on an engine with a grim future, shady CEO and a complete disrespect towards its developers.

To summarize the issue: They introduced a fee on a per-install basis, and apply it retroactively to older installs of the engine. The fact that they can just simply do this shows how risky it is to continue working with the engine, and how untrustworthy the company behind engine really is. I sympathize with every developer and Unity employee who fell victim to this.

While this is a gigantic blow and tremendously sets me back, rest assured: I will not give up. I've decided to look into Godot, start learning its native GDscript and start from there.

So what does this mean for the game?

Despite the obvious problems, there are a couple of silver linings. Let me summarize all positives and negatives:

The negatives:

• The game's release date will be delayed drastically. I have to learn a completely new game engine, and make everything work again.
• Some features I've managed to get to work in Unity might not as easily be achievable in Godot (but it's too early to judge).

The positives:

• Nearly all assets I've made except scripts can be reused (Images, Audio, etc).
• Godot appears to be much better suitable for 2D games.
• The game will become much more lightweight.
• Working with Godot is much faster than working with Unity thanks to the engine's incredible speed.
• Starting from blank with my current knowledge allows me to alter and improve core aspects of the game, and write the code of the scripts much better.

What is the new expected release date?

Unfortunately, it's way too early for me to give an estimate. I have to redo a LOT of work, and that simply takes years of additional time. I wish I could shed more information about this, but unfortunately I can't.

However, there is one thing you can be 100% sure of: I still love this project and I'm as determined as ever to make it work!

Will the game change?

Like mentioned earlier, changing game engine means new opportunities to improve the game's core mechanics. There will be many things that change for the better. Some decisions I've already made:

• The game will become a local co-op game with single player functionality:
  • There will now be two main characters instead of one. In Co-op, each player gets to control one of the two characters, while in Single Player, you can choose which one you play, while the other character will only show herself during cutscenes and story related content.
  • Both characters will be equally important in the main storyline, and have their own personalities. They have the same initial magical and physical powers, but can be built differently per player.
  • If you play single-player, you get additional bonuses to make up for the absence of a second player. I still have to figure out how to shape this out.
  • More information on this comes later.
  • Online co-op is for now not on the planning yet, as I have no idea how hard it would be to implement. However, it's certainly a possibility I might look into it in the future. No promises yet!
• The storyline will change to accommodate for two main characters.
• The game will be made much simpler on many fronts, but also retain its depth where needed.

Looking forward

An initial grim event might lead to a better outcome down the line. I will continue working hard on this, and I'm weirdly motivated to really give this a blast!

Thank you for reading!