Why Unity Is Still My Go-To Engine (Mostly)

Hey there, fellow game devs!

I want to kick off my blog with something close to my heart — the Unity game engine. If you’ve been around game development circles even for a little while, chances are you’ve heard of Unity. And if you’ve been around as long as I have, you’ve probably watched it grow from a scrappy indie tool into one of the biggest names in the industry.

I’ve been using Unity since the early days — back when its UI was a little rough and the community was just starting to bloom. It’s been amazing to witness its evolution over the years. From the introduction of the Asset Store, to the support for 2D games, to DOTS, and now Unity 6 — it’s clear that the engine has come a long way, always trying to push boundaries and keep up with the times.

Over the years, I’ve used Unity to develop many mobile games. Its cross-platform support, visual editor, and massive ecosystem make it one of the fastest ways to bring a game from idea to playable prototype. Especially for mobile, Unity shines — handling everything from touch controls to ads and in-app purchases with ease.

Now, I’d be lying if I said everything was perfect. We all remember the drama around the Unity Runtime Fee announcement — it shook the community, and understandably so. Many devs (including myself) questioned whether Unity still had our best interests in mind. But even with those missteps, I still find Unity incredibly valuable — especially when I need to prototype something quickly and build size isn’t my top concern. That’s one of Unity’s biggest weaknesses, after all: bloated build size.

Which brings me to my next point — web games.

Lately, I’ve been diving deeper into web game development. And here, build size really does matter. A bloated build means long load times, which leads to frustrated players, higher bounce rates, and lower engagement. For small-scope web games, every kilobyte counts.

While I still occasionally use Unity for some of my web projects, I’ve started to rely more on engines that are better suited for the constraints of the web. My current favorites? Defold and Phaser

Both of these engines (or frameworks) are incredibly lightweight and efficient. Defold is powerful, modular, and exports super-lean builds that load in seconds. Phaser, being JavaScript-based, is a dream to work with when targeting browsers directly — and it’s extremely flexible for 2D gameplay.

These engines have become my go-to tools when I’m building for web, and I’ll be writing more in-depth about both of them in future posts — including tips, comparisons, and workflows.

Wrapping Up

To sum it up: Unity may have its flaws, but it’s still an incredibly powerful and accessible engine — especially for fast prototyping and mobile development. But when it comes to building lean, fast-loading web games, I’m more likely to reach for Defold or Phaser.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for the next article where I’ll dive deeper into why I love using Defold and Phaser for my web projects!

Until next time — happy dev-ing!