Why We Switched from Rust/Bevy to Unity for Game

Architect of Ruin: A Game Engine Switch

The developer initially chose Bevy (Rust) but shifted to Unity (C#) due to collaboration, iteration, and ecosystem advantages. Bevy's early stage caused challenges in collaboration, abstraction, and migration. Unity offered faster experimental development, team contributions, and improved maintainability, accelerating progress and leveraging tools. The switch, despite difficulties, ultimately strengthened the project.

Here are some insights from the provided text, formatted as requested:

1. Passion for a Technology Isn't Always the Best Driver for Game Development: The author initially chose Bevy due to their love for Rust. However, practical considerations like collaboration, rapid prototyping, and ecosystem support ultimately outweighed the enjoyment of the technology itself.

2. "10% for 90%" Rule as a Decisive Experiment: The team's decision to invest a small amount of time (10%) into porting core features to Unity before committing fully (90%) proved to be an effective way to de-risk the engine switch and validate their assumptions about productivity gains.

3. Ecosystem and Tooling Can Significantly Impact Development Speed: The availability of mature, well-documented tools and a supportive ecosystem in Unity allowed the team to iterate faster, leverage AI assistance more effectively, and solve common problems with readily available solutions. The AStar Pathfinding Project is a concrete example.

4. Collaboration and Team Skillsets are Crucial Engine Choice Factors: The difficulty of onboarding a new coder into game development while simultaneously navigating the complexities of Rust proved to be a significant bottleneck. Unity's more widely accessible ecosystem allowed team members, including those with less experience, to contribute more effectively.

5. Constant Evolution and API thrash in Young Engines Can Be a Double-Edged Sword: Bevy's rapid development cycle, while exciting, also led to API changes and regressions that required significant debugging effort, highlighting the trade-off between cutting-edge features and stability.