I'm getting into game development right now, and I want to do 3D games. I have been checking out UDK, Unity, and CryEngine 3 SDK. All of them, I can see, have their pros and cons. Unity, however, I am starting to rule out because I'm wanting to do Game Development as a job in the future. Since the Unreal Engine (which, as I understand, is 99% the same as UDK) and CryEngine 3 are the industry standards, apart from GameBryo etc.. (which I don't have money to buy as I'm 16 haha)
From what I understand the pros of UDK are:
- Simpler (In terms of Scripting)
- Runs on more computers than CE3
- Industry standard, used in MANY top-notch games.
- Kismet is really nice (for level-wide editing)
- Development for iOS is possible, and free (minus the $99 fee to become an "Apple Developer"
- Cross Platform (PC, Mac, iOS) for the UDK. UE3 (as I understand) is PC, Mac, iOS, PS3, Xbox360, and Android?
- $99 to sell games, first $50,000 in sales is royalty-free
The cons are:
- Must exit the editor to recompile the code every time you change the UnrealScript code.
- Worse workflow than CryEngine 3
- Soon to be replaced by Unreal Engine 4
- Crashes often.
- Not many tutorials.
The pros of CE3 is:
- AMAZING Terrain Generator
- True next-gen-top-notch graphics
- Best water ever seen
- Much better workflow than UE3
- Rarely Crashes
The Cons are:
- Must log in to use, if you lose Internet connection while editing, you won't even be able to save.
- Expensive if you want to make commercial games.
- Doesn't run on as many computers
- Only on PC, PS3, and X360
- More complicated scripting?
Is what I said the basis? Are there any pros or cons I have missed? Which do you recommend for a beginner (to game development, not programming in general. I am well versed in Python, know VB.NET, C#, HTML, and CSS) Is Unity a possibility for a game-development company to see potential in you?
EDIT: P.S. I thought I should mention this... I do not plan on making FPS as my main genre. I know it will be hard to do anything else with either UDK or CryEngine, but I don't mind. I need the learning experience. Mainly, can UDK AND CryEngine do this? I KNOW UDK can, but I'm only about 50% sure CryEngine can, I haven't seen many people ask this.
I'm learning UDK at the moment. Click on the welcome screen to access online video tutorials. This Buzz3D dude makes the best tutes ever. Although he uses an older version of UDK, I'm able to keep up and I've learned heaps. UDK is a very exciting editor. I plan on checking out CE3 at some stage. Dunno much about Unity. Might be good for developing to the upcoming ouya console (which is a bit of a dark horse for the industry).