In response to the egregious pricing plan changes for developers using the Unity Game Engine, Terraria developer Re-Logic has decided to pay indie devs looking to escape the engine’s wrath.
The Terraria devs revealed via a Twitter post that it is investing in devs and open source game engines to help its peers move away from Unity. With Unity charging developers per install of their games, even if those games are free, the industry has turned against the company.
To combat Unity’s changes, Re-Logic confirmed that it will be donating $100,000 to two open-source game engines: Godot and FNA. Furthermore, the team will donate an additional $1000 to each project every month to continue open-source development.
“The team at Re-Logic has been watching the recent events surrounding Unity with both interest and sadness,” the announcement reads. “The loss of a formerly-leading and user-friendly game engine to the darker forces that negatively impact so much of the gaming industry has left us dismayed to put it mildly.”
The Terraria devs revealed that, while they don’t use Unity, they feel the recent decisions by the company are “predatory… against studios everywhere”.
“We unequivocally condemn and reject the recent TOS/fee changes proposed by Unity and the underhanded way they were rolled out,” the devs continued. “The flippant manner with which years of trust cultivated by Unity were cast aside for yet another way to squeeze publishers, studios, and gamers is the saddest part. That this move was wholly unnecessary pushes things into the tragedy category - a cautionary tale the industry will not soon forget.”
The Terraria devs’ move to support open-source game engines has been universally supported by indie game developers. With Unity simply apologizing for its recent plans without revealing any walk back, developers are unsure whether or not they can trust the company ever again, especially considering the past of Unity CEO John Riccitiello.
At the time of writing, Godot Game Engine, Unreal Engine 5 and more are free to use for indie developers.