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Comment by hgs3 | Hacker News Reader

I still find it perplexing that Unreal ditched Unreal Script in favor of Blueprints and full C++.

Engineers wants C++, scripters and artists wants Visual Scripting. Seems like an obvious choice to make everyone happy instead of trying to find a middle ground where nobody is?

I think Godot shows there's a clear subset of people (generally indie developers) who are fine with the middle ground of a proper scripting language instead of either extreme. It's why languages like Lua are still fairly popular when the option to use it exists.

This is it for me. GDscript allows for quick prototyping and structural changes without fuss. If I really need it I could outsource some GDExtension (formerly GDNative) development.

The problem is that at least until very recently, That subset of people have not been Epic's target market. UE had been targeting larger studios, and in that space, UnrealScript was largely a hindurance.

The error is believing engineers can't draw and artists can't code. Skill is not a zero sum game.

I'm working with media artists and the very best way to make them flee is to tell them that they have to use the keyboard. Yes, there's the occasional geek but the overwhelming majority really doesn't like it - I'm not even talking about coding (I saw people get up and leave when showing code stuff in art contexts), just for instance having to use some keyboard shortcuts to do something is already too much in many cases, things have to be doable through mouse interaction exclusively.

every AAA game artist I've ever worked with uses extensive keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop, Maya, 3DSMax, Blender, Zbrush, etc... Tons.

> AAA game artist

those are salaried people who have to do a job and get paid for it each month, the artists I work with are independent artists who do stuff like art installations, etc. on their name. It's really really not the same mindset.

In the context of game engines, the former are much more relevant than the latter.

I've been a C++ developer for 20 years, and when I was playing around with UE4 back when it was first released, I found both options to be extremely clunky.

There's a lot to be said for C#, at the very least. I know a ton of not-very-technical people who have learned enough C# to write simple Unity games.

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