BRUTAL Game Development: Without an Engine | Dean Hall & Stephen Knightly | NZGDC 2025

Value of the Information & Strength of the Argument

The talk provides valuable insights into the trade-offs of using commercial engines versus building a custom framework. The argumentation is based on real-world experience, with concrete examples from Icarus and Stationeers, such as the Unreal stutter and Unity’s limitations with large numbers of animator components. The live demo of Kitten Space Agency demonstrates the performance and scalability of BRUTAL. The speakers make a compelling case for considering custom engines, though the argument is somewhat one-sided and lacks a balanced comparison of the costs and benefits.

Scientific Rigor, Source Quality, Title Accuracy

The talk is an expert opinion, not a formal study, and relies on anecdotal evidence from the speakers’ experience. No external sources are cited, and the claims about engine costs and limitations are not backed by data. The title accurately reflects the content, and the talk is well-structured. The speakers mention specific technical details, such as the use of Vulkan and interop, but do not provide references for further reading. The lack of citations reduces the scientific rigor, but the practical examples add credibility.

The title accurately reflects the content: a discussion on developing games without a traditional engine, focusing on the BRUTAL framework.

7/10

The talk is an expert opinion based on practical experience from RocketWerkz, with concrete examples from Icarus and Stationeers. It includes live demos and references to specific technical challenges. However, it is largely anecdotal and lacks formal citations or peer-reviewed sources.

Markers derived by PSI from the transcript: the creator did not define chapters.

• 02:00Introduction and goals of the talk
• 05:00Discussion on why developers use certain tools
• 10:00Background on RocketWerkz and lessons from Icarus and Stationeers
• 15:00Critique of Unreal and Unity engines
• 20:00Introduction to BRUTAL and its design philosophy
• 25:00Technical details: interop, memory management, and spherical billboarding
• 30:00Lessons learned and separation of tools and games
• 35:00Live demo of Kitten Space Agency
• 40:00Discussion on platform support and future plans
• 45:00Q&A session

• BRUTAL Game Development: Without an Engine | Dean Hall & Stephen Knightly | NZGDC 2025 — The video itself is the primary source, containing the talk and live demo.

• Unreal Engine — Provides background on Unreal Engine's features and licensing, relevant to the critique.
• Unity (game engine) — Provides background on Unity's architecture and history, relevant to the critique.

• Unreal Engine — The talk claims Unreal is extremely expensive, but some developers may argue that the 5% royalty is offset by the engine's features and support.