Why aren't modern game engines used often for IO Games?

Developers
1

Almost all 2D IO games I see online don’t seem to use modern, refined game engines like Godot or Unity.

I mean, they’re easy and provide great, reliable graphics, physics, UI options (Godot’s UI nodes are very similar to Flexbox, but able to be configured visually), etc as well as multi-platform compatibility. So, why not use them?

2

I’m not as knowledgeable in 2d or Godot, but one BIG factor would probably be multiplayer. In my experience, there were many collisions between server architecture and knowing that client-server architecture is the best, there were plans to the CCU limit, like I had to experience 20 CCU(which is pretty low). Contrasting to non-game engine games, they are mostly self-built and have their own built servers that can handle high CCU

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3

Usually because a lot of IO Games are played on potato PCs and you want to have good performance which you get with JS frameworks as opposed to a big game engine. You also want to have a game that loads almost instantly. A lot of IO Game devs are also just web devs in general who enjoy games, not actual game designers (this is not just me I found a lot of people like this making true IO Games tbh).

But I think if you are talking about web games in general yeah there are a ton of games that use big game engines like Godot, unity etc. You can find these kinds of games on portals like crazygames or Poki, but as for IO Games it’s not as common yet. Also if you want to spend the time learning how to use a proper game lib why would you focus it on web when there are much more profitable markets on mobile, console, or desktop.

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4

I usually prefer not to use bulky engines anyway. Unless I need specific features that are difficult to implement, I’m much happier and more productive writing my own systems than learning someone else’s.

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5

I couldn’t think of anything I really need in those frameworks. The client side is rather simple to implement in canvas or webgl, and the server side needs very specific and narrow optimizations that those engines will probably never have, at least for my type of game.

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