Kenshi 2 - Development News

The latest development update for Kenshi 2 talks about a switch to unreal engine.

Kenshi/Kenshi 2 Development News

Directly from Chris Hunt, Lo-Fi Games CEO and the man behind Kenshi:

"Good news everyone! There has been a change of plans with development, and we have switched to the Unreal engine!

Now, what does that mean?

GOOD SIDE:

• Amazing graphics with little effort
• Better performance
• Less work for us long-term, as we don't have to worry about engine bugs and features. We can focus more on gameplay.
• Fancy features, like maybe cloth physics for example
• Better stability probably?
• New pathfinding system

BAD SIDE:

• More work for us short-term, porting is a huge job
• We have less control over the engine
• Modding support will be more complicated, Unreal is a difficult engine to work with and has limitations in this respect. I don't know the engine well enough to say how exactly. The likely scenario is "more powerful but more difficult". The FCS will remain the same, but will control less stuff. Mod support will be a high priority for us though, so don't worry.
• Kenshi 1 update now uncertain:
  Here's the kicker: Porting Kenshi 1 to Unreal engine is now way more work than making Kenshi 2, because we have to port assets and make the old stuff work, where for Kenshi 2 we are making the assets from scratch in the Unreal-compatible way. We have started porting Kenshi 1, but I'm not sure whether to finish it because it is a lot of extra work and will delay Kenshi 2

So I'd like some feedback from people. Personally I feel like it would be better to focus on Kenshi 2, which will have exciting new features, new content and world to explore and mechanics to play with, rather than remaking kenshi 1, which would be essentially the same game."

To get some more definitive feedback we've also put up a poll here: https://www.strawpoll.me/18697532

P.S. This does not mean Epic Exclusive, it's just a game engine choice. Don't panic.

More information.

If they're not going to add more content to Kenshi 1 anyway, then just stick to bugfixes. It doesn't make much sense to upgrade the engine.

Kenshi 2. without a doubt.

I wluld also focus on Kenshi 2. The thing the game probably needs most is the new engine.

I'm incredibly hyped (even though it's a bit early tbh) for Kenshi 2. The first one is great.

Originally Posted by wiretripped
If they're not going to add more content to Kenshi 1 anyway, then just stick to bugfixes. It doesn't make much sense to upgrade the engine.

Totally agree.

The first one took quite some time to get out in a full release, so I'm sure the second is still quite a ways off. Which reminds me, I really need to fire up the first one at some point this year.

Estimated release date = 2026

I'm interested in what makes a dev choose one engine over another. For examplke, why UE instead of Unity? I expect a game that goes for great graphics to go for UE and Kenshin doesn't seem like the type that really prioritizes that.