Terraria devs donate $200k to open-source engines after Unity snafu

Unity may be facing criticism from a wide range of people for a recent policy change. But things look better than ever for two other open-source engines.

The developers met on Tuesday to discuss the development of TerrariaTheir team announced their intention to donate $200,000.00 to two open source game engines, Godot and FNA. The announcement is similar to one that was made by Unity on September 12 regarding its new pricing policy, which sparked a backlash from developers.

“We unequivocally condemn and reject the recent TOS/fee changes proposed by Unity and the underhanded way they were rolled out,” Terraria Re:Logic, a developer from Re:Logic Inc. said on Wednesday via X. “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.”

Unity is used by both AAA studios and independent studios. Popular games like Pokémon Go, Hollow Knight, RustThen, HearthstoneUnity, along with countless others is widely used. On Sept. 12, the company announced a pricing policy change that would tie fees to game installs and to instances of the Unity Runtime code booted up on a player’s device. The developers would pay royalty rates based on revenue, as with Unreal Engine. Re:Logic was among the game developers who condemned this change. Terraria doesn’t run on Unity except for a few elements on mobile and console platforms.

Unity announced that it would change its new pricing policy. The company has not announced details on a new pricing plan, but said on Monday that it would release details in a “couple of days.” For many developers, though, the damage has been done.

Re:Logic took the opportunity to voice the need for more accessible game engines: “We do not feel that a simple public statement is sufficient. Unity’s policies and statements can be retracted, but the damage to trust will not easily be repaired. We strongly feel that it is now equally important to get behind some of the other up-and-coming open source game engines.”

Re:Logic donated $100,000 to both engines. FNA is a game-engine that repurposes Microsoft XNA Game Studio 4.0 refresh libraries. Another open source engine called Godot will also receive $100,000. The studio will also donate $1,000 per month for the next year to support each studio’s ongoing efforts.