How and when did you decide to choose Unreal Engine for the project?Lead Programmer Michael Hengstmann:

The first “proof of gameplay” (way before it became a prototype) was made in Unity simply because the team had a lot of experience with it. We heard more and more positive things about Unreal Engine, and since Michael already had a solid background in C++ and Unreal Engine, we agreed to try it.

Initially, we had some concerns, as UE is not well-known for strategy games. Therefore, we set a timeframe to determine which engine we want to go with. Quite early, we realized that Unreal Engine would not only work out fine for Let Them Trade but also has great advantages compared to others. You can tell that the engine developers themselves use it for game development. A significant advantage is that Unreal offers many integrated tools and that we don’t have to use too many third-party assets. This allows us to focus more on the actual game development rather than tooling. Lastly, having access to the entire engine source code is a big plus for us and has helped us to implement many unique mechanics.

The engine’s tools and features have already saved us more time than the conversion and familiarization with it cost us.

What’s your take on Unreal Engine 5’s latest updates?

Michael Hengstmann: Upon trying UE5 for the first time, the artists instantly fell in love with Lumen and Nanite. Not only do the new features enable us to set up fantastic visuals, but as mentioned above, they allow us to focus on the actual artistic work. On the coding side, there are very useful features like One File per Actor for better management of version control or the Wavefunction Collapse algorithm for map generation. As for the latest updates, each update brings enhancements and even new features, so once the notification “Update Available” pops up, we update and enjoy not having to worry about everything breaking, as it sometimes tends to happen in other engines. Now and then, we take a peek into the near future by checking out the latest version of the engine source and building it to try it out and see what’s coming.

Source: Unreal Engine Blog