After several months spent on learning Unity on making 2D mobile games, here are my thoughts on the matter:
1) Don’t get me wrong, Unity is a great game engine, probably the best I’ve worked so far, but I think for 2D and especially the type of games that I’m intend to make, it’s bloated. I’ve accessed best 2D tools for it and even with those, you feel like that it’s not intended to do 2D with and it’s like you are always trying to make it work 2D for you while it was made for making 3D in mind. This makes you not only do not use some of it’s great tools, but you have to carefully make sure those tools do not get in you way of making 2D. I’ve seen several good 2D games made with Unity and if I may consider it again but I feel it’s not for the type of games I want to make.
2) Artist-wise: You have to teach your pipeline to your artist(s) in order for them to be able to import their art and each iteration is lengthier because it has to go through all that 3D pipeline that Unity has. I prefer a simple file replacement method for small games that I tend to make. I don’t feel good, and safe, to have all my game some texture on a plane.
3) License-wise: I have basic mobile license for Unity and even with paid license, I don’t get support for some basic stuff that I feel is not available to me to force me to go for “pro”. For example when I paid for a license, why can’t I remove Unity’s splash screen?! I have to pay $3000+ for such feature. Striping unused stuff is another thing. If you pay for a “pro” license, you get to decrease file size by removing components that you do not use! Why it’s a “pro” feature?!
It’s just plain annoying and bad PR, IMHO. And you have lots of things that you are paying for that you will not use.
4) Because it was made with 3D in mind, most of the common problems/solutions in other 2D engines are available to you in 3D. It “may” sound good to you if you are not experienced enough but an experienced developer knows it’s just more problems to you.
Even though learning Unity was a joyful journey, and I’m truly happy that I’ve learned it, I’m thinking about 2D specific options here.