Patch Notes - November 2025

Cool things I see on the internet, gamedev news, cool projects, awesome games, tips and tricks.

News

s&box Game Engine Open-Sourced

The s&box Game Engine, based on Source 2 is now open sourced.

Unity to Godot exporter

The Unity to Godot Exporter is a powerful tool that can help you save time and effort when converting your Unity projects to Godot.

I haven’t tested it, so I don’t know how well it works. Keep in mind that a lot of things won’t be transferred. - cloth - particle emitters - fully custom shaders (surface shaders work) - ECS components - animations ( GLTFast doesn’t support animation export ) - UI elements

https://relativegames.gumroad.com/l/unitytogodot?a=290489843

Unreal Engine 5.7 Released

  • The release of Unreal Engine 5.7 is official (11 Nov 2025) it brings many new tools and improvements for rendering, worldbuilding, animation, and more.
  • Open-world & procedural content: The engine’s Procedural Content Generation framework (PCG) is now production-ready. There’s a new PCG Editor Mode: you can draw splines, paint points or create volumes, all controllable via graphs even without coding. PCG GPU compute got faster, and you can now define GPU parameter overrides.
  • Vegetation & environment realism: A brand-new, experimental Nanite Foliage system enables rendering of dense, highly detailed foliage (trees, shrubs, grass, leaves) using voxel-based geometry allowing massive, realistic natural environments, with millions of small elements, efficient performance, and dynamic effects (e.g. wind).
  • Materials & rendering upgrade: The Substrate material system is now production-ready: it allows creation of complex, layered/blended materials (e.g. combining metal, skin, cloth, coatings) with physically accurate shading useful for realistic surfaces such as car paint, skin, cloth, etc.
  • Lighting improvements: The MegaLights lighting system advances to Beta letting creators use many more dynamic, shadow-casting lights (directional lights, area lights, translucency, shadowed particles, etc.) while keeping performance and giving more artistic freedom in lighting scenes.
  • Enhanced animation & rigging workflows: The update brings major improvements to animation tools: a refined Animation Mode UI, better IK retargeting, improved Skeletal Editor, support for sculpting blend-shapes and weights, and more efficient rigging/animation workflows (easier to edit, retarget, and manage rigs/characters).
  • Better integration for characters & MetaHumans: The plugin for MetaHuman Creator now works on Linux and macOS (not just Windows), and many character-asset workflows can be automated via scripting (Python or Blueprints). Facial capture workflows (e.g. via external cameras on iPad/Android) are improved. Hair-styling and strand-guides got more control.
  • Virtual production & real-time compositing enhancements: New tools help in mocap/virtual production e.g. dynamic constraints for props (so props follow hand motion realistically), a new “Live Link Broadcast Component” to stream animation data across machines, and updated compositing tools (real-time mixing of video + CG with better shadows and reflections).
  • Editor usability & help: A new in-editor AI Assistant is introduced you can ask it questions, generate C++ code, get step-by-step guidance straight in the Editor (via F1 or panel). The Editor Home Panel is improved: easier access to documentation, tutorials, recent projects, and a “Getting Started” sample.

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/news/unreal-engine-5-7-is-now-available

Unity Announce Price Increases

Unity has announced changes to its pricing. Press release:

We will be making adjustments to Unity pricing and packaging in line with last year’s commitment to predictable, annual price adjustments. Unity Pro and Enterprise will see a 5% price increase, starting January 12th, 2026. Unity Pro, Enterprise, and Industry plans on 6.3 LTS will no longer include Havok Physics for Unity. Later in 2026, all plans will gain expanded free access to Unity DevOps functionality.

Key facts:

  • Unity Pro and Enterprise: If you’re an existing subscriber, your price will update at your next renewal on or after Jan 12, 2026. Final amounts may vary by region due to local taxes, currency, and rounding, and will be shown at checkout or in your quote._
  • Unity DevOps: Coming in Q1 of 2026, we’ll be removing seat charges for Unity Version Control hosted in our public cloud. We’re expanding the free tier of cloud pay-as-you-go features to 25 GB of storage (up from 5 GB), adding 100 Mac build minutes for Unity Build Automation, and 100 GB of free egress.
  • Havok Physics for Unity: Starting with Unity 6.3, Havok Physics will no longer be included with Pro, Enterprise, or Industry. Havok Physics for Unity remains supported for the remainder of Unity 2022 LTS and Unity 6.0 LTS.

Games I’ve played

Dispatch

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2592160/Dispatch/

The game is okay overall. I really liked the story and the acting, but the gameplay aspect was frustrating. It felt like it was forced in just so it wouldn’t be a movie. Personally, they could have easily left it out. It only got in the way and was annoying. I recommend it, but I’m not sure if it’s worth the full price.

Back to Hearth

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2642760/Back_to_Hearth/

A great game about rebuilding a village and learning the stories of people who had to flee. Short and simple, but it really hits home in today’s times, especially when you find out the developers are from Ukraine. I recommend it.

My work

I gave Void Clicker to a few industry friends to test. The feedback was mixed. The idea looks cool on paper, but it won’t click in-game, and I have no idea how to change it.

Because I enjoy prototyping, I had a few prototypes I haven’t written about here. I asked for feedback on the two I found most interesting, and the experience was much better. I’m wondering if I should focus on those for now and wait until Void Clicker matures in my head.

And that’s it for this month!