Hey Tim,

So I really feel this question. I'm a father going through a divorce with a full-time stressful job. I decided to grab a udemy course when they were on sale and try my hand at unity. The reason I chose unity is well because it just works and it works on everything. Other than Unreal it is the next biggest game engine I know of. I've tried game maker and it just didn't feel right to me and it doesn't help I'm only learning there coding language and can't transition to other things. That said it forces me to learn c# which I've always wanted to learn so it goes hand in hand.

As a personal note I allot myself time after everyone goes to sleep to run through at least one lesson so I make a little bit of process every day. I'd love to do more but I make time usually 10-15 minutes to work towards learning how to develop my game. It also helps that I see it as a reward for making it through a long hectic day.

Best of luck from one stressed dad to another.

TimCS said:
wondered if you had also tried godot as its gdscript is meant to be close to Python which is a language I am trying to get into.

Hmm… You do say that you're looking for non-coding engines, but if I nevertheless may, given that you have an interest in Python, have you looked at Panda3D?

Now, it is a coding-focussed engine: there are few visual tools available for it. (Although there are some community-made ones that may be of aid.)

Still, it has Python as its primary dev-language. (Although the engine itself is written primarily in C++, I believe--and indeed, one can use the engine with C++, I believe.)

If you want an idea of how a simple game might be made in the engine, I have a “beginner's tutorial” available here that may prove illustrative: Home | Panda3D Beginner’s Tutorial

I'm guessing that it is likely too coding-focussed for your situation--but still, it seemed worth mentioning just in case.

@TimCS I’ve never tried Godot. Its up to you though My goal is to make my game available on as many platforms as I can and I know unity has that ability and I think it is on the easier side to do it. I could be wrong though. There are also tons of tutorials online for unity so that helps. One big thing I’m finding is how easy it is to make a script and apply it to game objects. I just right click new c script and visual studio opens I code and go back to unity and click and drag it on my game object Within unity. I dare quote geico it’s so easy a caveman could do it.