Indie and newly budding developers dream of making their first big game exactly how they picture it in their minds. These days, barriers have never been higher. Time, investment, and performance demands are enormous, even for mobile games. One of the most popular tools to handle those challenges is the Unity game engine. It’s not only for small-time devs, either. If you’ve playedgames like Call of DutyMobileor Pokémon Go, you’ve played a Unity game.
Unity provides a vast suite of toolsfor mobile game developers and others to create and manage all kinds of game apps people play on commonplatforms like Androidand iPhone. And that’s just the beginning. Let’s break down what this engine can do.
What is Unity?
Unity is a game engine based on Microsoft C# that supports the creation of 2D, 3D, and other types of games. Its tools are friendly for new users, making it one of the most popular game engines for first-time artists and at-home developers trying to make it big.
Unity apps see more than 4 billion downloads per month as of 2022, and the creators report that 70% of the top 1,000 mobile games are created with the game engine. That also leads to a lot of dollar signs when ads are included in a game. So far, Unity has created more than $1.1 billion in ad revenue from ads within its apps.
While Unity’s origins began on macOS, it has since moved to other platforms and supports game creation on desktop, mobile, console, virtual reality systems, and more. These days, it’s more than a visual and graphics tool.
How is Unity primarily used?
Unity’s versatile features can support anything from AR to detailed simulations for marketing. However, its primary focus is on mobile and, to a lesser extent, desktop gaming. The engine is large, with more than 17 platforms supporting various activities. It seeks to be a one-stop solution for gaming and digital experience management, whether you’re creating a 3D short film or monetizing an existing game with a healthy community base.
In recent years, Unity expanded its tools and marketing to focus on industries beyond games and films. It now offers creation tools for aerospace, automotive, and architecture engineers, among other uses.
Origins and creators
Unity is the creation of Unity Technologies (previously Over the Edge Entertainment), which launched the first version of the game engine in 2005. Its original goal was to open up game development to everyday developers within an Apple-friendly structure. The next several years proved crucial to the growth of the engine, with new versions coming in 2007, 2010, and 2012 that expanded the engine’s capabilities, usability, and support for other tools, including DirectX and Adobe Flash. By 2015, support for the Nintendo Switch had been added. By 2016, Facebook had created its gaming platform specifically for Unity.
In 2017, Unity changed from periodic yearly updates to a continuous update system, but new tools continued to flow in, expanding the engine’s capabilities. By 2022, it had a suite that could support VR projects, retail software, advanced 3D gaming, and more.
Major Unity features
As with any creation engine that’s been around for so long and gone through so much growth, there’s a lot to Unity. Basic game creations work via “Scenes,” in which developers place and arrange objects and then adjust their properties as needed. That can be relatively simple, like importing and using sprites in a 2D, or massively complex, like managing dynamic shadows in a 3D map. In most cases, users can use the engine’s built-in UI to control everything or dive into the scripting API and adjust values via code. And that’s only the beginning!
In addition to the core Unity Engine, there are other tools with specific uses. Some of the more important include:
There’s also an extensive asset store for Unity where you can buy a variety of visual, audio, tool add-ons, templates, AI tools (a burgeoning field), and more.
Can I start using Unity?
You can, but you’ll need to know the basics of visual development and game development. Even then, Unity’s tools can take a while to use effectively. Depending on how you like to work, there’s a ton to learn and many ways to approach a project.
Newcomers benefit most from starting with training. Unity offersgame design and development certification, which is a must-have for any professional game development. Other online “universities” and training centers offer courses for working with Unity, but we prefer education that comes directly from the engine. Several tiers of certification exist, from basic courses designed for high schoolers to expert courses made for years-long users trying to brush up their skills. Anyone can get started based on their experience level.
What does Unity cost to use?
This has become a fraught question! We’ll tackle it in two parts, first going over the traditional subscriptions and then talking about the big Unity price model news below. First, Unity offers several tiers, each designed for different types of users. If you’re interested in using the engine, you can find the right tier to begin:
Developers protested this new pricing model for several reasons, namely:
The situation quickly turned confusing and hostile. Developers of major indie hits like Cult of the Lamb announced they would delete their games in 2024 instead of paying the prices.Death threats were made. Unity leaderswere accused of selling off their stockdays before the announcement.
Ultimately, Unity appeared to be searching for ways to increase earnings after struggling to show revenue for several years. But this new pricing model has the potential to upend the platform or at least shift its focus from gaming. It’s an ongoing situation at this time, one that will affect the future of the engine.
Final words on Unity
Unity is a game engine that can do a little of everything but specializes in mobile game development. It’s a great entrance point for beginners working on mobile and VR, although they’ll need some training. It’s also used by some of the top studios in the industry, at least for now.
Still, Unity is a lot to learn for those who don’t have much time for training, and its current pricing decisions are raising difficult questions. Google’sAndroid Game Development Kit and associated toolsmay be an easier place to start for casual development, or people may enjoydoodling in Chimera Painterbefore getting serious about their ideas.
