Unity Dev Kit

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by P3Z, Jul 23, 2009.

  1. P3Z

    P3Z Well-Known Member

    Jul 20, 2009
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    Slough, England
    Morning you highly talented Devs :)

    Yet again, I have another question to ask you all.

    Unity....
    Now, my understanding is that this is a good dev kit to use, and seems (from the reviews and website) to be fairly graphic based. However, how much coding is knowledge is required to actually make some kind of game/app?

    I've done some php/asp/javascript a long long time ago, and certainly not proficient in it. Could I / Would I be able to pick up and coding required, or is it possible to build a game on the graphical interface in a similar manner to using Hammer / UT Map Editor?

    Cheers.
    Matt
     
  2. Morti

    Morti Well-Known Member

    I would say that is enough knowledge to start with Unity. Unity is a mixture of graphical editing/wireing and coding. So I would recommand to go and use their trial version to test it out. :)
     
  3. P3Z

    P3Z Well-Known Member

    Jul 20, 2009
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    Slough, England
    What proportion is the coding? Is it imperative for any / all apps / games?
     
  4. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5 Well-Known Member

    Yes, Unity is mostly coding. The editor is primarily about linking elements together. You could use it to build levels, though my games tend to be mostly procedurally generated. It's high-level coding, since all the low-level OpenGL stuff and so on is handled for you, but you need to be able to code to get anything done.

    --Eric
     
  5. Adams Immersive

    Adams Immersive Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Dec 5, 2008
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    You will HAVE to learn some programming to use Unity. The graphical interface lets you position and connect objects and manage their properties, which is very important, but it doesn't create the game logic, controls, etc.--that's done via scripts (I use JavaScript) that you attach to things.

    But I'd say Unity is as good a way as any to LEARN programming :) So jump in! If you've done some before, that's a good start.

    I bought Unity because I was able to get my game running during the free trial period (actually, much quicker than that). I had done a lot of ActionScript, Lingo and PERL before that, but no C (of any flavor) and very little JavaScript. And I got into Unity just fine. That said, there's a lot of depth to learn over time.

    Programming is NEVER "simple," but Unity makes it simpler than you'd think. The main reason is the zillion commands it has that do everything under the sun so you don't have to. That means it takes very few lines of code to do some sophisticated things.

    Check out the Unity tutorials to get a feel for it.
     
  6. blt3d

    blt3d Well-Known Member

    Dec 22, 2008
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    President/Lead Designer
    Florida
    We use Unity3d exclusively for games. The engine is pretty solid. I've had experience with other engines (Torque, Unreal, Cocos2D), and for what it does, Unity is probably the best overall iPhone engine around.

    The editor can't be beat imo. The unity forum is great for newbies and pros alike. Obj-C is alil tough to pick up if you're just starting out, let alone Open GL. Learning UnityScript aka JavaScript is MUCH easier. The UnityRemote feature alone are worth the purchase :)

    It's not perfect, however. As of yet, there's no support for 3.0 features. The 1.1 update is supposedly around the corner that will fix many of the gripes others have mentioned, but no release date as been given. Whew:D hope all that helps!

    brandon

    [email protected]
     
  7. P3Z

    P3Z Well-Known Member

    Jul 20, 2009
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    Slough, England
    Eeeks ;)

    Well, does sound a little daunting. I've looking through the 4 step guides written by Dave Lancaster at UnityTutorials.com, and it doesn't look to horrific - although that's not exactly a game per say.

    I wanted to do a really simple remake of an old spectrum game. It's a simple platform game. the design and such I can make very easily in PS. It would be 2d as well - I assume this would make it a lot easier based on only using touch for left, right and jump/boost - and not adopting any geo-based controls or 3d...
     
  8. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5 Well-Known Member

    2D isn't any simpler than 3D in Unity; in fact it might be a little harder (since it's basically 3D with extra constraints), although 2D does simplify control methods, that's true.

    --Eric
     
  9. Thomas Lund

    Thomas Lund Well-Known Member

    Nov 17, 2008
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    IT consultant and game developer
    Sweden
    I can recommend that you download Unity as a trial and try to run through the 2d and 3d platform tutorial.

    Never mind that you will not be using the iPhone version. Its more or less the same, and you can use 99% of your code directly between the end platforms.

    So try out Unity, run through the tutorials, try to modify the game that comes out in the other end - and then decide if its something for you and your needs or not.

    /Thomas
     
  10. blt3d

    blt3d Well-Known Member

    Dec 22, 2008
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    President/Lead Designer
    Florida
    2D is definitely possible. Using Planes mapped with textures and Orthographic cameras are essentially 2D games. You can even use 3D models with a Z-Constrained camera for that cool 2.5D look that Rolando 2 uses. Personally, I like that flexibility alot more then a straight sprite-based engine.
     
  11. P3Z

    P3Z Well-Known Member

    Jul 20, 2009
    91
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    Slough, England
    ^^ You Sir, are so going to give me MSN and help me with this :D lol

    I'll download it next week and have a crack, see what happens.

    Do I need to connect it all through my physical iphone as an app etc, or can it be done virtually through some kind of interface / emulator?

    the other option, of course, is if I drew all the graphics, would someone be able to help me code it, and if so, what would the likely costs be?

    What if I gave them 50 or 60% of revenue from app store?
     
  12. Adams Immersive

    Adams Immersive Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Dec 5, 2008
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    Ohio
    The free Unity trial isn't the iPhone version, so you'll just playtest on your Mac. When/if you buy the full Unity and the optional Unity iPhone package, you'll have three ways to test:

    1. The simulator built into Unity itself. Just click Play. (Not that useful since computers have no tilt/touch input--but you could enable mouse control just for testing.)

    2. Unity comes with an iPhone "Unity Remote" app that connects to Unity. Hit Play and the game appears BOTH on the Mac screen AND on the iPhone, and responds to touch/tilt. No need to build or compile, so this is a really fast way to tweak and test. (The iPhone is really just receiving a video stream from the Mac, and sending input signals back, so it's not great visual quality. Useful even so.)

    3. Publish from Unity and it will automatically start Xcode, build the app and load it on your device for REAL live testing.

    The latter two methods require you to have the $99 Apple iPhone Developer Program membership, and authorize your phone with a "developer profile."

    (Re hiring programmers: I think you'll find that is not cheap. Programmers seem to be in a lot more demand than graphics or concepts, I fear.)
     
  13. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5 Well-Known Member

    You can request a trial of the iPhone version, but you have to be a registered developer first.

    --Eric
     
  14. Steve Oldmeadow

    May 22, 2009
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  15. schplurg

    schplurg Well-Known Member

    oops wrong Unity thread ...deleted...
     
  16. blt3d

    blt3d Well-Known Member

    Dec 22, 2008
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    President/Lead Designer
    Florida
    I don't think GameSalad has announced any information on their upcoming iPhone support other then "its coming soon". We're definitely interested in it thought, they have a pretty big following and the "no programming required" motto looks pretty interesting.
     
  17. Goody!

    Goody! Active Member

    Nov 11, 2009
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    Slave to passions
    SF Bay Area
    Sorry to revive an old thread but how did it go?

    I'm curious how far you've gotten with the Unity Script and your opinion? I've been working with it at, I think, the same starting level of proficiency for a couple of months now and I'm still struggling daily. But it's a good struggle. What doesn't over-struggle you makes you strugglier?!? :rolleyes:

    --Goody!
     
  18. Goody!

    It is a good struggle. I started about a year ago with no coding experience beyond scripting FileMakerPro, and I've released this week.

    I assume you've poked around on the Unity3d forum and the irc channel #unity3d?
     
  19. Goody!

    Goody! Active Member

    Nov 11, 2009
    34
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    Slave to passions
    SF Bay Area
    Congratulations! It's great you stuck it out! How's it's reception been?

    Yup, I am constantly prowling the boards. I haven't tried the irc yet but now you've reminded me of it I'm going to give it a shot. One unfortunate thing is that the response I've been getting to my TOTAL NOOB questions has been a little light. :( It makes development much slower since Unitys scripting documentation is so poor.

    I'm a game designer by profession, if you can direct me to a lite ver. or provide a code I'd be happy to do a gameplay critique for you.

    --Goody!
     
  20. Thery

    Thery Well-Known Member

    Sep 29, 2009
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    Can you use unity on a pc ?

    If so won't it be possible to maker iPhone applications on a pc?
     

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