Creating iPhone Games with Unity?

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by Twiddle, Feb 12, 2010.

  1. Twiddle

    Twiddle Well-Known Member

    Dec 12, 2009
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    Hey, I was wondering what you developers that have used Unity before to develop games thought about it, apposed to iPhone SDK. I'm not sure if I'm willing to spend $500 to get a Mac Mini or not.

    Here is the site: www.unity3d.com
     
  2. mehware

    mehware Well-Known Member

    Nov 22, 2008
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    #2 mehware, Feb 12, 2010
    Last edited: Feb 12, 2010
    I use Unity in all my games. My most recent game is Lockdown (see thread) that was created in Unity.

    I would recommend playing with Unity 3D the free version before you decide to buy a mac mini and the iPhone Basic license. Play around with it, do some tutorials, you'll love it.

    http://unity3d.com/unity/download/

    Then when your ready its fairly easy to port your game to the iPhone Basic version of Unity.

    The Unity forums are very helpful, its a good community.

    EDIT: I forgot to mention you can download the iPhone trial for 30 days too once you have your mac!

    - Matt
    Mehware
     
  3. Twiddle

    Twiddle Well-Known Member

    Dec 12, 2009
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    Mehware, do I have to have a mac to publish my game? I'm a bit confused. I thought the iPhone SDK created the games, and Unity was an alternative, so I wouldn't need a Mac.
     
  4. Zincous

    Zincous Well-Known Member

    Dec 23, 2008
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    No, you need a mac to run Xcode (which makes the apps)

    Unity just puts the game you make into a format that Xcode can read.

    So either way you need a mac to make a game.
     
  5. Manojalpa

    Manojalpa Active Member

    Dec 5, 2009
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    We used Unity3D to create Tipoli and are incredibly happy with it. The only down side is that it's virtually impossible to create a game with unity that comes in under the 10 MB limit for their network downloads. But as mentioned, toy around with the free version and use some of the tutorials. Part of why it worked so well for us was because we had a relatively no0bish programmer and a lot of level design to do (which Unity does incredibly well).
     
  6. matt.johnson.mobile

    matt.johnson.mobile Well-Known Member

    Jun 6, 2009
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    I have used Unity for a couple of years for both desktop apps and iPhone apps. My most recent game, Doodle Bomb, is built in Unity and comes in @ 9.5 Mb with networking support for Flurry analytics. I highly recommend it for rapid development cycles.

    Matt

    http://bit.ly/doodlebomb
     
  7. mehware

    mehware Well-Known Member

    Nov 22, 2008
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    I don't know how you squeeze all that fun into 9.5 megs. Our latest game is 49.2 megs! We have a lot of content and knew we couldn't get under the 10 megs.

    I think Apple/AT&T needs to raise the limit to 50megs ;)

    Good luck with Doodle Bomb. Shows what Unity can do in 2D!

    - Matt
    mehware
     
  8. WellSpentYouth

    WellSpentYouth Well-Known Member

    Jan 11, 2009
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    Great job on getting it under 10MB! The current game, Empty City 3D (under review), is 12.3MB. I don't have Unity iPhone Pro though, so I don't have the advantage of the stripping assets feature.

    Sorry, but that rapid development sentence made me laugh, I spent 6 months on Empty City 3D :) That is a pretty long time for an iPhone game ;) A lot of that time adjusting over to Unity, so my future project will probably zoom right along.
     
  9. spacefrog

    spacefrog Active Member

    Oct 9, 2009
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    #9 spacefrog, Feb 14, 2010
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2010
    Yeah - it's still the assets making the gamesize grow over 10MB. And all those handdrawn doodles surely compress fairly well, even after Apples DRM treatmill. But i think it's a great thumbs up again for Unity, did'nt expect doodle bomb to be made in Unity. I think i grab doddle-bomb than, just to get another argument against the penny-pincher sitting in my brain, saying i should wait with the 2K purchase of my own personal copy of Unity iPhone. I allready developed 3 Games using Unity iPhone for the company i work for.....

    Unity is the closed thing in terms of serious Rapid Gamedev Environment you can get. Some kind of Delphi or C++Builder for Realtime/Game Development, even better...
     
  10. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5 Well-Known Member

    Apple only applies DRM to the executable itself, making it not compress much anymore after it's on the App Store. The rest of the assets are untouched, so they compress as well (or not as well, depending) as they do normally. Personally I'm not too concerned about the 10MB thing; I was quite happy with how Realmaze3D did at 14MB, thanks mostly to being featured by Touch Arcade and Apple, which beats being less than 10MB any day.

    --Eric
     
  11. matt.johnson.mobile

    matt.johnson.mobile Well-Known Member

    Jun 6, 2009
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    Agree with this... being under 10Mb is a +1, but it doesn't give you a pass to success.
     
  12. EssentialParadox

    EssentialParadox Well-Known Member

    Sep 21, 2009
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    Just out of curiosity, if a game is over 10MB does it still appear on the App store over the network?
     
  13. mobile1up

    mobile1up Well-Known Member

    Nov 6, 2008
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    an application i just finished for a client had to be over the air - and it ended up at 3.3mb :) we compressed everything we could; and there was also a lot of artwork to deal with. if you really want to support a version over the air - maybe consider a reduced; lite version which they can get; and buy a full version when they are looking for additional content - from the desktop computers.
     
  14. Twiddle

    Twiddle Well-Known Member

    Dec 12, 2009
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    #14 Twiddle, Feb 14, 2010
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2010
    I know I will have to learn Xcode, and also a little bit of Objective-C. But what about C++? And which language should I start learning first? If I learn C++ will that help me to learn Objective-C? Would it be easier to learn Objective-C first, or Xcode?

    Also, how well will I have to know each of these languages, from minimal, moderate, or advanced?
    ____________________
    Well, I see that Unity is a good program. I understand that a lot of the unity games have great graphics?

    I'm really just looking for a program that is friendly toward new users going into Xcode. I plan on making a roguelike with simple graphics. Are roguelikes that have randomly generated dungeons difficult to make for beginners? I don't want to give too much away, as this project is a while away from now, but the graphics are probably going to be 8 to 16 bit inspired, so I don't need any amazing software to handle my game. I plan on the game being under 10mb. Any suggestions on any other programs for creating this sort of game I'm looking for?

    I would love advice from people that have made dungeon crawlers and roguelikes.
     
  15. Twiddle

    Twiddle Well-Known Member

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    Sorry, double post for the lose. Would love it if an admin could trash this post.
     
  16. deeetour

    deeetour Well-Known Member

    Jan 15, 2010
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    #16 deeetour, Feb 15, 2010
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2010
    Yeah it does. When the user tries to download it they get a popup stating that they will need to download it over a network.
     
  17. EFC

    EFC Well-Known Member

    Jul 6, 2009
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    sounds like if you have no knowledge of code, it wont be quicker for you to do a c course...but as it sounds like the sort of game you want to make even though possible in unity, would be done more efficently and smaller ( if you knew what you were doing ) in objective c

    or try another bit of middleware like gamesalad thats more 2d focussed.

    i can recommend the mac mini, nice bit of kit, if youve £500 spare,
    though i dont use mine much anymore, as a non coder, i had to hire code.
    factor in my time and every time i make an app, i need to sell 5000 copies at 99c. just to break even. ($3500 costs)
    as i sold 60 of my first app. its cheaper for me not to make a game lol.

    learning how to code, would get my costs down. but itd take me a year or 2 to be able to do anything useful. ... how saturated will the app store be then.

    on the build size issue, in unity i slaved to get my build to 9mb, with a 25mb uncompressed app in xcode.
    when released it was 14mb. doh!
     
  18. Twiddle

    Twiddle Well-Known Member

    Dec 12, 2009
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    Can I create 3d sprites in gamesalad? The sort of game I'm thinking about creating will sort of be like minigore (environment-wise, anways), the character running around will be 3d, but the environment around him will pretty much be 2d. The environment *might* be 3d, but it depends how much work it would be etc, if it's possible to have both 2d and 3d, but I'm not sure.
     
  19. mehware

    mehware Well-Known Member

    Nov 22, 2008
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    Probably stated in another thread but Unity related. Apple raised the limit (for AT&T at least) to 20 megs downloading over the 3g network. Which means a lot of Unity made games will make the cut now. Its very exciting.

    Too bad Lockdown is 40+ megs.
     
  20. For me Unity 3d was the only real solution to get a quick game on the app store. With a few textures, sounds and a basic mesh we were able to get a Footy game under 20 Mb, brilliant.

    --Potts

    http://itunes.com/apps/footyflick
     

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