Unity 3D Is Free, But Is That Enough?
The biggest game development news of the past few days broke at the Unite Conference, a gathering of Unity 3D devs and hopefuls held in San Franciscy this week. The core engine, which previously cost $200, is now FREE. Video Game sexual positions journal Gamasutra dished the news in their article In-Depth: Unity Launches Free Option, Announces Xbox 360 Support.
It’s true: if you go to the Unity 3D site RIGHT NOW, hit their store and ask them if you can pay them any dollars for a copy of Unity, they will say “No, [sir or madam]. Your money is no good here. Please have a copy of our software for FREE.”
Know what else is free? Tibet, apparently.
No Such Thing as a Free Lunch (or Game Engine)
Of course, to a skeptic like me, nothing is free, and this offer is no different. A free copy of Unity comes with a few stipulations:
- the extensions that enable you to target the Wii and the iPhone platforms will still cost you – so contrary to what other sites are reporting, you CANNOT deploy to the Wii, WiiWare or the iPhone with your free copy of Unity.
- All of the fanciest features are reserved, of course, for the Pro license, which will still run you $1500 American clams.
- Something about your first-born. i dunno. i didn’t read the fine print.
Sorry, Semiazas. Where do i sign?
No Contest
As you know, we bent over backwards trying to win a copy of Unity Indie that the Unity 3D people likely knew damn well was going to become free in the next month. But we did also win a copy of Unity iPhone Basic (a retail value of $399.00). i’m just kinda glad that i didn’t shell out for that extra copy of each for our game developer Jeff (who, as an aside, has LASER HEAT VISION.)
This is, i believe, a very smart move for the Unity folks. The move to free will hopefully have the impact that Unity is gunning for: a slew of developers trying out the engine now that there’s essentially no barrier to entry. And, like Flash in its heyday, to use Unity is to love it. The tool feels instantly friendly, powerful and full of the promise of making that game you always dreamed of – in all three dees, no less, which for some of us two-dee guys is a bit of a thrill.
Can’t I just warm up with two-point-five dees?
Shameless Plugin
But as Unity removes one barrier, a much larger one remains: the plugin problem. In order to play Unity 3D games in your browser, you have to install the Unity plugin. The Unity Web Player weighs in at a very reasonable 3.09 MB, which is not quite twice the size of the Flash Player. The difference between the two is that while Unity is specifically a game engine, Flash content can pull off all kinds of neat tricks. People use Flash to create games, web applications, forms, quizzes, entire websites, website elements like navigation bars, ad banners, and, of course, video players.
Flash’s commitment to video at around version 6 or 7 was where the Flash Player penetration really started to take off, with megasites like YouTube requiring an upgrade with each new version of the Flash player. Until then, it was always a head-scratcher trying to figure out when to target the new player.
Me: Wow! Thanks to some new features, Flash 8 is going to save me weeks and weeks of work on this new game. Can i target Flash Player 8?
My Former Employers: What’s the penetration rate?
Me: 78%.
My Former Employers: Well, that’s a little low …
Me: Seventy-eight percent is a little low? Three quarters of the civilized world has this software installed on their computers.
My Former Employers: Yes, but one quarter does not.
Me: And the people who don’t are either old or retarded.
My Former Employers: Go to your room.
Me: I hate this place! I hate you and your STUPID FACE! You’re not the BOSS of me!
My Former Employers: Er, actually …
Me: SHUT UP!! [tantrum]
Mommy! Somebody’s failing to realize that i’m always right!
That Special Something
Unity faces an uphill battle with its web player penetration. The engine is not nearly as versatile or as accessible as its two-dimensional cousin, and Unity has yet to discover that magic bullet that will make the Web Player a must-have for Joe Public. i don’t think 3D graphics in the browser are enough to compel the average mope to sit through the one-and-a-half-minute plugin download.
So the question becomes “What is Unity’s Silver Bullet?” For Flash, it was video. Macromedia searched far and wide for the video technology that would enable them to play movies snappily, and eventually settled on the on2 Video Codec. That was a game-changer for the technology.
For Unity 3D, perhaps it will be a killer app like Facebook that drives people to install the plugin? Or perhaps some sneaky egghead will cook up a neat tech voodoo trick to make the Flash Player install the Unity Web Player? Who KNOWS what the future holds? (Sandwiches that you can eat straight through your belly-button, i hope.)
Further Reading
If the move to free has pushed you over the edge and you’re curious to learn more about the platform, remember that the first Toronto and Montreal Unity Users Groups kick off this month.
And keep your eye on our Unity Nuub feature, wherein i try to add an extra dee to my technological toolbelt, and document the road blocks i encounter along the way.
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That’s a very good reading!! As a game developer student, I’m very excited with this, because it’ll be my first contact with a good game engine, and for free!! =)
Ryan – I pretty much agree with what you’ve said here and I doubt we’ll ever see a 99.7% penetration rate for any Unity plugin, but I think a better comparison might be Director/Shockwave to Unity. For the most part, Unity isn’t a Flash replacement or substitute in my eyes and I’d be surprised if the people at Unity are looking to go that route; ask the Silverlight folks how things are going.
Stuart – agreed. It’s a bit of an apples to oranges comparison … or maybe an oranges to tangerines comparison at best. We make games using Flash, so i have a tendency to think of Flash as a game engine. It’s natural to me to compare it with other web-enabled game engines. Shockwave player penetration hits about 50% in what Adobe calls “mature markets”. i think it’d be great for the Unity Web Player to enjoy that kind of success.
Although I am backing the Adobe horse because I prefer 2D games to 3D, I know that Adobe is feeling the squeeze in the video market from Silverlight. Netflix is built on the Silverlight engine rather than on Flash, so Adobe took a major hit there.
I figured that Adobe is moving into the gaming market with Flash and is facing competition with Unity. So perhaps Adobe will expand with better 2D animation capabilities.
I’m so sold on time-line based programming because it makes it so much easier to animate things.
Paolo – the Flash team has never made game developers a priority with their product development. i don’t think they’re “moving into gaming” – people have been creating games with Flash for close to fifteen years. But that’s not what it’s for. They’ve also been creating teevee shows with Flash. But that’s not what it’s for either (although Flash/Futuresplash began life as a handy animation tool).
There’s a lot more Adobe could do to make Flash a better product for making games, or for enabling high-end animation production, but that’s never been their focus. It’s almost as if games and teevee shows have been a happy accident – a welcomed by-product of the software. No – Macromedia and Adobe have long targeted the application development crowd with the Flash platform. It’s been evident since version 5 that those are the only folks the Flash team really gives a damn about. Oh well. At their peril. That’s the kind of thing that enables competitors like ToonBoom and Push Button Engine to come in and eat their lunch.
I downloaded Unity yesterday, and so far I love it! However, what I’m not sure about is which language to code it in?
Brennon,
You have two options really for coding in Unity, Javascript or C#. If you are comfortable with it I would recommend using C# over Javascript.
Ryan, good article, we have been having similar discussions with a client for whom we are building a slate of Unity powered games. They were concerned about penetration and size (that’s what she said). In the end thankfully they simply decided to just take a chance. The engine allows us developers another option, we have been stuck for better or worse with Flash for years and more tools are always welcome.
I think the free option allows more developers to get it to try it out. As more developers like Brennon Williams are able to get Unity for free or Flash for a grand they will make more Unity games. It will take some time, but eventually a cool game will be built using it or maybe Facebook integrates with it then people like my mom will download the plugin. Youtube showed us that one popular site can strongly increase penetration. I think Tom and the folks at Unity are really just increasing their odds by increasing the content.
I’m very happy about it being free and although we will continue to pay for the pro version it also grows the pool of talent we can hire from.
Jean-Guy – exactly. i was just speaking with a Unity developer last week, who said somewhat glumly “well, we’re running the Pro license, so it doesn’t help us much.” It was lost on him that now there would be far more devs out there who knew Unity, making for a much better hiring environment.
Wow, on my mac Unity can’t download .max or .ma files! Is there a way around this (ie change file type)?
Brennon – it’s been a LONG while since i’ve done 3D work, but did you try .dxf of .xbf?
Brennon – FBX is a widely used format. Maya, Modo, Lightwave and Max can all export to it.
Brennon – In order to use native 3d files (.max / .ma) you actually need to have the program (3dsmax / maya) installed. Unity actually researches behind the scenes and uses the .FBX exporter .dll of that program to export the native file behind the scenes and then uses the .FBX in the library.
JG – Well said.
I think this is the best news I’ve heard in a long time concerning progression in the industry. I think the guys over at Unity just shot a load of lighter fluid into the grill that is the Indie Dev community.
“…perhaps some sneaky egghead will cook up a neat tech voodoo trick to make the Flash Player install the Unity Web Player?”
Hehe, yeah let’s have faith in the sneaky eggheads. ^^
Eggheads are the reason i enjoy flush toilets, lightbulbs, and LED belt buckles that flash my name. Don’t knock them! (Just don’t ask them to teach you anything, cuz yikes)