Video Game Design/Developers

I know a fair few of us use Unity, which if you haven't heard is having a bit of a moment.

If you aren't using unity, what are you using?

If you are, how concerned are you about the recent changes?

I use unity in my capstone course and I am a little concerned truth be told. None of these things are going to directly affect my courses or students, but I am worried about Unity suddenly and violently losing ground in the industry, making what my students learn less relevant. It could also affect opportunities for my students in terms of mentorship, internships and resources if people leave in droves.

I have peeked around and Godot and Unreal in the last few years. Unreal is getting closer, but biggest thing it is missing is something like the Create with Code Course. It is just so good at what it does, even if it is rapidly becoming more dated as time passes.

More over, the whole way this is going down makes me fairly anxious about the future of Unity's educational offerings and potential strings that could become attached to them.

Yeah I was talking to a person from Epic earlier this year. That was a biggest thing I relayed to him is that Unity's biggest edge is the depth and breadth of materials, both official and third-party. My students can basically always find what they need when working in Unity and I am a little concerned that Unreal just doesn't have that right now.

I don't have the same crunch on the tech side as I have had in the past, but yeah I was running Unity on some Laptops that basically were thrown away by my district with success. I don't think Unreal can do that.

I like what I see from Godot, but it's a similar issue in terms of resources.

The pricing doesn't affect student/educational licenses, but the whole thing really makes me question how long before someone sees revenue possibilities there as well.

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BrianBautistabbautista@rjuhsd.usCA
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No where close to industry, but I teach my VGD course with Python/PyGame. A very CS, 2-D graphics approach.

It's definitely concerning how Unity is doing everything in their power to destroy the goodwill they have built with their developers.  It feels to me that the company is doing anything they can to appease the calls of the shareholders/stakeholders that were for years keeping the company afloat.  I don't recall if it's even currently profitable but it was starting to turn the page, I believe.  We'll see how this all shakes out but currently I would definitely be on the lookout for alternatives to prepare.  I had one of my guest speakers sent a strong email essentially saying, "Hey just really reconsider working with Unity, and either pivoting to Godot their competitor, Epic."

Unity was built on the backs of indies and there is a bit of overreactions currently on their end but their truth is still true.  They weren't even considered or consulted about this as a potentiality but rather learning about it along with everyone else.

It feels that the whole install thing from the indie developers are being blown out of proportion.  Yes, will these companies that had an indie game go viral and sell well lose some of their profits?  Of course, but they also got to use a fairly robust professional tool to help support them in making the game and didn't really pay a significant cost to do so.  It seems they are upset over potential lost profits but I don't think many of these companies will go out of business because they're giving Unity a bit more of a cut in their profits.  If that is the case, they really should hire some financial managers to help them run their company.

I did the EPIC Accelerator course this past summer with Unreal and I was impressed with the tools they have that are worth teaching.   I haven't learned Godot yet but it was already head scratching for me to pivot to Unreal this past summer then come back to Unity/Construct.

(Edited) Reviewed it in more detail after misconstruing the Install Fee

Oh that fee is going to be ridiculous if it's a continuous fee every month after the threshold is hit.  Yeah, Indie developers are going to get eaten up month by month if their game doesn't keep selling to recoup the fee.  It essentially will remove long tails of revenue streams for smaller indie developers.

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Nate Walker k12teacher
Riverside CA
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Unity went on an acquisition spree since the IPO, so they have been running at a loss for a while.

I don't begrudge anyone getting paid, that's the society we live in, but this specific model and the manner in which they are going about it is absolutely idiotic. 

It is on par with Hasbro in terms of bad ideas to piss off the people that make you money.

I don't have the bandwidth to change this school year, but I am definitely going to kick the tires on Godot and Unreal (I have the computers for it). I wrote all of my curriculum to be platform agnostic for a reason.

Yeah, Godot just feels odd compared to Unreal.   Unreal is similar enough to Unity that I started getting comfortable quickly once I converted their "vocabulary".  Godot feels like a Blender hybridized game engine.  I don't know Blender well enough yet.

Unity will need to step something back or very articulated explain how it won't impact the indie developers that don't make millions.  They claim it will only affect 10% but I would assume somewhere between 80-90% of the other users are hobbyists, educators, and the like.

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Nate Walker k12teacher
Riverside CA
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Have to say, I am nervous. I built my entire curriculum on Unity...Looks like I might be building a new course all over again.

Anyone have good resources for Unreal? I have only dabbled a bit. I like GoDot and Yahaha mostly for the ease of use and likely for my SpEd kids.

Problem from Unity seems to be resolved but they went showed precisely how you can easily destroy any goodwill you have with communities rapidly.

Seriously, this was a Hasbro level misread on their community.