About Unity 3D first-hand. Interview
The other day, we talked to Oleg Pridyuk (Oleg Pridiuk), a technical evangelist from Unity Technologies . He told about who should work with Unity 3D , what are the advantages of this engine compared to others and how they manage not to spoil their karma.
This is not a translation or reprint.
What year was the company founded and where?
It all happened in Copenhagen. Figures: where, how, and by year, and by name, and by major Miles, you can see on the official website .
')
Probably, from the interesting moments it can be noted that the guys made the game (on the site they are three together in the photo). In fact, there were a little more. They made the game, and started writing their own engine. Then it was fashionable to write their engines, everyone did it then. And the guys realized that they like it more than the creation of the game itself. And they decided to focus on the technology itself.
How many developers are using Unity right now?
Watching how to count. Downloaded - more than a million. Regular users - more than 300,000.
How many games are made on Unity? Generally, for different platforms?
We do not spy on users :) Therefore, I do not know.
And according to your estimates?
That is, thousands or millions? I know for sure that much. This is really thousands of games. If only because we have a lot of users of free versions, where the threshold of entry is zero. Took, downloaded and did something. And posted on the site. And how, is it counted or not counted?
And how is the free version different from the paid one? Why not be free to use all the time?
Can.
And why then paid to buy? What does she give?
The paid version does not give, but takes 3,000 dollars from the developer (laughs).
And what does the developer get for this?
Chips are open. The first is the banal ability to disable our splash screen. And then go the developer subtleties, for which there is a very beautiful plate . The basic idea is that it is quite possible to use the base license - as long as you, for example, do not need to connect plugins.
That is, you can do something simple for novice developers on the free version, but if you want to study seriously and for a long time, you need a paid version. Right?
Well, it is very difficult. That is, in fact, the most serious limitation of the free version is that you can not use plugins. If you do not connect plug-ins, then everything basically works. Well, yes, there are no beautiful shadows there, there are not many high-end features. But everything works. Well, what is a simple game ...
iFart , for example :)
Well, iFart can be done with free and paid. I saw really cool games that are made on the free version of Unity. The free version is interesting, first of all, for indie teams. That is, when you don’t know if something will work out for you or not, you need a prototype to get money, right? Well, you sit down a team gathered from friends. In the free version version control is supported, that is, you can make one project with five of us, six of them, ten of them. Well, you sit, rivet this project on Saturdays, on Tuesdays, and so on. And when he finds some kind in which he can be shown to an investor, a rich neighbor, or someone else, then you show. Or you collect money and buy, say, the opportunity to release it on Android, iPhone or flash.
That is, you would be young developers who are just starting, Unity would recommend? Can they figure it out without any problems?
In general, practice shows that they are the easiest to deal with Unity, because they don’t need to learn the hardware features, platform features, they don’t need to think what Android version is supported and what is not supported; what to do if the screen resolution in one phone is one, and in the other - another. That is, many, many problems are solved by Unity. We have already done most of the hard work for the developers.
What is the advantage of Unity over other engines for developing mobile games? Let's compare you to Cocos 2D and Marmalade.
Our engine is not sharpened by one specific case, it is quite versatile - this time. And two - you see what you develop. The game is immediately visible in the window, there is an editor. This chip means a lot. It helps to work much faster. No need to imagine how it will all look, you do not need a device all the time.
Those. very good visibility, you can see what you do.
Well, as if in Visual Studio, you can also see what you are doing, because there are comfortable buttons and everything is done beautifully there. And then the end result is immediately visible. That is, not what you are doing, but the final result. And this is very important, because the game consists of many small pieces. And it's one thing to see what your little piece looks like, and another thing to see how the whole game looks like, including your little piece. And that's exactly what's important.
What else would you call offhand?
So everything else is also our advantage. Good team communication. No, I, of course, am joking, but ideally, the advantage depends, firstly, on the type of game you are doing, and secondly, on the platform, on what you want.
There is an opinion that Unity is too heavy an engine for two-dimensional games. Is it true or not?
Frankly speaking, Unity's problem is that in the standard delivery there is no 2D framework. This means that it does not help to easily make 2D games. It does not interfere, but does not help. In fact, for 2D-shnik now naked Unity is just a renderer, and sprites, other necessary engines for 2D you need to write yourself, look for someone else's free or buy.
About gravity. Naked Unity-player, that is, runtime, takes, depending on the settings, 5, 6, 7 MB of memory. Is it hard or not? I think the basic 2D games, if you write it, for example, on the native Android API, can be crammed into 2 MB. And we only have 7 MB runtime. But if we consider more complex games, then the “advantage” that Unity brings is less. But the most important thing is not this. The main value of Unity is that it saves time. That is, if the game is not made to become the smallest, to be the 2D-most, but there is a desire to quickly get the product so that it takes off in all the tops and become successful, then there is a desire to port it to other platforms - then Unity sense to use. And if you're interested in playing around, writing your renderer, suffering from platform bugs, working on one iPhone, not on another, one Android is buggy, crashing, something else, then please. And in Unity we are trying to solve everything on our part.
We work directly with platform manufacturers. At the same time, if we say that we have a partnership with Apple, this means that our developers work directly with their developers. Why is this beautiful? Faster communication is understandable. But most importantly, the right people hear the right questions and get the right answers. And we immediately solve the problem with the manufacturer of the future cool device. That is, we have the entrance to the right door to solve the necessary questions very quickly.
Recently passed information that Unity will support Wii U.
Moreover, Unity is the main game development environment for Wii U. And this tool will be distributed through the Nintendo channel.
How difficult / will it be for developers to port, for example, their existing mobile games made on Unity, on Wii U?
The Unity editor that can port to Wii U will be in a separate version. That is, let's say, in Unity Pro, the developer has a purchased iOS, he buys more Android. Immediately becomes the active button Deploy to Android - and all is well. In the version for the Wii U there will be only one Deploy to Wii U button. What does this mean? This means that it will be a separate editor, distributed, as I have said, by the Nintendo channel. He will open Unity projects. This means that it will be possible to open your project for iPhone or for Android in it and convert it to Wii U. And in the reverse order it is the same.
In general, will you support other consoles? Here, Ouya, you already support her, of course, and something else?
Ouya we support – now the guys are working with Union, our publishing department. When iron appears, we can talk about its software support. In the meantime, as we all know, the guys have a lot of money and smart ideas. And support ... This word means a lot. You can support morally, and you can physically.
In general, all is well. Does Unity have any disadvantages?
There is. Everything has flaws. Unity is not created by gods.
Well, the mystery of creating Unity!
(laugh)
Yes, Unity made a couple of smart guys, and then a couple added to them. And all of us, by the way, 203. This, taking into account all of our developers, sales managers, marketing specialists, etc. around the world, in all offices: in Seoul, and Shanghai, and Tokyo, and Seattle, and San Francisco, in Stockholm and Copenhagen. Only 203 people.
But we talked about flaws.
If you suddenly do not remember, I can tell you from Wikipedia.
Oh, by the way, let's read, I will comment with pleasure.
In Russian Wikipedia there is such a column: advantages / disadvantages. Two drawbacks, one of which is very funny. It is written that Unity does not support Symbian 3 and Windows Mobile. It seems that this is the worst flaw that can be.
Yes. But the problem is that we support.
Do you support? You see, but Wikipedia does not know.
Maybe Wikipedia did not read our announcements. The trick is that there were initiatives from Nokia (it was many, many years ago when Nokia was big) to support game projects, including Symbian Unity. And we had prototypes that worked, that is, it was possible to port there. And these were times when the iPhone was still small. But the problem is that there are a lot of people inside Nokia, and they could not agree among themselves. That is, they built this tower of Babel and constantly something they did not succeed. Therefore, for our part, we did not show a very strong interest, because we had an idea of ​​what was going on there.
But one of the initiatives Nokia still brought to the end. Through Union, you can save on their Meego.
Do you support Windows 8?
Both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8.
And who does you have in Russia?
Russia? This is also a very philosophical question. What does it mean to engage in Russia? To conquer is what it means: to conquer with sales, support, marketing, what? What to do? In Russia, developers and users are sitting, they want to make games, they are not different either from the Chinese, or from the Americans, or from anyone.
Maybe, by the way, are there any particular features of users?
I do not even know. I look at the schedule - Moscow is the seventh in the number of Unity users. In any case, in Moscow, we already have one percent of all users - on a global scale, this is a lot.
And Peter? In St. Petersburg do not use Unity?
And in St. Petersburg indie sit. So I recently told one large investor, who came with his millions, that everything is very cool in Petersburg. That in Moscow there are big offices, a lot of money, boring production, working conditions are such that for me, as a European person, they seem strange. And in St. Petersburg, people do their projects, do something cool, usually it is called the word "innovation." So, innovations are born in St. Petersburg. At least in terms of game development. And this is very close to me.
Do you help developers somehow? Can they count on your help and so on?
Yes.
That is, if the developer decides to use Unity, he writes to you, and you help him and answer all questions if something is not clear. Right?
Yes and no. There are expectations. If you expect someone to play the game for you after purchasing Unity, then it’s not. And if you think that something should work, but it does not work, then yes, of course we will answer, see what happened. In general, we have a huge popular forum, where hundreds of thousands of users, and they all communicate, help each other.
The community is like?
Right. The ecosystem around Unity, it is very strongly developed. And this is important for both small and large teams.
Here, probably, one of the cool chips is that we have an Asset Store, i.e. shop where you can buy various items for the game. This means that, let's say, there is an artist who receives conditionally 2-3 thousand dollars a month; one of his working days, let's say it costs $ 300. If he draws, for example, some kind of car model or something else half a day, then it will cost $ 150. And so, to buy a car, wood, a wardrobe, in the end, you can for 5-10 dollars in the store. How much money will you save? Lots of. Yes, this is the same tree, this same car may appear in another game, including among competitors, conditionally. But there are hundreds of assets in the game, hundreds of thousands of assets. If one tree matches or one kind of model, it is not scary.
Or scripts. It is clear that what you can buy, it most likely will not solve your problem, but even if it solves it by 30%, developers based on the finished script will write a solution that is 100% suitable for current tasks much faster. That is, you need not to write from scratch, some kind of complicated system, but to pay $ 50 and add, say, half or, even if 70%. But it is still incomparably faster. As a result, small money can speed up the development process and save.
Can you provide some marketing support for Unity projects?
We have a gallery where we post games, we have a mailing list where we boast about projects we liked, and if you ask us to promote a good project, we will promote, of course. Is free. There is Facebook, there is Twitter. And the most interesting thing, probably, is the Union. That is, these are guys who have a catalog of games; You can sign an agreement with them, and they will add your game to your catalog and, conditionally, will go and try to sell it to TV manufacturers, new platforms, including Ouya, which we already mentioned today, Blackberry, Nokia, in some Chinese app stores, where the threshold of entry is very complex.
But the publishing or PR of a game is not our main task. At the same time, it is clear that we communicate a lot with anyone, and Google asks us what game to play. And it is clear that we share our thoughts. But this consideration is not a marketing tool. So why does Google come to us? Because we honestly answer what games we like. They come and ask what is new, interesting. Well, this and this, they saw, played, will be released soon. Here is the contact of these guys. And you cannot order such a recommendation from us.
But it makes sense for us to write and tell about ourselves. This may be a letter to nowhere, because we, the truth, receive a lot of letters, and can shoot.
How do you plan to develop? Maybe you have any ambitious plans to seize the universe?
Yes, we are thinking of capturing the universe, why not! (laughs)
But there is no concrete plan yet?
In fact, there are key points where we are frankly weak now, and we solve them. One of them is 2D and GUI. And how we solve them, we have already shown. This is at the stage of almost finished prototype.
One of the main reasons, that is features, for what they love Unity is multiplatform. Add new platforms - yes, if they are good. If the Web GL standard appears and it fires, why not make Unity Web GL. And then suddenly all the games that you did on Unity, you can immediately port to Web GL. Or some new Ouya, let's say, shoot, but Unity has already made a port. That is, we want to help developers make more money without any huge effort on their part. If a new promising platform appears, it will not necessarily make a new game for it, it will be possible to easily port the existing one using Unity.
We try to be closer to the developers - listen to them, take into account their opinions. Even if it costs us money. Still, a huge community of people who trust us, all this unspoiled karma - much more important than anything else.
This is not a translation or reprint.
What year was the company founded and where?
It all happened in Copenhagen. Figures: where, how, and by year, and by name, and by major Miles, you can see on the official website .
')
Probably, from the interesting moments it can be noted that the guys made the game (on the site they are three together in the photo). In fact, there were a little more. They made the game, and started writing their own engine. Then it was fashionable to write their engines, everyone did it then. And the guys realized that they like it more than the creation of the game itself. And they decided to focus on the technology itself.
How many developers are using Unity right now?
Watching how to count. Downloaded - more than a million. Regular users - more than 300,000.
How many games are made on Unity? Generally, for different platforms?
We do not spy on users :) Therefore, I do not know.
And according to your estimates?
That is, thousands or millions? I know for sure that much. This is really thousands of games. If only because we have a lot of users of free versions, where the threshold of entry is zero. Took, downloaded and did something. And posted on the site. And how, is it counted or not counted?
And how is the free version different from the paid one? Why not be free to use all the time?
Can.
And why then paid to buy? What does she give?
The paid version does not give, but takes 3,000 dollars from the developer (laughs).
And what does the developer get for this?
Chips are open. The first is the banal ability to disable our splash screen. And then go the developer subtleties, for which there is a very beautiful plate . The basic idea is that it is quite possible to use the base license - as long as you, for example, do not need to connect plugins.
That is, you can do something simple for novice developers on the free version, but if you want to study seriously and for a long time, you need a paid version. Right?
Well, it is very difficult. That is, in fact, the most serious limitation of the free version is that you can not use plugins. If you do not connect plug-ins, then everything basically works. Well, yes, there are no beautiful shadows there, there are not many high-end features. But everything works. Well, what is a simple game ...
iFart , for example :)
Well, iFart can be done with free and paid. I saw really cool games that are made on the free version of Unity. The free version is interesting, first of all, for indie teams. That is, when you don’t know if something will work out for you or not, you need a prototype to get money, right? Well, you sit down a team gathered from friends. In the free version version control is supported, that is, you can make one project with five of us, six of them, ten of them. Well, you sit, rivet this project on Saturdays, on Tuesdays, and so on. And when he finds some kind in which he can be shown to an investor, a rich neighbor, or someone else, then you show. Or you collect money and buy, say, the opportunity to release it on Android, iPhone or flash.
That is, you would be young developers who are just starting, Unity would recommend? Can they figure it out without any problems?
In general, practice shows that they are the easiest to deal with Unity, because they don’t need to learn the hardware features, platform features, they don’t need to think what Android version is supported and what is not supported; what to do if the screen resolution in one phone is one, and in the other - another. That is, many, many problems are solved by Unity. We have already done most of the hard work for the developers.
What is the advantage of Unity over other engines for developing mobile games? Let's compare you to Cocos 2D and Marmalade.
Our engine is not sharpened by one specific case, it is quite versatile - this time. And two - you see what you develop. The game is immediately visible in the window, there is an editor. This chip means a lot. It helps to work much faster. No need to imagine how it will all look, you do not need a device all the time.
Those. very good visibility, you can see what you do.
Well, as if in Visual Studio, you can also see what you are doing, because there are comfortable buttons and everything is done beautifully there. And then the end result is immediately visible. That is, not what you are doing, but the final result. And this is very important, because the game consists of many small pieces. And it's one thing to see what your little piece looks like, and another thing to see how the whole game looks like, including your little piece. And that's exactly what's important.
What else would you call offhand?
So everything else is also our advantage. Good team communication. No, I, of course, am joking, but ideally, the advantage depends, firstly, on the type of game you are doing, and secondly, on the platform, on what you want.
There is an opinion that Unity is too heavy an engine for two-dimensional games. Is it true or not?
Frankly speaking, Unity's problem is that in the standard delivery there is no 2D framework. This means that it does not help to easily make 2D games. It does not interfere, but does not help. In fact, for 2D-shnik now naked Unity is just a renderer, and sprites, other necessary engines for 2D you need to write yourself, look for someone else's free or buy.
About gravity. Naked Unity-player, that is, runtime, takes, depending on the settings, 5, 6, 7 MB of memory. Is it hard or not? I think the basic 2D games, if you write it, for example, on the native Android API, can be crammed into 2 MB. And we only have 7 MB runtime. But if we consider more complex games, then the “advantage” that Unity brings is less. But the most important thing is not this. The main value of Unity is that it saves time. That is, if the game is not made to become the smallest, to be the 2D-most, but there is a desire to quickly get the product so that it takes off in all the tops and become successful, then there is a desire to port it to other platforms - then Unity sense to use. And if you're interested in playing around, writing your renderer, suffering from platform bugs, working on one iPhone, not on another, one Android is buggy, crashing, something else, then please. And in Unity we are trying to solve everything on our part.
We work directly with platform manufacturers. At the same time, if we say that we have a partnership with Apple, this means that our developers work directly with their developers. Why is this beautiful? Faster communication is understandable. But most importantly, the right people hear the right questions and get the right answers. And we immediately solve the problem with the manufacturer of the future cool device. That is, we have the entrance to the right door to solve the necessary questions very quickly.
Recently passed information that Unity will support Wii U.
Moreover, Unity is the main game development environment for Wii U. And this tool will be distributed through the Nintendo channel.
How difficult / will it be for developers to port, for example, their existing mobile games made on Unity, on Wii U?
The Unity editor that can port to Wii U will be in a separate version. That is, let's say, in Unity Pro, the developer has a purchased iOS, he buys more Android. Immediately becomes the active button Deploy to Android - and all is well. In the version for the Wii U there will be only one Deploy to Wii U button. What does this mean? This means that it will be a separate editor, distributed, as I have said, by the Nintendo channel. He will open Unity projects. This means that it will be possible to open your project for iPhone or for Android in it and convert it to Wii U. And in the reverse order it is the same.
In general, will you support other consoles? Here, Ouya, you already support her, of course, and something else?
Ouya we support – now the guys are working with Union, our publishing department. When iron appears, we can talk about its software support. In the meantime, as we all know, the guys have a lot of money and smart ideas. And support ... This word means a lot. You can support morally, and you can physically.
In general, all is well. Does Unity have any disadvantages?
There is. Everything has flaws. Unity is not created by gods.
Well, the mystery of creating Unity!
(laugh)
Yes, Unity made a couple of smart guys, and then a couple added to them. And all of us, by the way, 203. This, taking into account all of our developers, sales managers, marketing specialists, etc. around the world, in all offices: in Seoul, and Shanghai, and Tokyo, and Seattle, and San Francisco, in Stockholm and Copenhagen. Only 203 people.
But we talked about flaws.
If you suddenly do not remember, I can tell you from Wikipedia.
Oh, by the way, let's read, I will comment with pleasure.
In Russian Wikipedia there is such a column: advantages / disadvantages. Two drawbacks, one of which is very funny. It is written that Unity does not support Symbian 3 and Windows Mobile. It seems that this is the worst flaw that can be.
Yes. But the problem is that we support.
Do you support? You see, but Wikipedia does not know.
Maybe Wikipedia did not read our announcements. The trick is that there were initiatives from Nokia (it was many, many years ago when Nokia was big) to support game projects, including Symbian Unity. And we had prototypes that worked, that is, it was possible to port there. And these were times when the iPhone was still small. But the problem is that there are a lot of people inside Nokia, and they could not agree among themselves. That is, they built this tower of Babel and constantly something they did not succeed. Therefore, for our part, we did not show a very strong interest, because we had an idea of ​​what was going on there.
But one of the initiatives Nokia still brought to the end. Through Union, you can save on their Meego.
Do you support Windows 8?
Both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8.
And who does you have in Russia?
Russia? This is also a very philosophical question. What does it mean to engage in Russia? To conquer is what it means: to conquer with sales, support, marketing, what? What to do? In Russia, developers and users are sitting, they want to make games, they are not different either from the Chinese, or from the Americans, or from anyone.
Maybe, by the way, are there any particular features of users?
I do not even know. I look at the schedule - Moscow is the seventh in the number of Unity users. In any case, in Moscow, we already have one percent of all users - on a global scale, this is a lot.
And Peter? In St. Petersburg do not use Unity?
And in St. Petersburg indie sit. So I recently told one large investor, who came with his millions, that everything is very cool in Petersburg. That in Moscow there are big offices, a lot of money, boring production, working conditions are such that for me, as a European person, they seem strange. And in St. Petersburg, people do their projects, do something cool, usually it is called the word "innovation." So, innovations are born in St. Petersburg. At least in terms of game development. And this is very close to me.
Do you help developers somehow? Can they count on your help and so on?
Yes.
That is, if the developer decides to use Unity, he writes to you, and you help him and answer all questions if something is not clear. Right?
Yes and no. There are expectations. If you expect someone to play the game for you after purchasing Unity, then it’s not. And if you think that something should work, but it does not work, then yes, of course we will answer, see what happened. In general, we have a huge popular forum, where hundreds of thousands of users, and they all communicate, help each other.
The community is like?
Right. The ecosystem around Unity, it is very strongly developed. And this is important for both small and large teams.
Here, probably, one of the cool chips is that we have an Asset Store, i.e. shop where you can buy various items for the game. This means that, let's say, there is an artist who receives conditionally 2-3 thousand dollars a month; one of his working days, let's say it costs $ 300. If he draws, for example, some kind of car model or something else half a day, then it will cost $ 150. And so, to buy a car, wood, a wardrobe, in the end, you can for 5-10 dollars in the store. How much money will you save? Lots of. Yes, this is the same tree, this same car may appear in another game, including among competitors, conditionally. But there are hundreds of assets in the game, hundreds of thousands of assets. If one tree matches or one kind of model, it is not scary.
Or scripts. It is clear that what you can buy, it most likely will not solve your problem, but even if it solves it by 30%, developers based on the finished script will write a solution that is 100% suitable for current tasks much faster. That is, you need not to write from scratch, some kind of complicated system, but to pay $ 50 and add, say, half or, even if 70%. But it is still incomparably faster. As a result, small money can speed up the development process and save.
Can you provide some marketing support for Unity projects?
We have a gallery where we post games, we have a mailing list where we boast about projects we liked, and if you ask us to promote a good project, we will promote, of course. Is free. There is Facebook, there is Twitter. And the most interesting thing, probably, is the Union. That is, these are guys who have a catalog of games; You can sign an agreement with them, and they will add your game to your catalog and, conditionally, will go and try to sell it to TV manufacturers, new platforms, including Ouya, which we already mentioned today, Blackberry, Nokia, in some Chinese app stores, where the threshold of entry is very complex.
But the publishing or PR of a game is not our main task. At the same time, it is clear that we communicate a lot with anyone, and Google asks us what game to play. And it is clear that we share our thoughts. But this consideration is not a marketing tool. So why does Google come to us? Because we honestly answer what games we like. They come and ask what is new, interesting. Well, this and this, they saw, played, will be released soon. Here is the contact of these guys. And you cannot order such a recommendation from us.
But it makes sense for us to write and tell about ourselves. This may be a letter to nowhere, because we, the truth, receive a lot of letters, and can shoot.
How do you plan to develop? Maybe you have any ambitious plans to seize the universe?
Yes, we are thinking of capturing the universe, why not! (laughs)
But there is no concrete plan yet?
In fact, there are key points where we are frankly weak now, and we solve them. One of them is 2D and GUI. And how we solve them, we have already shown. This is at the stage of almost finished prototype.
One of the main reasons, that is features, for what they love Unity is multiplatform. Add new platforms - yes, if they are good. If the Web GL standard appears and it fires, why not make Unity Web GL. And then suddenly all the games that you did on Unity, you can immediately port to Web GL. Or some new Ouya, let's say, shoot, but Unity has already made a port. That is, we want to help developers make more money without any huge effort on their part. If a new promising platform appears, it will not necessarily make a new game for it, it will be possible to easily port the existing one using Unity.
We try to be closer to the developers - listen to them, take into account their opinions. Even if it costs us money. Still, a huge community of people who trust us, all this unspoiled karma - much more important than anything else.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/152501/
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