Been away from Unity for a while, so which build components should I download?

Unity Engine
1

I just want to build games for Windows PCs and maybe the Windows Surface, NOT for any Windows mobile phones nor the XBOX. So when I install Unity 2018.2.x which components should I download?
(Also I may like to try out the new job and ECS systems)

UWP Build Support (IL2CPP)
Windows Build Support (IL2CPP)
UWP Build Support (.NET)

And what is the difference between the first two?

2

Hi! Welcome back!

Use a UWP build to deploy to the Surface. A regular Windows build doesn’t have the WinRT API restrictions of UWP and can run on Windows PCs but not as a Windows Store app.

.NET for UWP is deprecated and will disappear in a future version, so you’re supposed to be using IL2CPP. But .NET builds faster, so you may want to iterate with .NET builds initially.

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3

Thanks. If I want to sell the game for PCs on Steam (not on the Windows Store) would the regular Windows build be appropriate?

4

Yes. But if there’s a chance that it becomes successful and you want to port it to Xbox, you might want to make it UWP-compliant from the start. Then again that might be putting the cart before the horse. If it’s successful Steam, you’ll probably have time to bring it up to UWP compliance after.

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5

then in that case, how about the other way around. Can a UWP build run on Windows PCs and be sold on Steam (as well as on the Windows Store)?

6

I think so. I’m not aware of any issues with that. But if you can get the project to build to UWP, it should build with no problem to a straight Windows build.

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7

Thanks!