After nearly 2 years of mining dilithium on Rura Penthe, my first Unity based title has finally launched:
Creeper World is a real time strategy game where the primary enemy is a fluid that flows over the terrain (which is now modifiable). Both the fluid and the terrain are not presented in the way you might imagine they would be in a standard 3d title. The game is basically a very precise cellular automata simulation with a visual emphasis on viewing the precise location of the fluid (the Creeper). This presented an interesting visualization and implementation problem…
I’ve built a successful business on the first two games in the series… which were written in AS3 and delivered using AIR. But I made the switch to Unity a couple years ago and decided to take advantage of the drastically improved performance and capabilities of the framework. The results are a game that’s faster, larger in scale, and easier on the eyes than the predecessors.
Sales so far have significantly outstripped the launch window sales of the previous games and are exceeding my expectations significantly. Installation support issues are minimal, but not 0. Some small percentage of customers have problems with the Unity player crashing, but it seems to be only a very small percentage at this point.
Now life wasn’t perfect working with Unity, I won’t lie. No framework is perfect. Things still aren’t perfect and there a number of issues I have to live with and work around. I often get asked by fans of the game and aspiring game developers what the transition to Unity was like. I’ll tell them of all the beautiful moments and of the tragic moments. But in the end I’ll say “I’m sticking with it, so that’s the only thing you really need to know”.
In summary, I’m pleased with Unity and think I made a wise choice two years ago when deciding to invest my money and more importantly time with Unity. I’m pleased because my customers are pleased. The game is being universally praised, support issues are minimal, and folks are happy… and that makes me happy.
And here’s the screenshot to add color to the post:
