Hi guys, searched but didn’t much much info on this subject…
I’m entering my final year [5th] in Computer and Electronic Engineering and have been thinking about developing an iPhone/Android game in 3d. I have good experience in c/c++ and with Java.
For the game I would like to have a rally car on a simple enough course, the car is controlled by tilting and acceleration by an on screen HUD, the game records your fastest times on the track and then uploads them to an online server like Facebook etc. I was hoping to be able in game to check the leader boards and compare with your friends, but that isn’t essential right now as getting the basics of the game are priority.
But right now what I really want to know is about the unity licenses, would I be able to get a version of unity that will allow me to develop for iPhone without having to pay the basic fee? I couldn’t find much info on the site about it. I doubt the college will pay for the license just for me, never mind the apple sdk.
If all else fails I was hoping to use the free version on an Android Phone, is this possible for it to work that way or is the free version limited to web games only?
Well if you need to target the iPhone then yes you will need to buy iPhone basic at the very least. You should contact Unity sales and support though to verify exactly what you’d need.
If you just want to make the game and don’t need to target the iPhone then you can do it for free with Unity Free.
One idea… to get your game working, I wonder if you could just buy an Axelo Bat game controller and plug it into your PC and use Unity free (indie / basic… .whatever you call it.)
I think they’re about $60 and you can plug em into your xbox or maybe ps3 too. They have the accelerometer or whatever it’s called (tilt control thingy.)
But anyway, with your programming experience, I’d be surprised if you couldn’t make a driving / racecourse game with Unity pretty quick.
or, you could put a builder’s level in front of your web cam and make a little mini-app that reads where the bubble is, then just tilt your whole computer to steer.
that controller looks great, making a simple enough racer that supports motion controls would be great, Unity free would also be great if it works with the controller, is it easily programmable? I wont want to buy it and discover its only for certain games with no drivers included…
Maybe I’ll look into this further, I’m a little sad that I cant make something for a portable device like iPhone, but a start is a start
Get the free version of Unity, and create a working version for the Desktop machines. Set your target resolution to the iPhone (940 x 640) or iPad (1024 x 768). Start all your scripts with the following command:
#pragma strict
This turns off dynamic typing and ensures the code will run on the iDevices. Also, make sure you don’t use any over features that don’t work on the iPhone (such as the terrain feature).
When you’re done, you’ll have a game that can be released on the desktop (either as a web game, or a low res stand-alone app), AND can be easily built for the iPhone or iPad once you upgrade.
And once you have a working prototype on the desktop, I think your college would be much more willing to fund Unity iPhone the SDK.
You could do most of it in Unity, making sure to respect the proper screen orientation and resolution, then port it to the iPhone easily. When Unity 3 is released, it will be much, much easier.
