Happy 20th Anniversary, Unity!

Thank you for everything. Back when I was a student, it was through Unity that I realized what I wanted to do. That moment set everything in motion - a lot has changed since then, but you were the starting point.

Wishing you continued growth and evolution. Keep being that first step for so many aspiring developers out there.

P.S. Why isn’t this all over your website? It’s a huge milestone - shouldn’t it have been front and center yesterday?

@willgoldstone sorry for bumping, but really, why Unity don’t celebrate such a wonderful date? Or date of first release on wiki was incorrect? (June 8)

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Double down on that!

Wikipedia seems to imply that Unity “was presented” on June 8th 2005 at a conference, so this might not coincide with the first public release.

But anyway, whether it’s today or tomorrow or toyesterday: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!
:partying_face: :tada:

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Sounds about right. The official news page says that they presented it starting on June 6th but that’s the first day of the conference with Steve Jobs giving the keynote. So it’s much more likely they presented it on June 8th and the news page mentions a download was set to follow very soon. We do however have a date for Unity 1.0.1 of June 30th.

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I remember seeing a comic strip that released for Unity’s 10-year anniversary, but I can’t seem to find the full version anymore—Google only surfaces a few scattered images. Does anyone have a working link to the complete comic on the Unity forums or the official Unity site?

And now that Unity is turning 20, do you think we’ll see another one? I’d love to check it out. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes::tada:

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The image you posted is from a Korean fan-translation of the entire comic. The original is available on the Internet Archive (Unity - 10 year anniversary comic) and that’s probably the best way to read it since it’s partially composed of animated gifs. Here’s a roughly reconstructed version of it for the thread.

10 years of Unity

Today, Unity empowers a community of millions; ten years ago it was a game engine with just three users. Turn the page, and follow Dr Charles and Unity Chan as they travel the world battling men in black and incidentally helping to bring Unity game development to everyone.

2005 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Gooball released

Gooball, an alien escape game in which extraterrestrials captured by the CIA roll around in sealed balls and try to escape, is released. The game was developed by David Helgason, Joachim Ante and Nicholas Francis, and the engine they used to make it was to become Unity.

Check out Gooball

2005 - San Francisco, USA - The Unity Engine launches live on stage at Apple’s WWDC

Unity 1.0 came with deployment to Mac OS X only. With a mission to democratize game development and a disruptive ‘cheapium’ price model Unity attracted a tiny but dedicated following of independent developers. Windows and web deployment and animation support were added through Unity 1.5.

“This has been coded in offices, in libraries, in public toilets. It has survived more relationships than we can be bothered to count.”

Over The Edge Entertainment website – the precursor to Unity3d.com

2007 - First Unite developer conference

Unity’s first ever Unite developer conference took place in 2007 in San Francisco, USA with just 32 tickets sold and all 8 Unity employees in attendance.

Check out Unite 2007

2008 - Unity launches for iPhone

Late 2008, Unity launched a new deployment option: iPhone, and became a first mover in the smartphone space.

Check out the first Unity iPhone game build

2009 - The first free version of the Unity game engine

Known simply as “Unity”, the free engine, saw Unity usage increase dramatically. The company tripled in size and attracted venture capital.

Check out the first free version of Unity announcement

2010 - The Asset Store launches

Top publisher Brady Wright earned over $15,000 in the first 3 months of the store’s existence.

Check out Brady Wright and lots of balloons

2012 - Unity 4 launches, expansion across Asia

Unity 4 saw the integration of the Mecanim animation system, and Unity experienced further growth, passing the 1 million registered developers milestone and opening offices across Asia.

Check out the Unity 4 release notes

2013 - Nicholas Francis leaves Unity and goes back to making games

2014 - Unity makes services acquisitions

Unity Analytics, Unity Ads, Everyplay game promotion tools, and Unity Cloud Build are added to the Unity family. John Riccitiello is tapped to be CEO, and the Unity Chan mascot debuts.

Check out Unity Chan

2015 - Unity 5 launch

Unity 5 brings dramatic graphics and performance improvements, and the Blacksmith demo goes live.

Check out the Blacksmith demo

A true, detailed, and almost up to date history of Unity

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Popped collars and that moustache will always be how I remember Unity.

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