Totally new here and to game design and I am trying to pick up the Lingo.
I could not find an answer using the search so if this is a duplicate question, my apologies.
Can some one define Indy and Pro? I understand hobbyist is just that and I think I get the Pro deal being a professional studio developing games and such. But what is Indy? Other engines use that term too. Is it a specific game market or game development type?
Thanks!
Update. Should have Google first, my bad. Got my answer here.
When people say Unity Pro and Unity Indie, they’re talking about the two main flavors of the Unity software.
Unity Indie is free, can only target PC, Mac and Web and does not have support for C++ plugins, Render targets, Shadows and Deferred rendering, Unity Pro can do all of that.
You can look at detailed license information here:
Basically, an “Indie” is an independent developer. This means that they don’t have a publisher, and own their IP. The second being more important than the first.
But yeah, what he said. When people are talking about the Unity situation with Indie / Pro, they’re mainly about the license for Unity, and the goodies that come with Pro
I noticed the spelling in the Wiki too and just did not think to correct it here. I was reading up on the UDK engine I could of sworn they spelled it Indy, not sure. So, I am not sure where I got the spelling from. But thanks for the correction! I understood the differences in the licensing and I just downloaded the free version last night. Now, which tutorial I want to start with? My project is small and I hope simple, a catalog of installed games to launch from a menu system.
Not entirely true, independent developers can have a publisher and can have their own IP (so the big studios cannot abuse it, for one).
The key element here is being financially backed by a publisher (read: aquired by that publisher) or not.
Sponsors/financers that just want to help out, without interfering the studios visions (aka: gifts), are allowed.
Also, indie devs are not being controlled by publishers/funders on what the game should be like, the devs themselves are in full control.
Now, back to the topic:
Unity Indie was a product (sold for arround 200 USD) that is being converted into a free to use product, simply called Unity. Unity has a limited feature set, compared to Unity Pro.
Unity PRO is the full product, meaning all bells and wistles included (and is sold for arround 1500USD)
So there are now two products: Unity and Unity Pro.
The reason why many people still use Unity indie, or Unity free, is to make sure everyone understands about which of the two products they are talking.