A few years ago whenever I started up a game on my iPhone and saw that Unity logo I knew I was in for a treat. A game with top-class production values and unbelievably beautiful graphics. Those were the days when you had to pay a hefty fee for even the non-pro version of Unity. But I’ve been noticing more and more low-quality junk games that start up with that Unity logo. I think this is because that Unity went free and now anybody can create a game with Unity, even non-serious kids who get sudden wild hairs up their asses that they want to make games. I am sorry but I think that that high fee used to “separate the men from the boys” as far as programming ability… only serious developers would pay such a hefty fee for their tools, and therefore only serious developers with talent and skill made Unity games.
Yes I am all for the democratization of game development and for anyone to have the chance to develop games. And everyone starts out as a beginner with no skill. But please if you are a beginner don’t put your crappy games on the App Store making it that much harder for the high-quality games of skilled developers to be found. Wait till you have at least two years or so of solid experience before even thinking of putting your game up for sale. That’s the advice I was given when I started out.
Also I think that Unity logo should now only appear in the Pro versions of Unity. People should have to pay for the right to use that logo. Maybe this way the ‘meaning’ of that logo will not be cheapened.
P.S. A game I downloaded this morning caused me to write this rant. It took forever to load. Tapping the screen would not bypass the intro screens. When the text box came up for me to enter my username it wouldn’t accept my input for a while. Then after it did accept my user name, not only did the game crash but it completely restarted my 128GB iPad Air. On second try it started up faster but now it up with some text blocked by an image, and displaying “tap anywhere to continue” and “next”. But it nothing will the the game to continue. The Game is called Mech Conquest but Hourblast Games. And I found the website for Hourblast Games but it displays “This site has stepped out for a bit.”
taking the unity logo off is one of the biggest selling points of unity for a lot of developers!!!
No offence but your advice is ridiculous.
If people put things out which aren’t fun they will quickly be forgotten. If you are upset with the quality you should be angry at apple for allowing them to put it in the store. If you want a place that is filtered then try steam.
There’s certainly an interesting debate to be had about brand perception. I’m not going to offer any opinion on what UT should or should not do as Unity Pro provides options to show or hide as much as you like including the configuration settings before running a game.
There’s no doubt that low quality titles showing the Unity logo are harmful to the brand, although to what degree it’s hard to quantify. There’s a perception in some circles including some influential journalists ( watch TotalBiscuit’s review of Space Hulk on YouTube ) and gamers ( read Steam forums ) that any game made with Unity is more likely to be of low quality rather than high. Over time larger releases such as Blizzard’s Hearthstone and the raft of Steam Early Access games will hopefully do their bit to improve brand perception by delivering high quality gaming experiences. Certainly for mainstream consumers they don’t care what engine is used; only that it’s a good game without major bugs ( and lets face it, plenty of AAA games fail those criteria ).
UT can help improve brand perception in the long run by helping developers improve the quality of their games. Such steps include performance improvements, technology innovation, fixing long standing bugs, and resolving the well documented gc issue - which are all things they are working on.
Is the overall impact of low quality games showing the Unity logo a net positive or negative? Who knows. I’m sure there are members of this community who buy games solely because they are developed using Unity. And then there are gamers who avoid games because they are built with Unity. Unfortunately sales metrics don’t provide the reason behind the purchase decision - and more importantly the reason for not purchasing, and therefore why the net effect is impossible to quantify.
Even as a Unity Pro buyer, I feel the same way. Unity games tend to be lower quality than UT or XNA.
Why? Because the barrier to entry is lower. It’s so easy to make a game with Unity that practically anyone can do it. UT and XNA are notably harder, and so only people with more drive and skill will successfully make a game on them.
However, that doesn’t mean that seeing the Unity logo means I’m in for a poor time. It means absolutely nothing, in fact. There are plenty of games out there that prove you can make top-tier games on Unity, just like any other professional engine. There’s a bunch of Kickstarters proving that, too.
Unity doesn’t have an image problem. What they have is proof that it’s easier to use their engine than other engines. That’s exactly what developers should be looking for, so long as it also has the features and performance they need. (And it does.)
I totally agree with your argument. Since Unity is easier to learn, more and more people start developing games on it, hence anyone with a little understanding of game development is able to publish even a very basic unprofessional game
I have mix feeling about this.
On one hand I can understand the frustration to be lumped with others who produce low quality games simply because of the name of the engine.
But on the other hand, I don’t think you should judge others so harshly - everyone has the right to make games - and most of us made a crappy game or two (or a dozen! ) before you became good at it. And WHO is to judge what’s a crappy game what is not? That is entirely subjective matter.
I think you should just let the MARKET FORCE to determine the outcome of these crappy games (and game makers). IF they can continue to afford the $100 registration fee (on iOS, I think Android Playstore is free) and make a living out of it with their crappy game, maybe its not so crappy after all. If not, they will eventually give up.
The most you can do is not to try to force others to change for you, but be the change yourself - start making quality games that’s worthy of the Unity logo.
And both of them have no support or website URL where you can contact the developer. So I get the feeling that even the developers who made these games think they are crappy and want to avoid contact with any sucker who gets these games. (The second game is more than a crappy game though. I think it is a right down scam.)
I think the problem is more that the better / awesome unity games don’t show the logo. There are many many good and many many crap games made with unity, but only the crap ones will show the logo while the good ones sometimes don’t even tell you that they’re using unity. So the only impression you ever get about unity is “crap games”.
@Zeblote I still see a lot of good games with that Unity logo. I’m just saying in my experience up to about a year ago every game I saw with that logo was dynamite…if not in gameplay at least they were dynamite looking. But lately that’s not the case.
@I am da bawss I already reported it to Apple. And don’t get me wrong. I’m not that upset over it. It’s only a buck and I’m not a cheapskate. Actually I spend way too much on games that I ever only take a quick look at then never play. I was just making an observation. What does get my goat is the developer of that Battle Bot game is just out to rip people off and he/she’s getting away with it.
Also, Apple let a lot of scam apps through on daily basis. If you been on App Store long enough you will know. Majority of these offenders are those type that shows very pretty screenshots (rendered, or even stolen from existing desktop PC games) as if it is in-game screenshots, but inside is actually either non-working or just crappy game that looks nothing like the screenshots, they also try to mislead consumers with similar name to famous games - eg. something like “Angry ninja bird”, “Temple Jump”, “Plant vs. Zombie”…etc etc.
Like I said, just report those. And also, MAJORITY (I have thousands of games and apps from App Store) are actually not made using Unity - only very tiny fraction of those I have seen so far that are crappy are made using Unity.
When I used to just play the games and not develope them I never really payed attention to the engine they were made in. I only really noticed source back then.
While true, does it matter? Unity isn’t a publisher and doesn’t sell games, and you don’t see logo until you download the game. So even if that is an impression that players may get, it won’t really affect choice to purchase.
Well I agree with you mostly. I have played quite a bit of terrible unity games on both google play and the app store. Games that either didn’t work or looked like they were in their alpha stages.
) before you became good at it. And WHO is to judge what’s a crappy game what is not? That is entirely subjective matter.
but only cause I dont have pro 