I have been playing with Unity for a while and I really like it so far. I am not a programmer but I usually use ActionScript 3 for my educational projects. Now I am going to present my master degree project and I have to decide what tool to use.
According to your experience, what do you think about using Unity for 2D games like top-down style? It would a be better experience for players (performance-graphical resources)? A concern I have is to force students to install Unity Web player, it would be worthy?
You can make 2D-looking games with Unity. I used Unity to make dirtyrottenbounders.co.uk writing the code in C#. I’ve also using ActionScript 3 with Flash and I think if you’re comfortable with that language, then the transition to something like C# is quite straightforward. I used the free version of SpriteManager (try a forum search) to map the graphics to a plane viewed by an orthographic camera with pretty good results. I know one of the lecturers at a local university is thinking of using Unity for one of his courses next year.
The installation of the Unity Web Player isn’t particularly difficult… I wouldn’t see that as too big of a concern. As for 2D games, that’s primarily what I use Unity for… games that stick mostly to the X and Y axes. I think Unity is a great tool for those (although I find Unity’s Javascript to be more similar to Actionscript than C#).
Thanks for your feedback. I think, I will continue playing with Unity for a little while. ActionScript is easy for me but I have noticed, I have to write many lines to do the same in Unity, which is positive when the time is against you.
I think unity is more like a “real” game engines than flash, if you become a “pro” in flash, you have less options down the road. C# and Javascript are more practical.
+ Wonderful, powerful and easy to use OO-Basic with a focused reasonable command set, it’s just fun to code in it, crossy (OSX, Win, Linux), HW accelerated, low pricing, expandable capabilities by many modules, no crappy copy protection, a tested solid product.
- The IDE is very basic and so the debugger, slooow development, no support of browsers (that’s what BlitzMax2, or whatever the final name will be, is meant for), no click clack game engine if that’s what you’re looking for.
Hmm, dunno of how much help i’m regarding those products because beside of XNA i only have a brief understanding of the other ones and as always it depends on your target platform(s) and your project(s).
I generally don’t like the Torque products because they for many different reasons never made sense to me- too much to type on an iPhone right now.
Regarding what you want to achieve Game Maker could make sense. XNA can be okayish if you’re after the Xbox 360.
But from a personal preference, if it fits the needs, if you can code a bit, considering all the flexibility and how much fun i had with it so far, i definately recommend BlitzMax.
In my opinion it also feels different because Mark is developing Blitz since the Amiga days. It’s just not run by some greedy teenager club, but as always different people, different tastes. There exists a demo version if you want to give it a try.
I program a lot in flash and it is buggy, plain and simple. Very quick, but so is Unity. I lean more towards unity; however, flash can support vector graphics, so it all depends on what kind of look you are looking for.
I’ve got some experience with TGB and Torque X and TX is finally getting some love from Garage Games ( er… Torque Powered) so it might be something to look at. It uses C# and a component system similar to Unity but IIRC coding for it is a bit more involved. I’m pretty sure there’s no web player.
TGB is nice but it uses Torque Script, which isn’t as nice as C# IMO. It’s got a web player (no plugin required IIRC) but I’ve never used it.
Both TX and TGB have decent editors (almost identical last time I used them) but they may have diverged by now.
TGB is going to be replaced with the new T2D (the original name for it oddly) but I’m not sure about the timeline.
One important question is what type of game do you want to make?
I think you said 2d top down (shooter?). It really matters (what computer is going to have problems drawing 1000+ quads), but with unity you have already the physics, the editor and the particle systems so its a piece of cake to do something like Evac City (and heck there is even a tutorial for it).
What you said is exactly what I am going to do: A game similar to Evac City but for educational purpose. In fact, I am considering Unity because I went through the tutorial you mentioned. The big obstacle was C# but now I feel more comfortable with it. Physics from Unity are easy to understand and work very well. With Flash I am still considering to use bitmaps with copypixels or movieclips which could mean to use pixel perfect collisions or hittest.
Redcap said he finds flash buggy, but both It and Unity quick (I assume to work with). That’s not being negative.
@Lerner
You could create composite colliders for (near) pixel perfect collisions in Unity. If you go with Unity you’ll still have the option of sticking in 3d models later if you wanted to.
I was just joking as i recently got teased by Antenna that i’m a negative person for stating my feelings about a certain process. Maybe it’s just me but sometimes i have the feeling that the Unity forum is the place were irony gets detected the least. The fanboys often are heating the atmosphere up a little bit too much, it makes you wonder that they don’t emit a noticeable amount of gamma rays whilst doing so.