Hi, I’m a new guy, I’ve got 2 years of c++ experience(1 year on unreal). If I get it right, unity does not offer source code, so I’m asking ,what do unity programmers do?
And since the coding part is mono, does c++ count for nothing for a unity programmer?
If any statement is not proper, please be free to correct me, thanks in advance!
Make awesome games with teh awesome unity. 
I just want to know the daily job.
They write scripts. Hacking source code isn’t the only way to develop games.
Why would C++ experience count for nothing? Do you flush your brain clean when you switch languages?
They program games, concentrating more on high-level game logic rather than low-level engine maintenance.
–Eric
C# is a productive and rewarding language to program with. Syntactically similar to C++. You shouldn’t have any problem adapting to C#.
Not having the source code for Unity isn’t a big deal. Its a solid and well documented framework.
You daily job, as a Unity programming, would be to write code (in C# or javascript). You are free to use your favorite IDE or text editor… I prefer MonoDevelop on the Mac. You’ll have both the .Net Class Library (Mono actually) and the Unity 3D classes/framework at your disposal. Its amazing how productive you can be at actually getting games built.
It shouldn’t be too hard to adapt. C# is very similar to C++ and you’ll easily get into it fast. It’s also much simpler to work with.
Not having source code only means you can’t add certain features. You still have a large and a very well documented API. And a lot of the features you might miss, can be added, except those performance intensive ones(that really should be a part of the engine).
Pretty much your work is the same as with c++ and an open-source engine, aside from not having the ability to change existing features, and limited ability to add new ones.
Sure this can create a headache at times, but for a small/medium game it’s definitely worth it, as Unity makes it real easy to develop games.
And having worked with Unity for over a year now, on a pretty big project(big plans for it anyway), I’m quite sure you can make a large AAA game with it, given enough effort and some good planning.
Lots of C++ libs come without source too. So what do C++ programmers do?
When you’ve answered that, that’s what Unity programmers do too.
I got it. So actually the daily job for a unity programmer is to coding c# using the API provided by unity engine.
Thanks for all of you.
Exactly.
Or JavaScript*, or Boo**… not just C#.
*Our JavaScript is mostly the same as the in-browser variety you know but there are some deltas.
**Boo is a dialect of Python.
Oh, and you can use C++ skills if you’d like by creating plugins to offer extended functionality on the desktop, but plugins aren’t supported in the web player due to security concerns.
One last item, we do offer source code licenses but they’re done on a negotiated case-by-case basis and are quite a bit more expensive that our standard tool licensing. We want to focus our business on folks using the tool while we work on the engine so the number of source licensees is very small.