Tag: Unity

Major Nelson will be the new face of Unity

Larry Hryb, más conocido como Major Nelson, renunció el año pasado a su trabajo en Microsoft y ahora por fin sabemos cuál es su destino: Unity.

Even historical figures change jobs. Or for those who prefer to see it from a war perspective, they switch sides. People don’t exist just as figures to sell products and ensure that a certain brand has a presence on social media and in the minds of consumers. They also have a life. People must make the best decisions for their own existence. That’s why, from time to time, we see shocking situations where a historical figure goes from the position we’ve always known them to have to a completely different one.

This occurred with Larry Hryb, better known as Major Nelson. Host of the Official Xbox Podcast and also known for posting Xbox information on his official Twitter account, he was the company’s official hype man on social media. The public face of the Xbox brand for many years, since its first console. But last year, in 2023, Hryb confirmed he was leaving the company to pursue new job opportunities. And now, finally, we know where he’s landed.

Last Monday, June 17th, on his LinkedIn, he listed his new job as Community Director at Unity. A job that seems to be some kind of brand ambassador for the famous game engine, which is currently not going through its best moment of credibility towards users. Or creators.

It seems Hryb wanted to highlight Unity’s mission to “empower creativity and success in the businesses of creators around the world in video games, applications, and experiences that align with my vital passion for innovation and community building.” His statement confirms that he will work as a brand ambassador, building community and improving Unity’s brand image. Which is not experiencing its best moment.

Unity certainly needs this kind of clear and inspiring communication, and Hryb is an expert at that. After last year, the company managed not just to anger the entire community of video game developers, but to cause an exodus of many of them; its credibility has been greatly damaged. In addition, it hasn’t helped that, among the wave of layoffs in recent years, Unity has recently laid off 25% of its workforce as recently as last January. Therefore, as much as we appreciate Major Nelson, we fear that Hryb has a very, very difficult challenge ahead.

Unity Web Player DOWNLOAD
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Unity Web Player is a browser plugin, which allows you to play a wide range of games and watch loads of 3D content developed on the Unity game engine

The creators of Slay the Spire have released a game by surprise, and it’s free!

Mega Crit, the creators of Slay the Spire, have decided to stop using Unity, and to learn how to use Godot they have decided… to create a free game

The controversy with Unity hasn’t ended well for the company. While it’s true that they eventually backtracked, with their CEO even announcing departure from the company, the damage is done. Many developers, especially small and medium-sized ones, have lost confidence in the company’s future prospects. It’s not surprising to see movements towards other graphic engines, especially those with open-source licenses, such as Godot.

Slay the Spire DOWNLOAD

The first major name to embrace Godot has been none other than Mega Crit, the creators of Slay the Spire, the popular card game that sparked the popularity of deck-building roguelikes. The studio has been working on their next project for two years, initially developing it under the umbrella of Unity. However, after the events, they’ve decided to switch game engines to Godot.

Learning a game engine isn’t something that happens overnight. It requires study, effort, and a lot of dedication. Instead of trying to learn on the fly, they have opted to work on a small project in just three weeks for the Jump Ship Jam called Dancing Duelists.

Close to the sensibility of Slay the Spire, Dancing Duelists is a small deck-building game mixed with autobattle mechanics. Players choose a character and a set of cards that will make up their deck. That’s the extent of their interaction: whether they win or lose this unique dance competition depends on the cards they draw and the ones drawn by their opponent. It’s a curious but refreshing twist to the Slay the Spire formula.

Not only has this project helped them learn how to use Godot, but it’s also available for free download on their itch.io page. It’s a much-appreciated gift that, while unlikely to occupy us for the hundreds (or thousands) of hours that Slay the Spire did, surely compensates for the delay their next game might experience due to the need to be ported to a new game engine.

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The absurd measures taken by Unity have cost the CEO of the company his position

Riccitiello has held the position since 2014, and the executive will also leave his position on the board of directors as president. His bad ideas have…

The uproar in the video game industry caused by a single person was tremendous. This individual, of course, was someone very significant: John Riccitiello, CEO of Unity, the most widely used game engine in the gaming sector.

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Less than a month after detailing a controversial change in its business model (which has now been rectified), Unity has announced that John Riccitiello will step down as CEO and president.

Riccitiello has held the position since 2014, and the executive will also vacate his seat on the board as chairman.

James M. Whitehurst will assume the role of interim CEO and president of Unity. Additionally, Unity’s lead independent director, Roelof Botha, has been named chairman.

A highly controversial CEO

Despite Riccitello’s good reputation in certain sectors of the industry, not all of Unity’s ideas during his tenure as the company’s leader have panned out well. Recent history speaks for itself.

For example, shortly after announcing their new generative AI tools in June, Riccitello doubled down on his support for the technology, stating they would be trained on in-house art or third-party licenses.

The issue arose when this statement came a week after the company severed ties with one of its AI partners following the revelation that they were selling assets created by human developers.

His departure also comes less than a month after the company announced that it would add a new Runtime Fee charge every time a game using its engine was installed.

The idea was rejected by nearly all developers, leading Unity to reconsider the controversial policy, including the removal of the fee for any game created with a Unity Personal license.

As they say in Spain: ‘Riccitiello, may you take as much peace as you leave in the company.’

Unity DOWNLOAD

Unity regrets: this is how the new pricing and fees for the game engine will be

Complaints about Unity have taken their toll and the company has backed down, promising to make a series of important changes.

Unity is in a big mess. After the announcement of its controversial fees, a large portion of the internet criticized them, accusing them of wanting to implement “abusive” policies. The complaints have had an impact, and the company has backtracked, promising to make a series of significant changes.

Unity Web Player DOWNLOAD

After the public outcry, the first apologies were made through Unity’s official profile on X (formerly known as Twitter). The company promised to review the new fees and make necessary changes based on the feedback received from the community.

Following this, Unity published a blog post that provided greater detail on how the company plans to proceed regarding its new policies. And if that wasn’t enough, Marc Whitten also addressed the main concerns of developers and users of the engine in a YouTube livestream.

The President of Unity Create offered another apology right at the beginning, where he clarified that they did not gather enough feedback before launching the program of changes. Whitten also addressed one of the most frequently asked questions by the community: why have these changes been made?

Unity already had a subscription plan divided into various tiers, each targeted at a specific type of user: students, small teams, large companies, etc. So, what motivated the launch of these new fees? Essentially, it’s about the sustainability of Unity.

Whitten explains that they are currently trying to “build a sustainable business model for Unity.” According to him, the main goal is to provide a system “that is fair […] and that works for games that have already achieved a good degree of success.”

What will be the new Unity fees from now on?

For now, the retroactive measures are completely eliminated. The new fees will affect games created or updated to Unity’s 2024 version. Developers using Unity Personal or Unity Plus will not be charged.

However, the installation fee will still apply to users of Unity Pro or Unity Enterprise, but under two conditions: either the game developed with the engine has generated one million dollars in revenue in the last twelve months or it has been installed one million times. If these thresholds are exceeded, the developer can choose to pay either the fee based on the initial interactions the game generates each month or an equivalent of 2.5% of the monthly revenue generated. In any case, the cheaper option will be charged.

Unity Web Player DOWNLOAD

Cult of the Lamb said they would delete the game on January 1st… but it turned out to be a joke

The developers of Cult of the Lamb joked that they would have to delete their game due to licensing changes in Unity… and they have had to clarify it

Understanding irony on the internet is not always easy. What is meant as a joke can easily be taken out of context, especially when the atmosphere is already charged. That’s why it’s essential to be very careful about what is said in official statements or what can be interpreted as such. Because the possibility that people will interpret everything we say literally is not remote at all. In fact, it’s the most likely thing that can happen to us.

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That’s what happened to Massive Monster, the developers of the popular Cult of the Lamb. Due to the controversy surrounding changes in monetization and the Unity licensing issue, the official Twitter account of Cult of the Lamb stated that they would delete the game on January 1st, the moment when the new license would come into effect.

The thing is, all of this was a joke. Cult of the Lamb will still be available for purchase from January 1, 2024, onwards. It’s not a joke that Cult of the Lamb is made in Unity or that they are strongly against the new licensing and monetization terms, like the vast majority of developers. However, they clarified their position in a TikTok post, emphasizing that some media outlets sensationalized what was intended to be a joke from the beginning. Nothing more.

@cultofthelamb

are we deleting our game? #cultofthelamb #unity #teaser #indiedev #indiegames #drama

♬ original sound – Cult of the Lamb

Indeed, as we’ve mentioned, the studio has expressed its opposition to these changes. In fact, they also issued a statement criticizing this move and indicated their readiness to switch to a different engine for their future projects. So, even though it was a joke, and they won’t delete the game they’ve already released, it appears that Massive Monster’s next game will not be developed in Unity.

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Death threats force Unity to close its offices in the worst crisis in its history

The person who threatened the company’s offices in Austin and San Francisco certainly did not take half measures.

The problem with feeling indispensable is not realizing that you never are. If Google started charging 50 cents per search, we would all find another place to search, after all. That’s what happened to Unity, which, after announcing its future plan, including charging 20 cents for each program installation, has suffered the worst setback in its history… to dangerous extents.

Unity Reflect DOWNLOAD

Bomb goes!

You know that on the Internet, feelings are magnified, just like in the ‘Big Brother’ house. The problem arises when someone believes it and takes real-life action. In the case of Unity, after receiving several death threats on social media, and in a very unexpected turn of events (for them), the next threat was directed at their personnel.

It may be that an administrative decision is incredibly unpopular, but I assure you that killing someone will not make Unity lower their prices (besides, there are other alternatives that developers are already starting to use en masse). The person who threatened the company’s offices in Austin and San Francisco was certainly not mincing words.

While the company hasn’t disclosed the specific potential threat, they have stated that it is a “credible death threat” so real that the CEO, John Riccitiello, has canceled all his public appearances, at least until today, Friday. “We have taken immediate and proactive measures to ensure the safety of our employees,” they said.

The lesson we can draw from this is not that scaring someone who has done something wrong yields results, but rather that there are always other possibilities, no matter how indispensable something may seem. Well, and that the least expected person can stab you in the back. In the world of technology, a death threat is not going to deter a strategic plan, no matter how unpopular it may be. Let’s remember that.

Unity Reflect DOWNLOAD

Unity intends to charge studios for every time someone installs a video game made with its engine

Unity has made some changes to its business policies, leaving very few satisfied people who use its engine to create their video games.

In the current video game industry, it’s rare to find a studio that uses its own engine. The pie is mainly divided between two major engines, Unity and Unreal Engine, with Godot being a distant third in terms of usage. That’s why any changes in the policies of the companies that produce these engines, Unity and Epic respectively, are closely scrutinized. However, the recent changes in Unity’s business policies don’t require a close examination to see why they are causing quite a stir.

Unity is a game engine that has been used to create games like Pokémon Go, Cult of the Lamb, Cuphead, or Fall Guys. It’s used for all kinds of games, both indie and large-scale productions, and up until now, it employed a subscription-based model. And we have to emphasize the “up until now.”

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In Unity, there are three licensing tiers. Unity Personal allows developers with annual revenues under $100,000 to use the engine for free. Those with revenues exceeding this but below $200,000 must pay for Unity Plus, which costs $400 per year. Anyone surpassing this figure is required to pay for Unity Pro, Industry, or Enterprise, which costs $2,000, $5,000, or a specific amount of dollars per year depending on their studio’s specific needs.

What Unity has done is announce the elimination of Unity Plus. Consequently, there’s now a leap from Personal to Pro, where the cost increases fivefold for the same service.

But what has caused the most controversy is the fact that starting from January 1, 2024, they want to introduce a usage fee. For every installation of a game that generates over $200,000 in revenue annually, Unity will charge $0.20 for each new installation. The higher the subscription level, the less Unity will charge per download, but this has caused many developers to protest what they consider to be excessive prices.

How this will all end is still up in the air. What’s clear is that with the current prices, Unity is finding it challenging to keep independent studios happy. And with these fees, larger studios have no reason not to seek fairer alternatives.

Unreal Engine DOWNLOAD

Best programs to create your indie game

Want to make the next Undertale? These programs can help you!

Game Design

Over the past decade, indie games have really taken off as viable alternatives to AAA blockbuster games. They are often smaller projects that focus on finely tuned, specific gameplay mechanics. This has led to excellent games such as Superhot, Hotline Miami, and Celeste.

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Games like Undertale and Braid have shown that some of the most beautiful, gut-wrenching stories in gaming can come out of small indie teams. Platforms like Steam, the Nintendo eShop, and the App Store/Google Play Store have been filled with hundreds of excellent indie titles. These games feature innovative mechanics and creative storytelling.

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We live in a golden age of indie gaming, and if you’re feeling inspired to create your own, here are a few programs that can help get you started:

Best programs to make indie games

Unity

unity indie game development

Nearly every indie game dev will tell you that the best program to make indie games on is Unity. An industry staple for years, Unity is one of the most feature-complete and widely used game development programs out there.

Unity offers both free and premium versions, with the free version being feature-complete. There is support for iOS, Android, Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and more. You should have no problem porting your game to your platform(s) of choice.

Unity uses Javascript or C# for scripting instead of a proprietary language, allowing programmers to transfer over their skills in those common languages. The incredible robustness of Unity allows for users to create both 3D and 2D games, with plenty of powerful tools for both kinds of games. You can preview your games within the editor, which saves enormous amounts of time and headaches. This is because you don’t need to compile and run the game every time you want to test something.

Perhaps the greatest strength of Unity is the huge online community surrounding it. There is an expansive asset store that allows artistically-challenged developers to create games with pre-made assets. Also, there are thousands of online tutorials, videos, and forum posts made by community members that cover pretty much any topic that could possibly pop up.

The number of games made using Unity nowadays would be too much to list, and the software isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

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Game Maker Studio 2

game maker studio 2 indie dev

Made for 2D game development, Game Maker Studio 2 is both powerful and easy to use. Like Unity, there is a feature-complete free version, though you must pay to publish your game on different platforms.

Game Maker Studio 2 is unique in that you do not need any coding experience to make your game. Though you can code traditionally in GMS2 (using the program’s proprietary language), the program also includes a drag and drop feature. This feature helps you visualize and simplify coding without sacrificing any of the depth. This drag and drop system makes Game Maker Studio 2 the program of choice for programming beginners, as it allows users to learn as they go along. Like Unity, GMS2 has an asset store that has premade game engines, features, and artistic assets.

The ease of use and versatility of Game Maker Studio 2 is unmatched when it comes to 2D games. Some of the most popular indie games ever, like Hotline Miami and Undertale, were made using the software.

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RPG Maker MV

rpgmaker indie game dev

RPG Maker MV is, predictably, a software that allows you to create RPG’s. Ever wanted to make an epic JRPG like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, or Earthbound? MV lets you do it with ease.

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Like Game Maker Studio 2, it doesn’t require any coding knowledge. MV uses a tile-based interface that allows users to draw locations and tilesets directly into the game world. Users can create turn-based battles that harken back to the golden age of JRPGs.

While the editor may look simple, there are hundreds of fan-made scripts available that you can add to enhance your game. Want to add a Paper Mario-style Action Command system? You can do that. Want to add a Fire Emblem style tactical map? You can do that too. You can even make your game an overhead action RPG like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. For a program designed to make JRPGs, RPG Maker MV is surprisingly versatile.

The program is available on Steam for the hefty price of $80, though sales are frequent. Fortunately, you can download a free demo directly from the RPG Maker website, or from us:

RPG Maker MV Download now ►
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Design a great one!

Have you used any of these programs? Any important ones we forgot to list? Let us know!

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