Native 2D vs 2D extensions

Hi all

I'm going to be doing the Game Jam this year (Sydney!) and will be working with a couple of 2D artists so I'm brushing up my 2D Unity skills beforehand

I know Unity 4.3 has native support for 2D games now but I was wondering how it measures/compares to pre-existing 2D solutions. Would anyone be able to give a quick pros/cons of Native 2D as compared to something like 2D toolkit/Orthello/something like that?

Thanks!

 

Since Unity 2D is still young with a limited feature set, IMHO it is wise to continue using 2Dtoolkit together with Unity 2D. Remember you don't have to choose one or the other, you can use BOTH together, and take advantage of the features of both of 2Dtoolkit AND Unity 2D.

The following link outlines some things that 2Dtoolkit can do, that Unity 2D (free version) still can't do...(note one thing that may not be obvious is that 2Dtoolkit also provides automatic resizing of your game to fill the screen of different screen resolutions)....
http://www.unikronsoftware.com/2dtoolkit/unity2d.html


EDIT.........
Unity 2D also still doesn't provide any built-in solutions for generating the ground of the game, nor any built-in solutions for onscreen controls. For these needs, I use the following plugins...

Ground solution #1
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/11653

Ground solution #2
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/13400

Onscreen Controls
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/3636

 

We are happily using both 2D toolkit with Unity 2D. Both address each other's strengths and weaknesses.

 

I own 2D Toolkit but if I am understanding correctly there is no way to use Unity Sprites with 2dTK, so it depends if that is one of your requirements. I understand 2DTK has nice atlas swapping/sprite dicing/camera scripts etc. but for me I really want to start using the new Sprite Renderer component.

 

http://2dtoolkit.com/forum/index.php?topic=3131.0

Personally hoping it's just an option rather than forced.

 

Thanks guys,

I think I will look into Unity 2D first and get myself familiar with its tools, and then see how 2D Toolkit does things differently! I may not need the extra features from 2D Toolkit for the purposes of the Game Jam since the games are most likely not going to be too complex