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Should I be worried about choosing unity for this project?

Discussion in 'Multiplayer' started by futurebird, Jun 7, 2019.

  1. futurebird

    futurebird

    Joined:
    Jun 7, 2019
    Posts:
    1
    I'm working on a mobile game that will use GPS and that has a multiplayer aspect but requires no real-time interactions. It's a farming, resource management, collection type game and users can see what other people have done on the map, so no PVP or anything like that.

    There are two big challenges:
    the map data biomes (I have a solution for this that's client side and will sync)
    updating the map with changes from other players so it seems "alive"

    Really it could happen just a few times a day... but I noticed that unity's multiplayer service for small devs like me seems to be shutting down and the replacement seems more aimed at bigger games? I'm kind of confused.

    Should I think about some other dev platform? I want iphone, android maybe tablets too IDK about that.
    I may need to run my own server but I fear that would mean putting ads in the game don't know how the numbers would work out on that.

    I'm still working on the idea of the game, the mood, the story etc. I want to be done in about 6-8 months.
     
  2. mischa2k

    mischa2k

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2015
    Posts:
    4,347
    Unity's multiplayer services were for matchmaking and relay. In most cases you don't need those. E.g. relay is only necessary for player hosted games.

    You should check out the existing networking solutions and then pick the one that you like the most. Unity is sure capable :)
     
  3. Joe-Censored

    Joe-Censored

    Joined:
    Mar 26, 2013
    Posts:
    11,847
    Can I make <insert virtually any game> in Unity?
    Yes

    Your game's description does sound like you'll need a server. It is usually a bad idea to start learning Unity on a multiplayer game though, as these are the most complicated of projects.

    Adding multiplayer multiplies your development time by around 3X. So if you want your game done in about 6-8 months, you should keep your game so simple that a single player version will take little more than 2 months at your current skill/experience level. For a new Unity user that will need to be an extremely simple game, something along the lines of Frogger.

    Otherwise, plan on over a year investing in this. Also consider that getting the main part of the game working is generally pretty fast in Unity. It is all the little details, the options menus, the corner cases, the bug fixing, getting the lighting just right, getting the UI nice and clean... that all takes way more time than just getting the game to a playable state. So when planning, if you think it will take you 4 months to get the game playable, then you're looking at close to a year until it is polished.
     
    TwoTen likes this.