Total N00B questions

1. As a graphics person, Unity looks very appealing indeed. How much coding is needed for simple games? I've done a teeny bit of Javascripting, but don't wish to be buried in code, prefering to spend most of my time on creative: Cinema 4D, BodyPaint, Painter, etc. I am willing to learn, but am definitely a right-brain guy.

2. Related: How much coding is in the Car Playground Demo, and how much is drag and drop?

3. How long is the early adopter discount in effect? I want to pull some freelance graphics $$$ together to buy Unity if it looks like a good fit for me (see Q 1 and 2 above), but will pull the trigger earlier if I need to.

 

Hi Scoo,

Re. 1: Unity has a smooth learning curve, perhaps with a little kink in the beginning... the demos are your for browsing and discovering. The whole idea is to make it fun to work with game creation and remove as many of the stupid chores from your back as humanly possible.

When you'll want to do advanced things you will need to get a bit down'n'dirty with javascript, but of course that's not the the hardest language in the world.

Re. 2: See it for yourself... it's a nice mixture.

Re. 3: We haven't decided yet, but sign up for the announcement list and we'll tell you a bit before.


Enjoy Unity,

d.

 

Scoo,

I thought I'd chime in here too with my impressions of Unity for you, seeing as I come from the same background as you (senior graphic designer, art, some Javascripting on major websites etc). I'll take a few minutes here to answer your questions as well from that perspective.

For very basic games, there is very little coding involved, and what there is could be considered fairly simple to write and understand. I volunteered and wrote the tutorial "game" that's included in the Unity package for the OTEE guys and had no trouble getting it done, even with my lack of "programming" background and emphasis on the art/creating aspect of Unity.

All of that really hard stuff people normally spend months and months coding into a game (physics, collisions, gravity, movement) is all there built right in and easy to modify the values of. My little tutorial added working scoring, object destruction, and a timer with only three small, easy to take apart and understand scripts.

The forums are also a great place to ask for help getting scripts started, explained or written for you. There are always great/knoweldgeable people here willing to help and once you see how some of the scripts are written, you can easily modify them to learn and to get them to do what you want.

As a graphics person, you will really like the workflow and UI of Unity, and you'll almost immediately "get" how things are done in the program and how to make it all come together. There are some basic hurdles/ways of thinking/doing things but my tutorial touches on most of them and once you get it once it's smooth sailing. (You have downloaded the demo, right?)

When you install Unity there are a whole series of standard assets (including scripts) that get installed for you to use (drag and drop) and modify to your needs. As a designer I find some of the scripting terminology hard to wrap myself around (I too am an artist not a programmer) but it's easy to get into slowly and it's all very well done and logical in the end. And as I mentioned, people here are really helpful when you need help with something.

I've actually started a small library of reusable scripts that I need so that I can just bring them into new projects as I create them (rolling marble scripts, changing values in a scene based on object type, rollover effects, etc). They're just simple, well-commented (so I can understand them later) .js files that I edit with SubEthaEdit.

The other cool thing is that the Unity environment promotes small team efforts to get things done. If you'd ever consider making a modest little shareware game but don't have the really high-end scripting skills needed, it's easy to partner with one or two others so that one person does the graphics/assembly/art/direction, while another does the needed scripting.

The Indie license of Unity is, IMHO, an excellent value for someone like yourself who wants to get into making games but not in over your head. Unity isn't like Torque etc where a vast knowledge of programming is needed and the graphics creation plays second fiddle. It's a very cool tool that delivers exactly what is says. With the Indie license, people like you and I by ourselves can create cool (little) games with a focus on the art end of things, and deliver Mac standalone apps, widgets, and web games, all with the click of a button. If people like us (really good modelling and/or art skills) partner up with a decent scripting person (the other-side-of-the-brain folks) you can really create some larger, very cool things.

I'm overall very, very impressed with Unity and have been using Macs since 1986 so it takes alot to impress me. There is no better tool on the market like Unity right now, none at all.

Hope that helps! PM or email me if you want more insight, or iChat at ScuffleDustcough.

 

Fudge I still haven't gotten my pay check (2 weeks) I'm ready to get my copy. I'm another one of those art guys. So if you do get it you won't be alone ;P Jeff. And you can contact me on ichat with guategeek

 

This is a much better response than I anticipated! Unity sounds like a perfect fit for me. I plan to build some low poly scenes and objects in C4D before I install the demo so I can get some real quality time with it. Thanks for all the positive responses, seems like a really nice group here.

 

Just got my license!!!!!!!!!!

 

Excellent!