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What do you do for a living and how is Unity essential to your workflow?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by jarombra, Jul 22, 2016.

  1. jarombra

    jarombra

    Joined:
    Sep 23, 2015
    Posts:
    8
    Here's the full question: What do you do for a living and how is Unity, in addition to any other software packages, essential to your workflow and subsequently livelihood?

    Perhaps to no surprise, I'm sure many of you are either game developers or architectural visualization specialists, but even if that's the case, I'd love to hear about how you use Unity and which aspects of it are most useful to you.

    Lastly, what are the projected opportunities of Unity talent in the next decade? How might the skill base grow into other niches or atrophy altogether?

    Spill the beans! Thanks forum.
     
  2. Kiwasi

    Kiwasi

    Joined:
    Dec 5, 2013
    Posts:
    16,860
    I'm do chemical engineering for a living. Unity it pretty much superfluous to my workflow and livelihood.

    Most of my day to day work is done in Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Access. About 95% of my work is contained within the Microsoft Office suite. There are a couple of specialist software packages I use, Citect, MEX, SAP. But I'm not an expert on these, and they don't form a heavy part of my day.

    :p
     
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  3. Ony

    Ony

    Joined:
    Apr 26, 2009
    Posts:
    1,977
    Career game developer since 1994, independent (2 person team) since 2000. Worked on over 30 titles for console and PC (no mobile).

    Started using Unity in 2009, having used several other engines/frameworks before it, and still using it now. Pretty much anything I want to make I know I can make it in Unity. It has its problems but compared to tools from back in the day it's magic. I try to keep that thought in mind even as I pound my fists on the desk in frustration at its many bugs.
     
  4. MV10

    MV10

    Joined:
    Nov 6, 2015
    Posts:
    1,889
    Code-monkey since 1978 or 79, I forget exactly when the sickness began. Unity hobbyist.

    If I had to pull a number out of my butt I'd say you'll find the forums are hobbyist-to-pro ratio of about 10:1 or more. (Edit: On second thought it's dumb for me to try to put a number on it, suffice to say, "mostly hobbyists" in the forums is the impression I get.)
     
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  5. Martin_H

    Martin_H

    Joined:
    Jul 11, 2015
    Posts:
    4,436
    Yeah, I'm one of those hobbiests too. Unity doesn't contribute to my income in any way and is unlikely to do so any time soon.

    What I would find a lot more interesting is why apperently a big percentage of successful Unity devs seem to avoid the forum. Even when they have accounts here, it looks like they very rarely participate.
     
  6. MV10

    MV10

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    Nov 6, 2015
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    I've wondered that myself. My guess is if you're paid to do this all day every day, it's a lot easier to find the answers you need. Also they're probably in a shop with a few others who may know the answers (in the forums it's often the same small core group answering a lot of the questions over and over), and with Pro I've assumed they get better support options (or no?).
     
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  7. Dave-Carlile

    Dave-Carlile

    Joined:
    Sep 16, 2012
    Posts:
    967
    I'm a Business Intelligence developer, mostly using Microsoft SQL Server, SSIS, and SSRS to morph transactional data into something more palatable for the folks running the company.

    Unity is essential to my livelihood in that it allows me to write the code I want to rather than always the code my boss wants me to, thus keeping me sane so I can continue slinging data to pay the bills. It's a cycle of life and death really, played out every day.
     
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  8. Ryiah

    Ryiah

    Joined:
    Oct 11, 2012
    Posts:
    20,965
    Just ask those who stopped visiting while Lithium was being used how much more productive they became. :p
     
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  9. justbrosingthanks

    justbrosingthanks

    Joined:
    Feb 17, 2015
    Posts:
    146
    I am making weird things for a living, that's all :). Such as:

    * have posted hundreds of ebooks on Amazon "written" automatically by a software made by myself to write books automatically.

    * apps on google play, mostly asset flips with impressions, nothing special

    * desktop software on amazon...though now abandoned project mostly...just getting pennies from things posted in 2014.

    * recently tried making a game on steam to see how it works - wasn't expecting fortune but like with any project i've been making, I decided to 'test' the water' at first and then decide whether to continue or stop. For now, still can't decide..

    As to unity, not my favorite program but don't hate it either. The ability to export to so many formats with a single click is great.
     
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  10. Martin_H

    Martin_H

    Joined:
    Jul 11, 2015
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    4,436
    Please post a text sample. I'm curious.
     
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  11. justbrosingthanks

    justbrosingthanks

    Joined:
    Feb 17, 2015
    Posts:
    146
    Well, everything I write here is written by it 0_0. Kidding lol

    ok I am looking for samples as of now, or better yet just make new one just in case someone wouldn't use the past work against me.

    Like...the Steam forums already have an angry mob against me, literally earlier today a guy started pming me randomly about Digital Homicide and later told me he has made screenshot of our chat and contacted valve lol...like...to ban me for what? For calling Sterling a troll desperate to promote his videos...like that's a "huge violation".

    Anyway, will post later about the text - how many words? can be thousands...may pm you even if you wish.
     
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  12. Ryiah

    Ryiah

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    My dad has written science articles for various websites and he's encountered articles written by software. From the discussions I've had with him they're apparently very easy to identify if you know what to look for.

    You basically asked for it. :p
     
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  13. Martin_H

    Martin_H

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    Jul 11, 2015
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    I don't want to derail this thread too much.

    We've been talking about procedural generation of all sorts, including narrative, in this thread:
    http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/how-to-make-an-aaa-game-in-unity-or-fail-badly.390947/page-24

    I think it would be very interesting to see what kind of quality your method comes up with and what the parameters are you feed it with. I think @neoshaman might be interested as well.

    Interesting. I think CGP grey mentioned in one of his videos that some articles are already being procedurally written. Let's move it to the old AAA thread, it's all a bit more "on topic" there.
     
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  14. tswalk

    tswalk

    Joined:
    Jul 27, 2013
    Posts:
    1,109
    During the day I sleep under a bridge, at night I slip into a local pub and use their wifi and free public computer to run unity and make bad flip games to earn quarters for tomorrow.
     
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  15. BFGames

    BFGames

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    Oct 2, 2012
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    1,543
    Pretty straight forward. I work as a Gameplay programmer fulltime and Unity is the tool i work with :)
     
  16. Marble

    Marble

    Joined:
    Aug 29, 2005
    Posts:
    1,268
    I'm a college instructor. I teach Unity and spend most of my spare time using it to create games for both the classroom and for my various passions.

    I'm worried that my college won't be able to afford Unity now that the Pro cost has increased so much even for education, and that they will drop it. I would miss it very much.
     
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  17. imaginaryhuman

    imaginaryhuman

    Joined:
    Mar 21, 2010
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    5,834
    I manage a few websites that sell home decor stuff, working for a small ecommerce company. Been at it for 11 years.

    Have had a love/hate affair with Unity and quite several times and haven't done anything since I last 'totally quit' some months ago, but I'm feeling a bit refreshed and considering getting back into it. Would like to be able to make some money with it but also want to have fun and not get stuck in the details.
     
  18. Andy-Touch

    Andy-Touch

    A Moon Shaped Bool Unity Legend

    Joined:
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    I work at Unity, and also use Unity at game-jams & hack-days in my spare-time. So I would argue its pretty damn essential to my workflow. :)

    In terms of how the skill-base and Unity talent will grow; in the past 3 years I have been working here and have been travelling all over Europe & Middle East (And sometimes Russia) to talk to studios, schools & communities about creating games and using Unity to achieve what they want to create; I have definitely noticed an increase in younger talented developers and the age of entry to creating games decreasing rapidly. I have visited a lot of educational places, and spoken with teachers in these regions, who have said that students are being taught less "How to use MS Word to write a Letter" and more "These are the fundamentals of programming; and how they apply to creating a website or making an app/game". The other week, I was at a school in the UK and ran a 2 day 'How to make a 2D Space-Shooter Game in Unity" workshop for 11 to 13 year olds. Only a few of them had used a 'game editor' (Which was Scratch), none of them had 'written' code before and by the end of the 2 days they were all customising the space-shooter game and creating their own variants and game mechanics! It was seriously mind-blowing!
     
  19. neoshaman

    neoshaman

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    6,493
    I used to work in the game industry as a game designer and quit in 2008 to follow stuff I would NEVER been able to achieve with a proper career. I strip my life bare of any unnecessary things (which also had teh effect to strip my social life too lol) because I want to have the latitude to fail gracefully. I use to dabble with unity at the beginning, realize that the problem is really about understanding my target and putting a structured plan to know where to go. That mean a lot of documentation, soul searching to prioritized divergent ideas and defining precisely what I want in greater details, basically planning. I found out that working with a vague goal really don't work with me, I work better when I can grind toward a definite goal. I'm nearing the end of this phase, good lord finally! While I don't actively use unity unless I want to test quickly the feasibility of something, the forums do boost my productivity because keeping my mind nimble through discussion help me a lot! I cannot think without a good discussion, where I am nobody like a good in depth discussion that can potentially shatter perception of things. :( I'm not smart though, I just need thoughts that looks like complete and self coherent, I'm just grinding.
     
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  20. zombiegorilla

    zombiegorilla

    Moderator

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    May 8, 2012
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    I make games. Also use a text editor, photoshop, illustrator and 3d packages (maya/blender). Currently using Unity to make those games, so fairly essential.

    For the future, Unity is fairly easy to use and learn. Being skilled/creative programer / artist / designer is the real critical bit. Unity can be learned very easily if you have the one or more of those base skills.
     
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  21. dturtle1

    dturtle1

    Joined:
    Jun 7, 2016
    Posts:
    24
    Hi, i am very new to Unity, about a month properly. I work in my brothers business in Office Administration, Tech Support, Bookkeeper and anything to do with computers really. I use Office 365 and Myob, Chrome and SQL Server(Just started learning properly) predominately and am learning to make stuff in Unity.

    Currently, i am working towards integrating a SQL database back end for the business and then develop custom business solutions as required. I was pretty good at computers in school and I did a couple of computing subjects at University roughly 15 years ago(lol). I am currently relearning everything that i have forgotten and hope that some time in the future i will be using Unity as a more integral part of my workflow :)
     
  22. justbrosingthanks

    justbrosingthanks

    Joined:
    Feb 17, 2015
    Posts:
    146
    Yeah let's stay on topic, for anyone inteested - pm, email etc. don't want to hijack this one.