Roving reporter, Forbes contributor, mobile expert, veteran blogger, noted commentator, cultural podcaster, rock dj,muppet wrangler and Eurovision legend, Ewan Spence is currently out in Vancouver, Canada for the Unity developers conference – UNITE 2013.
Ewan will be providing on the spot reportage, live coverage and terrifyingly in-depth analysis of the conference, for the benefit of you, our readers.
Here’s Ewan’s opening gambit…
Whatever you need to do to become a recognisable name in the gaming landscape, Unity has done it. The middleware engine is not only powering some of the big mobile names in gaming (Bad Piggies, and the Temple Run series spring to mind), but there is a glimmer of recognition in the public. Certainly the announcement that ‘Unity’ was coming to Windows Phone 8 at the end of 2012 was greeted with recognition, and a little bit of ‘finally, it’s here.’
Quickly, how many tools and backends would the public recognise? The old timers will recall the Quake engine being one of the first to have name recognition, paving the way for Unreal to become a recognisable moniker that games would look for. The rise of a games culture in the smartphone platforms has given Unity that same potential.
Which leads me to Unite 2013. Taking place over the next few days in Canada, Unity have opened the doors of the Vancouver Convention Centre to talk about their platform, to present new technologies, and showcase the latest innovations from their hardware and software partners.
And, more fool me, I seem to be right in the middle of it, with a keyboard, some wi-fi, and a login to Scottish Games. This could get… interesting.
New GUI system, please.
“GUI coming in 4.x” was the joke, it was talked about on stage but they were very non-committal on delivery dates.