I came across Unity a few months ago but found that the indie version and the trial were only available for Windows. At the time I had not touched a Mac but I admit that when the opportunity came to cross over one of the first things that came to my mind was that I would be downloading a copy of the trial. I downloaded the trial but it stayed on the computer lonely after just one day of use because I started a new project and was learning the existing codebase etc. When I called the developers at Unity they gracefully extended my Unity trial by another 30 days. One of my first thoughts when I realized that they had a separate player was -d@man another plugin to download. This thought was quickly replaced by whatever thought accompanies my jaw hitting the floor and drool. The first set of tutorials had me already importing assets and on my way to building 3D virtual worlds. It wasn’t until later that the thought crossed my mind that there may be some implications for my dearly loved Flash.

Recently others have been experiencing the same Unity Moment. You can check out my delicious unity3D links that I’ve been collecting as the momentum builds or check out the links at the end of this post.

To me the competition is not in number of downloads or whatever else. It’s about how many loyal developers you have behind you. A developer only has a certain number of hours in which to absorb new technology. If you introduce Flash Catalyst and an associated learning curve/start from scratch then developers have a decision to make at that point. Despite the similarity to the rest of the Adobe suite- a new IDE is…a new IDE. As much as I love the Flash Platform, I love my family more and if Unity jobs explode and the Flash jobs dwindle, just as Director developers made the jump to Flash, I believe that Adobe could lose developer mindshare to Unity.

I hope this series of posts represents a spark of interest for three reasons- 1- Unity can get games on the iPhone 2- Unity Can Make games for the Wii- 3. Unity works on the desktop. Considering the ease of use of Unity I can’t help but to see it as a competitor to Flash- If I can develop 3D games for my Wii and iPhone easily and people can play them from the desktop then you have my attention. With increasing bandwith capabilities and more people using alternative means of surfing the web first downloaded advantage and marketed ubiquity feel like less of the universal client that I want Flash to be. Each technology has its Window and with record-breaking sales of both iPhones and Wiis I anticipate even more calls than I have already received offering me to build casual games for the iPhone.

I would love to hear other Flash developers feelings about this topic. Check out the links below for more on Flash and Unity.

Flash Unity 3D

1. First Impressions: Unity 3D- from jwopitz.wordpress.com- Added 03-17-2009
2. My Unity- delicious bundle- Collected as I come across ‘em
3. Unity Adobe Should Buy Them- This popped up from mxna last week and got me thinking about the competition possibilities
4. Unity Versus Flash – Is Unity Really a Flash Competitor?- This post was the starter’s pistol as far as I’m concerned. Multiple people are wondering the same thing
5. Flash vs Unity 3D
6. AS3 Flash, Flex and Unity Browser Communication and Scripting with Javascript
7. Unity Flash Integration System From the Unity Forum
8. aquiris-u3dobject – Unity3d Flash Integration tool download
9. XNA and Unity from a Flash Developer’s Perspective
10. Unity 3d Games List on The Web
11. Unity CEO says Windows version in the cards
12. AS3 Flash, Flex and Unity Browser Communication and Scripting with Javascript
13. Unity (3D) Developer Magazine – Review by richardleggett
14. RMTP Communication with Uity3D Using C# Updated
15. Unity Can Flash Do this Please?
16. Unity: Taking the place of flash for 3D web gaming
17. Flash is Dead in March Unity Coming to Windows- Written 1/25/09 added 2/25/09
18. Unity Getting More and More Love – 2009-09-20
19. My thoughts on Unity Free: Ben Britten 10/29/2009

Tags: adobe flash, competition, flash, unit vs flash, Unity3D

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 9:14 am by diamondtearz and is filed under Unity3D. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.