macOS Unity game engine for 2D(ish) games?

[HiRez]

I've checked out a bunch of documentation and screenshots for the Unity engine. It seems like it is heavily geared towards 3D first-person shooter type games, but what about 2D and 2.5D type games? Could you (or maybe a better question is would you) use Unity for something like Mahjong, Bejeweled, Tetris, Starcraft, a side-scrolling shooter, an isometric MMORPG or dungeon crawler, or other non 3D shooter style games? It just seems hard to believe that one development environment would seamlessly support all possible types of game styles.

And just as a more general question, how do you like developing with Unity for those of you who are using it? Have you run into any roadblocks in your development, missing features, restrictions? And for simpler games types, is it worth it? Would you be better served by just going with let's say Objective-C (for a Mac/iPhone game) and maybe writing a few things from scratch but gaining complete control?

 

[Eric5h5]

It seems like it is heavily geared towards 3D first-person shooter type games

It's heavily geared toward 3D games since it's a 3D engine. There is no bias toward first-person shooter games at all. Of the hundreds of finished Unity games, there are hardly any 3D shooters...I can only think of two or three offhand.

but what about 2D and 2.5D type games?

A lot of (maybe even most) Unity iPhone games are 2D. The methods used are different compared to traditional 2D, since you're still using a 3D engine. This article has a bit of info on creating Zombieville USA in Unity and how the art was done.

Could you (or maybe a better question is would you) use Unity for something like Mahjong, Bejeweled, Tetris, Starcraft, a side-scrolling shooter, an isometric MMORPG or dungeon crawler, or other non 3D shooter style games?

Could you? Sure. Would you? I personally would, yes, because I like Unity and don't feel like learning something else at this time. More seriously, features like the physics engine and so on add to the game size whether you're using them or not, so you could consider that additional overhead that you may not need or want, but on the other hand, you can easily add effects to enhance the experience of otherwise 2D games, like the Unity game Big Bang Brain Games does.

It just seems hard to believe that one development environment would seamlessly support all possible types of game styles.

Unity doesn't care what kind of game you're making. Aside from being a 3D engine, what you do with it is up to you. It's an engine, not a game-maker. It seamlessly supports all possible game types in much the same way that a C++ compiler seamlessly supports all possible game types.

And just as a more general question, how do you like developing with Unity for those of you who are using it?

It's great. Seamless pipeline, no real limitations...if there are no built-in functions that do what you need, you write your own. If you absolutely insist on iPhone games that are <10MB, then it's difficult to get Unity games that small and still have any reasonable amount of content, and even then you need iPhone Advanced to do it. Other than that (and I regard that basically a non-issue anyway), there are very few games that I wouldn't use Unity for.

--Eric

 

[SRossi]

There is a tutorial from Unity that shows how to create a 2D game find it here.

Yeah it does focus heavily on 3D but I sure that it was built to be a 3D games engine, but 3D must derive from 2D so using the engine in the correct way would create good looking 2D games.

Hope this is what you were looking for.

Stephen

 

[HiRez]

Thanks for the answers, Eric. That link about the making of the Zombieville U.S.A. was great, an inspiring story for small developers.

There is a tutorial from Unity that shows how to create a 2D game find it here.

Also a great link, thanks!

 

[VPrime]

Aside from what is stated here, creating isometric games is really easy as well. For an assignment I recreated the first level from the first metal gear solid game.
It is just a matter of getting the correct angle for your camera.

 

[chrono1081]

Unity is excellent. I'm currently working on a 2D project for Unity (in real infancy stage. I'm still playing around with graphics styles) but from what I've used in Unity its great. I've worked through the tutorials, built a few concept levels, and am now starting to make a game for it.

To make 2D games in Unity simply lock the Z axis. You still have all the great things real time lighting, cookies (if you have the pro version) etc.

 

[Eric5h5]

To make 2D games in Unity simply lock the Z axis. You still have all the great things real time lighting, cookies (if you have the pro version) etc.

You don't need Pro for that actually.

--Eric