Unity Experiments

September 26, 2013

I’ve been testing out the waters with Unity lately, figuring out whether it’s something I’d like to use for future projects.

Long story short, Unity is a way to make games that you can play on the web, download as apps on iOS or Android, play right on your PC or Mac, the whole nine yards.  Could be a great help in future games — and in updates to older games.  I’m excited to use it to build the next generation Gravity Simulator, for instance.

This past week, I got my feet a bit wetter with the programming language and all around *how* to build something in Unity.  The mission?  Rebuild the Slide Rule.  It was one of my first apps, and really just a way for me to explore how to build an app.  After all, it doesn’t come much simpler than an interface with two moving pieces.  (Disclaimer: it’s become much more than that… and it is more complex than I remembered!)

So I threw together the slide rule app, building it from the ground up in Unity.  I built it to run on my iPhone, which it did, fine.  (Not all the features mind you, pretty bare bones)  And then — here’s the cool part — I changed the settings slightly, and now it works on the web!  You can check out the (still rough) result here.

So go play around with TTG’s new internet slide rule!

You’ll need to download the Unity Player if you haven’t already, which you should be automatically prompted to do.  It’s just like the Flash Player you need to use any of my flash games… only different.  A quick one-time download, then you’ll never need to do it again.  Not too tough, right?

The verdict on Unity?  It has a learning curve, like anything else.  But, overall, it seems robust and easy to build in.  And sending a game to multiple platforms is amazing.  Who knows, maybe the slide rule will pop up on Android devices soon.

My next Unity project?  Improving the Gravity Sim.  I’m really excited to see that one on *all* my devices.