Unity 3D - iPhone - pricelist and release date

For those who are interested in such things:


Release Date
October 22nd, 2008 (Day 1 of Unite)

License Options
Standard License: $399 (can be used with Unity Indie or Unity Pro)
Advanced License: $1499 (requires Unity Pro)


License is locked to 2.x Unity and allows as many title as you want to be developed. Of course you have to pay $99 to Apple too. BUT UNLIKE Torque there is no ongoing fee for each game or application.

Nice one!

IPete2.

Too expensive in my opinion (especially the advanced licence) but you also have to say that the competition is even worse.

I went the way for iTGB
Unity is nice but again, they split the stuff into two license types so I guess the really usefull stuff is missing in the regular one again.
This time it won't be shaders (iPhone has DX7 class gpu, pure FFP) so it will most likely be really important stuff not just eye candy.

Perhaps I will look into Unity for iPhone (I own the indie) at some later date again when this project is done. But right now, I mainly need 2D / Iso and Unity is quite a bit weak on that end.

Well although it has not been announced yet, what has been muted is that both versions will feature touchscreen and accelerometer controls and the polygon limit for optimum performance should apparently be below 7,000. But hey many of us were making games when 200 polys was a lot on screen! :) As for other features - you are right - they have not been decided / finaliased / announced yet, and it is hard to think of what exactly the differences could be, but my guess would be the Unity kit would include some additional stuff useful to the iPhone but not necessarily to the PC/MAC versions, maybe such things as easy control over bluetooth for shared experiences, or something like that.

If you consider how much work has gone into Unity and the iPhone SDK I can't help but think that $399 is a real gift, especially when you look at the Torque licensing, per game/app.

iPhone batterylife won't allow people to get a proper networking game like COD or C&C working over the network, but maybe locally based wi-fi or bluetooth stuff could be done.

IPete2.

as mr. IPete said.. Unity is a beauty..

Now your just dreamin ;)

Sorry, but how otherwise should you be able to steer something on the iPhone if not by allowing these inputs?!

I my opinion this offer is a little bit too greedy. You already can buy the Indie Version of Unity for $200, now the iPhone publishing option costs you twice the amount of that. Be assured that a lot more work went into the main product compared to just an iPhone publishing option. Secondly you only get a splash screen logo limited version for that and Pro costs a lot more.

If they continue this then you'll end up with the main product and a pack of another Indie/Pro licences for each platform they'll support in the future. In the sum this could turn out to be quite expensive also considering the fact that you'll likely want to update your licences when new versions are coming out.

They'll already get additional sales just by offering that publishing option from those people who simply are interested in that publishing option. I'm pretty sure that this alone would be enough. If they are selling additional licences then they'll make profit double wise.

The licence is about making money in several ways: They do this because they also expect you to make money with your apps and this way they want to profit from your expected sales and offer the licences to such conditions. Per seat licences simply don't sell to the majority of their userbase and offfering it as a free option with having the additional IDE sales in mind are just not the maximum they can get out.

If you're a pro who makes his living out of this, no problem a fine deal, if you just want to write some apps for yourself, for free or test how something might work out, no good deal. It's less about fun and more about money, that's what i dislike about this style. How would you feel if each publishing option in BlitzMax would afford a special licence?

@Plash - I may be wrong here but Zumwait has claimed a small poly game lasted 15 mins - if he's right then I dont see people using the iPhone for longer periods to play COD style multiplayer games on cause they just won't last the length of the game lol ... that's all I was saying. His battery was shot in under 15 mins with no networking (which continually takes power - check the sdk and forum videos thats Apple saying that not me! - hmm unless you know different ?? lol.

@Taumel - I see your point for the absolute indie developer - I can also see why you went for TorquesGB licence then. Does that do full 3D by the way because you may not be who I was aiming this thread for anyway and its not a comparable license if it doesn't. But remember at the end of the day Unity like Garage Games are businesses, and as such they have to get revenue in order to invest and develop and expand.

For those who don't know:
Unity 3D is a fast developing tool kit - I don't think Torque has any 'torque' (ooh sorry for the pun) on it at all TGE took years and years to get where it is now - the development of Unity 3D as a tool kit and add ons has only been the last 4 years - and its development has been awesome - its started later and already superceeded Torque in many ways already imho. Its also a lot easier for people to get a reward from, thats what a game engine should be, enabling, not disabling.

IPete2.

As for today i didn't went for anything else than XCode.

Yes both are business driven companies and i grant them their success (I bought my Unity licence more than three years ago) but they somehow evolve a greedy tendency which first showed up with the way they dealt with the Wii licence and they are doing the same thing again here. Considering were they are coming from it's kind of dissapointing. I wouldn't milk the people who were part of my success.

Well I have to agree wholeheartedly with you on that point.

And as for battery life - it now seems that Zumwaits' battery itself may be faulty as others are adding their voice to the growing camp that batterylife is at least fine and even improved in the new update.

IPete2.

At least Unity have a current gen engine, unlike Garage Games who's 3d engines mostly go back 10 years with a few current gen bandaids grafted on. TGB looked pretty decent for what it is.

Honestly i wouldn't call GarageGames products, at least those i had a look at, as real options.

I own TGB, and I don't think I'd ever buy a tool from GG again.

It has the feel of what Adrian said to a T.. a system designed in a way where the "new" technology seems constrained by the old technology under the hood. The new stuff can't step over certain lines without the risk of destabilizing the core engine.

I know they offer a source-code option, and while it seems like the solution to all it's problems on the surface, anyone who's ever done any significant amount of software development understands the "hidden" constraints that puts you under...

I know nothing good of apple, nor do I wish to. I was just saying.. COD on the iPhone... :P

hee hee - yeah that would be cool - if possible.

ell we'll see what we can do when we get the kit - I will report back in a month or so (er I hope).

IPete2.

Has anyone here actually used Unity? Is it any good?

Physt,

Yeah there are quite a few B3d users over there currently. I can only tell you that in my eyes Unity 3D is a game engine and as such is where others like Torque should be - but isn't.

B3d is a language and so you have to code everything yourself, which gives you great control, but it can be slower to develop than something which handles all the loading of ojects and scripts and sounds automatically for you, and provides extra built in features which just work out of the box. B3d does not offer the same sort of extras (built in) which Unity does, such as shadows, shaders, physics, particles, GUI, Input control, and the list goes on. Having said that the price differential makes up for that somewhat.

B3d = DX7
Unity = DX9.0c and OpenGL

B3d = Windows only
Unity = Windows, Apple Mac, plus in browser web deployment, Wii, iPhone

The BIG BAD for some is that it's currently only available for development on an Apple Mac. Windows version is coming soon I understand. But you can deploy to Windows in the Pro version.

Unity a very friendly system with a pretty nifty visual editor for designing the layout of your games and objects is as simple as drag and drop. Anything you have in your scene is automatically loaded for you when you use Application.LoadLevel("Scene1"); Unity has given me the expansion and control I want, with shaders and stuff, plus C# and JavaScript scripting, plus Wii and iPhone when I'm ready (which will be any week now btw).

HOWEVER - I also love B3d and it has earned pretty well for my company over the years and indeed will probably still do so when necessary in the future. I have Mark Sibly to thanks for that - Thanks! :)

As an example, last year I completed a 12 month game kisok project which kept me very busy all year and I have completed two prestigious interactive projects this year alone in B3d for two of my clients, one is in place at Chelsea Football museum and the other is in the Royal Institute, London.

So I have nothing but respect and admiration for B3d. I'm just adding to my toolkit with Unity in order to be able to offer more next generation style interactives, iPhone and maybe later Wii stuff - we'll see.

The iPhone announcement for those who don't yet know:
http://unity3d.com/unity/features/iphone-publishing

IPete2.