iPhone development with Unity

They released an update ( http://unity3d.com/unity/whats-new/iphone-1.0.1.html ) for their iPhone Publishing option and offer a 20% discount till the end of the year, code "ENDOFYEAR08".

This means that the Indie combi (Unity+iPhone-Publishing) now costs you $480 (from $600) and Pro $2400 (from $3000).

Keep in mind that within the first quarter of 2009 they also want to release the win version of the IDE, crosslicence and available as a free update for existing 2.x users. Still a lot of money but if you were thinking about getting it, this might be the right time.


Which other iPhone Dev-Tools/Frameworks do you know beside of Shiva, Torque and pure XCode, especially for 2D?

Thanks for the coupon code taumel, it works with anything. I plan to get Unity before the year is out, so the timing is perfect!

The only downside is them charging 25% VAT for "cross-border sales", which counters the discount:

Unity Indie 1 $199.00 $199.00
Happy Holidays 2008! (20% of $199.00) $-39.80
VAT (25% of $159.20) (only applicable within EU) $39.80
Total $199.00

Sorry if I'm hi-jacking this thread, but a couple of Unity3d questions someone here may be able to shed light on.

First, I've heard a rumour that there's a win version of Unity3d on the way. Is that true and any rumours as to when?

Secondly, how much of a learning curve would it be to go from Blitz3d basic to Javascript (cold turkey, with no experience in Java)?

It's so dead easy it's not even funny. The one thing you will have to do is reference the Mono project from to time to time for system level stuff. On the whole JavaScript in Unity is pure cake. I had to write one C# script for my project but they fixed their little preference bug in the new version so I shouldn't have to worry about that anymore either. Unity is by far the best development solution I've used to this point.

@Mousey
Well, then at least you spare yourself the taxes.

@MadJack
As i wrote, win version is said to be released in Q109.

Although a learning curve always is an individual thing i would say, first you'll need time for getting familiar with the Editor. Once this is done scripting shouldn't be an issue. The 3d concepts behind are quite nice, so easy on this side. Generally you should be able getting things done in Unity if you were in Blitz3D.

But you also should be aware of that Javascript, especially Unity's implementation (not comparable to what you might be used to from Flash), is just not sexy compared to something like BlitzMax's syntax, maybe Boo or C# looks nicer to you. Personally i'm still hoping for Ruby in Unity one day. The thing is, coding in BlitzMax is more fun due to the syntax but due to well implemented concepts and the capability of the tool, Unity is still great, ahead of it's competitors and available.

@taumel

Yeah, I wasn't meaning to whinge - it's just that I hadn't realised until today that the $199.00 didn't include VAT (and then I would have expected 15% VAT, not 25%!). It's great that I'm effectively saving the taxes, thanks to you.

No problem, merry christmas.

That's because it's a boo implementation of javascript.


Agreed!

All in all, I am very happy with Unity. Once you get past the whole "attaching scripts as components to objects" everything else is downhill. If you ever did anything in Shockwave 3d, and realized how cumbersome it was, you will be very very happy with Unity and how they applied everything.

Sorry?

Are you on commision taumel?

No, i'm just used to open talk regarding development.

"Which other iPhone Dev-Tools/Frameworks do you know beside of Shiva, Torque and pure XCode, especially for 2D?"

Cocos2d

Have you used it?

Why?
I was merely pointing out that the implementation of javascript is strange because it's a Boo implementation.

Hmmmmm, again.

I think I could take to that quite quickly - it's sort of the approach I took to Tank Universal and it seems to be one that would suit sandboxy/open world/emergent gameplay styles quite well...

It definitely looks tasty.

Not only this, it's generally good for checking out settings on your objects/assets and spares you the time writing you own editor/configuration functions for this and that.

Yeah, debugging live, moving crap around live, gadgets that allow you to see constraints and what not in the editor.

I must say, it's the best leap I have ever made because they really thought out the system very well. I'm sure many of us sit there and say "It's nice and all but I really wish they would have done this... or that..." and with Unity I find myself saying "Oh, that's how you do that... That's actually very logical, nice job unity team"

Again, the only downfall is the lack of documentation with regards to the C# scripting. Yeah, I know c# syntax however to apply it to unity, when all the scripting documentation is in javascript, is rather difficult. If I weren't under the gun on a project right now I'd sit down and figure out the finer points of C# with unity cause I think that's where the real power in code comes from. The Boo implementation of javascript gets rather limiting at times, and even cumbersome at others.

GLBasic will be adding iPhone compilation early next year.

I own Unity...

Hate it. I do not like having to structure code "the unity way" (or the Torque way, which I also own), having to wrestle with the GUI, hate javascript/boo/c# languages.

Blitzmax is a lot better for me. The only language where I felt the freedom to explore features and actually finished a game was blitzmax.

PLS

It's definately different but if you're coming from the Director/Flash direction you're already familiar with that. I don't see it as a downside structuring my code that way but i also don't like the languages which are supported in Unity, the poor documentation on them etc. A problem is that the fanboys don't really help enhancing the situation because they hooray everything and so it doesn't get improved. But well, i guess each product/forum has these problems. Seeing things grey never was popular.

MadJack,

Unity Windows is a real thing - I saw it in October it looks identical to the Mac verison and will feature some new stuff which has been requested by the users - the Unity guys sat a load of us in a room and said, this is what we wanna do, what do you need? So we told them.

These guys are brilliant and although pls doesnt like the structure, the learning curb should be fine for you, Javascript is very simple as long as you get a few basic things in your head. I would say that the power Unity offers makes any learning curve more than worth it.

Although its a game engine, it won't write games for you, YOU still have to do a lot of work, but its the best 'leg up' you are likely to get for $199.

If you were thinking of developing for iPhone you'll need the Mac version though.

IPete2.

Yes they ask but in the end they still implement what they think is important. At least it gives you that warm fuzz that you're somehow important.