I tried to resist, but instead of a simple, quick post, this turned out huge. Oh well…
False beginning
This post was originally supposed to be about the problems and challenges I’ve had with Unity. I started out by writing a short history about how I ended up using Unity in the first place, but as that part started expanding uncontrollably, I decided to split the post in two: we’ll talk history this time and more about Unity itself next time.
So, Unity. Though very corny, the title of this post is more or less accurate. I honestly feel like Unity has changed my life. Not in any spectacular or massive way, but I’m certain I wouldn’t be making games right now if I hadn’t come across it. I really feel like it has given me the tools to fulfill my dream of making games for a living, though whether I can fulfill that dream remains to be seen. So how did I end up here and now? Let’s take the scenic route and I’ll tell you all about it.
Childhood dreams
Up until grade school or so I wanted to be an inventor when I grew up. A silly dream for sure, but it felt pretty accurate. I was a creative kid, always building, tinkering and making things. I was never especially good in any one subject, but I still had that creative passion in me, which I then tried to channel the best I could: sometimes drawing, sometimes writing, sometimes building stuff. I often described myself as a “jack of all trades” and while I think that’s my biggest strength (and weakness), it made it hard for me to find the thing I wanted to do in life. However, when a friend of mine introduced me to Klik & Play and The Games Factory (predecessors of Game Maker more or less) I quickly found myself making games more often than not.
Using Unity reminds me of those “good old days”, because those programs of yore and Unity both have a very important thing in common: enabling creativity. And just like I love using Unity now, I loved using those old programs back in the day. They are the reason I started dreaming of becoming a game creator. Sadly however, as the years went by that dream started slowly slipping away. I felt like I could never make a “real” game with my “childish game-making programs”, that I’d have to learn to “really make games”, as in program the whole thing from the ground up myself. Then some day in my teens cynicism set in. I realized that I most likely wasn’t going to be able to make a career out of making games due to my lack of skills. Eventually I stopped making games altogether.
Ups and downs
For many years afterwards I wanted to pick up programming so I could begin my game making anew and start making “real” games, but that was easier said than done. I tried to study C++ with more or less zero prior programming experience and it was tedious, to put it lightly. I learned the basics easily enough, but the real problem was keeping myself motivated. I didn’t have any good example projects or such to learn from and just working from theory gets really tiresome quickly. Needless to say I never got too far with my attempts.
Some years later when I entered vocation school and found out we had a few courses of programming in our curriculum and I immediately took up on the chance, my dream still living on somewhere in the back of my head. I knew I had a way better chance to learn programming in a proper environment with an actual teacher and as it turned out, I was 100% correct. I don’t know if it was because of my dream, my earlier efforts with C++ or just natural skill, but I was very happy to learn that I had a real knack for programming. I was easily the best in my class, which lead to our teacher letting me learn more advanced stuff on my own while the rest of the class followed the lessons. I once again started dreaming about making games, but as there was a huge barrier to entry to make a game from scratch, my dreams were snuffed yet again.
Unexpected discovery
Fast forward to three or so years back. I was on my second year of studies at polytechnic (aka. university of applied sciences) and I found out that we had a brand new game development course available. Though I didn’t really expect to benefit much from it, I immediately decided to take the course just for the fun of it (easy credits and whatnot). Since I was already in my twenties, I had more or less given up on my dream, but little did I know it was going to reignited like never before.
I had never heard of Unity beforehand, but when we started using it on the course I very quickly realized how powerful a software it was. It didn’t take long for me to start thinking about all the things I could do with it. I finally had the kind of tools I didn’t know I had been looking for all these years and my passion for making games suddenly came back stronger than ever.
We had heard of Oulu Game Lab on many occasions during our first and second year, but before my discovery of Unity, I hadn’t had that big of a interest in it. Afterwards though, I knew I wanted to attend it. There were some self imposed “problems” though, that almost stopped me from attending at all (I’ll save you further boredom and not go into detail about them), but on my third year my reignited passion thankfully won me over and I made it happen despite all the “problems”.
And that god I did, because I’ve been happily making games ever since.
What you should take away from this
I’ve heard many developers say this and though it took a long, long time for me to realize it too, it really doesn’t matter what tools you use to develop your games. Whether you’re using Flash, Game Maker, Unity or even if you’re working from nothing, the important thing is you create. If you feel like the tools you’re using allows you to do that to the fullest, keep using them. If your game is good, your players won’t care what engine, software or tools it was made with. However, don’t be afraid to try out new tools if you feel restricted by your current ones. I know I have, but I’ll talk more about that next time.
Until then, happy developing!