Development Info Why we chose Unity for Wasteland 2 (+Linux Support)

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: InXile Entertainment; John Alvarado; Kickstarter; Wasteland 2

There's been a lot of talk about inXile's Engine choice for Wasteland 2, so in their #16 KickStarter project update, InXile talk about why they chose Unity as their game engine:

There was a broad enough offering just from the vendors that came to us that we prioritized our evaluations to these products first, hoping to find our solution amongst the ones making generous offers and hence help devote more resources to the game. [...] We came up with a list of engine requirements that looked like this:

1. Ease of use by artists and designers

2. Targets Windows, Mac and Linux

3. Support and expertise available from vendor and in community

4. Adaptability for player modding

5. 3D rendering, pathing, AI, physics, character animation tools

[...] [The Unity] engine stood out as an early front-runner on point 1 of our requirements. [...] At first it seemed to be missing a leg on point 2 (support for Linux platform), but I knew that we could get source code and therefore could provide the Linux port ourselves. [...] Where Unity really bowled us over was on point 3. Besides generous support available from Unity staff, the Unity Asset Store is a treasure trove of assets (3D models and code) provided by the large and growing community of Unity users.

[...] I think the fact that Unity provides their basic engine/editor for free is a big plus as a starting point for providing the tools necessary for supporting modding of Wasteland 2 [...] Finally, from looking at Unity demos, other games developed with Unity, and conducting our own art and coding tests, we are convinced that Unity delivers on the game system that we need to build Wasteland 2 in style. This includes advanced 3D rendering, pathing, physics (PhysX), multiple options for scripting language, advanced 3D level editor that is customizable with scripted components, and much more.

[...] It has been my experience over decades of game development that no engine or tool is ever perfect for the game you want to build. Any engine or tool will have points of weaker comparison to other options, but you have to evaluate how the whole offering matches up with your resources and skills to make a good choice for the project at hand. Unity is an excellent choice that will allow us to deliver the great game we’ve promised in Wasteland 2.
​

As a sub-note, they have: Technology inXile has used: Snowblind Engine, RadTools, UE3 Engine, Gamebryo Engine, RKEngine, and various smaller third-party tools for game sub systems such as, path-finding, physics, character animation and lip-synching, etc

So there you go, the mystery has been solved. Cue forum quarter-backing in 3... 2...

 

[Jaesun]

In before shitty Drog alt.

 

[Shervin]

Who gives a toss about why they use Unity? Players don't give shit about devs and their technical bullshit as long as they make good shit out of it. If you want to give an update for your game, make it about game-play and in-game content. Who gives a damn about engine and what they are good for.

 

[Untermensch]

They explained everything.
But, but ...... mah Codex drama

 

[CWagner]

Who gives a toss about why they use Unity? Players don't give shit about devs and their technical bullshit as long as they make good shit out of it.

That's what you think. I found the update highly interesting. Don't make assumptions about others when you don't know anything about the matter at hand but your very own thoughts.

 

[mbpopolano24]

Shervin,

497 comments on the previous thread with the same topic... I'd say this should make you think about what you say... unless you are full of shit, of course.

 

[Bulba]

Looks like the codex is out of steam... finaly

 

[Infinitron]

Drocon Drocon Drocon!

 

[Menckenstein]

 

[Shervin]

Shervin,

497 comments on the previous thread with the same topic... I'd say this should make you think about what you say... unless you are full of shit, of course.

As long as a game is popular, no matter what's the game's update's subject, people will talk about it. Remember all those news about gay romances in ME? Do you think that subject was really worth discussing? But since devs wanted to update their game with such subject, people discussed it and discussed it a lot. The fact that devs update news for their games about all useless info like who's the composer, what's the engine, etc and make it the main point of discussing pisses me off. These kinds of stuff should be mentioned in minor updates. I want to know about game-play elements. I'm sure you prefer to discuss game-play about the games you anticipate more than anything. But since devs don't give it to you, you are forced to discuss the things they throw at you.

 

[crojipjip]

Fargo give me some hint when you will reply to my job application. Its been almost a week. Just tell us how many engineers you have hired and like how long will time go by before you throw away initial mails..

 

[Infinitron]

I'm sure you prefer to discuss game-play about the games you anticipate more than anything. But since devs don't give it to you, you are forced to discuss the things they throw at you.

This can't be repeated enough.

 

[Infinitron]

Looks like you gonna be really angry if you hang out at a news website, then.

The RPGCodex is far more than a mere "news website".

And if you hear every detail of the game before you play you won't enjoy it.

Who said we had to know "every detail"? We want game developers to talk about gameplay, what a revolutionary idea!

 

[Shervin]

Because they don't have all the details nailed down before they even start the game, and they will change as development goes by when some stuff doesn't work out. And if you hear every detail of the game before you play you won't enjoy it.

No my friend. This is exactly the point you're mistaking. game-play details are among the first things experienced devs know about and at the time when they announce the game and start the marketing, all of them are pretty much implemented and those ideas that didn't couldn't be used are already discarded. One of the main problems with the games that turn into shit is that the devs didn't have the complete structure of the game-play in mind and on paper, but decided to start developing the game anyway and work on the game-play as the development progresses. These developers are doomed to fail. Because most of the games that use this method usually suffer from balancing problems or weak pacing or worse. And any RPG'er knows how bad these problems are.
So if Wasteland 2 is going to be good, right now, Fargo and his team should exactly know what they are going to make with all of the little details or else, they are going to fail.

Now the thing I say is that devs are scared to share game-play information because they are afraid that people won't like it and they will meet with backlash and so they decide to yak about bullshit to distract people from the main deal. One of the reasons I like Piranha Bytes is that game-play elements were the first thing they announced about Risen 2 in World of Risen forums after it got announced. Although I found out that the game is going ti be shit by those updates, but at least, I knew what I'm going to face.

 

[CWagner]

I'm sure you prefer to discuss game-play about the games you anticipate more than anything. But since devs don't give it to you, you are forced to discuss the things they throw at you.

This can't be repeated enough.

At this early state of the game I find the engine far more interesting than gameplay beyond that what we know already. But of course you guys talk fro everybody. Ever!

 

[Mozgoëbstvo]

Shervin,

497 comments on the previous thread with the same topic... I'd say this should make you think about what you say... unless you are full of shit, of course.

As long as a game is popular, no matter what's the game's update's subject, people will talk about it. Remember all those news about gay romances in ME? Do you think that subject was really worth discussing? But since devs wanted to update their game with such subject, people discussed it and discussed it a lot. The fact that devs update news for their games about all useless info like who's the composer, what's the engine, etc and make it the main point of discussing pisses me off. These kinds of stuff should be mentioned in minor updates. I want to know about game-play elements. I'm sure you prefer to discuss game-play about the games you anticipate more than anything. But since devs don't give it to you, you are forced to discuss the things they throw at you.

FUCK, I recently found myself thinking about that in regards to ArmA III.
If there are no updates, the forums are all pissed off, so we have (very infrequent) updates - that don't say ANYTHING of interest.
It's an awful damned if you do, damned if you don't situation, partly caused by the fans and their hunger for updates.

But yeah, I mostly agree with you.

 

[Melcar]

Linux.

 

[villain of the story]

So they chose it because someone we've never heard of thought it was a good idea?

Color me reassured.

Who have you heard of, shitty alt?

There are plenty of unknown and unheard of people in the industry who publish papers on the side, the technology they develop while working on a game, technology that eventually spreads and becomes standard. That's how a lot of everyone's favourite next-gen features came into being, became a trend and reached a standard. Those unknown people are the people who push the graphics forward, regardless of gaming itself going back due to shit design.

 

[St. Toxic]

Exactly. Who cares what the stated reasons are for using Unity, it's obvious that they're wrong because they are using Unity. InExile are idiots because they didn't use C4, they should give the backers their money back. I withdrew my support as soon as I heard, I don't care to play whatever browser-based mmo that Wasteland 2 will become.

 

[Commissar Draco]

They should use Fallout Tactics engine.... Shity 3-D in my game?

 

[Jasede]

Don't you think that, no matter which engine they end up using, some of you would feel disgruntled by their choice for various perfectly valid reasons?
Sometimes I wonder what the whole point of exchanging opinions is. Nothing changes. It's all entropy.

 

[St. Toxic]

Exactly, it's just scary how these industry veterans haven't learned a single thing during their time in game development. I mean, Fargo is one of the pioneers in the field, and yet he just doesn't realize what a catastrophe this choice of engine actually is for W2. There are literally dozens of other engines that they could have picked and yet they chose this specific one, it's uncanny.

 

[Jasede]

I'm trying to work with you here; what specifically makes this engine so bad?
(It looks pretty bad to me to on the screenshots, but that can be explained away by art design choices)

Does it have a bad reputation? Does it have bad support? Is it not very portable? Poorly optimized? Bad path-finding support? What is it? What about this engine spells bad things for the game? The way I reckon is that you can make good or bad games with any engine- but my experience with engines is incredibly limited so I wouldn't know; but you can probably explain it to me, or link me to where you explained it.

 

[Jasede]

So you're saying some idiot at inXile fell for the engine-equivalent of a misleading TV commercial?

 

[St. Toxic]

It's just way too successful Jasede, that's its problem. It's probably coded by evil yids who only want to keep the white man down. It also smells and I don't like the name. Plus my friend Bob says it's bad and he's knowledgeable about stuff like that, he's made snes rom hacks in the past.