Unity reveals plans to charge developers per game install - plans revoked and CEO fired, lol

[:Flash:]

LOL, we removed a github repository because the view count was so low, do they still think their customers are this stupid?

 

[negator2vc]

Hiring programmer straight out of college - underpaying him and forcing him to crunch until he quits - is probably not a way to do it. It still will work if you find Carmack-level one - who will be done with the 2D engine by the time he finds out better paying job with reasonable work hours.

You certainly don't need a Carmack level programmer to make 2D engine these days.

 

[Spectacle]

A general principle in IT is that you should use off-the-shelf solutions whenever possible.

Writing a basic 2D engine may not be hard, but every hour you spend doing that is an hour you're not developing your actual game.

Also, Unity (and Unreal, etc.) is not just a game engine, but also has an editor application, which lets you do stuff like mapping out game levels quickly and efficiently.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Okay, who else had suspicions that it's just some botched marketing bullshit like this?

Here's some footage of the Unity CEO reaping the fruits of his marketing strategy:



[EDIT] The fuck is with this video it's at 0.75 speed lmao.

 

[RobotSquirrel]

Writing a basic 2D engine may not be hard, but every hour you spend doing that is an hour you're not developing your actual game.

Also, Unity (and Unreal, etc.) is not just a game engine, but also has an editor application, which lets you do stuff like mapping out game levels quickly and efficiently.

Having done a 3D engine with Level Editor... yeah you're 100% right. I regret making the damn thing when Godot had everything I needed out of box.
Making tools sucks, I don't recommend. There is existing workflows that are better and the less custom shit you add to the engine the better.
Learned that one the hard way, Don't try to be Ken Silverman, it ends badly. 2D Engines whilst easy also demand some creative level editing tools and that's the hard part, 3D its even worse though.

 

[negator2vc]

Having done a 3D engine with Level Editor... yeah you're 100% right. I regret making the damn thing when Godot had everything I needed out of box.
Making tools sucks, I don't recommend. There is existing workflows that are better and the less custom shit you add to the engine the better.
Learned that one the hard way, Don't try to be Ken Silverman, it ends badly. 2D Engines whilst easy also demand some creative level editing tools and that's the hard part, 3D its even worse though.

But for many 2D games you don't even need a specialized tool for the custom 2d engine.
There are many, well supported, tools out there that can easily be used with a custom engine.

And to give a personal example....
For my main projects (99% 2D) I use Godot 3 BUT lately I am starting to see changes in Godot 4 that I don't like very much so I started working on a custom 2D engine (C + Raylib + Lua) to have as backup engine just in case.
In order to test my engine I have used some older Godot games of mine which I ported to my custom engine.
For editor I used Tiled (but I won't mind also test LDtk editor) with excellent results even for ex. adventure games (not the target genre of the editor)

Since Godot 3 is going to be supported for quite a while I don't plan to abandon it but as I said before I like to keep my options open

 

[Fedora Master]

 

[Shinji]

Writing a basic 2D engine may not be hard, but every hour you spend doing that is an hour you're not developing your actual game.

Also, Unity (and Unreal, etc.) is not just a game engine, but also has an editor application, which lets you do stuff like mapping out game levels quickly and efficiently.

Having done a 3D engine with Level Editor... yeah you're 100% right. I regret making the damn thing when Godot had everything I needed out of box.
Making tools sucks, I don't recommend. There is existing workflows that are better and the less custom shit you add to the engine the better.
Learned that one the hard way, Don't try to be Ken Silverman, it ends badly. 2D Engines whilst easy also demand some creative level editing tools and that's the hard part, 3D its even worse though.

With that said, developers do end up creating their own custom tools on top of Unity/Unreal regardless.

They're general-purpose engines, so at some point you might realize you'll need to extend the editor (via plugins or by forking the source) to make your workflow more efficient.

Making your own tools from scratch is noticeably harder than extending some other editor, but I think it also allows you to create something that is more fine-tuned to your project's requirements.

 

[Tyranicon]

It's probably been posted, but recent announcements deserve another:

 

[RobotSquirrel]

They're general-purpose engines, so at some point you might realize you'll need to extend the editor (via plugins or by forking the source) to make your workflow more efficient.

I mean sure but my experience has been anything you add is normally going to work worse than inbuilt implementation. So the rule with this is if its just a simple workflow optimization definitely make it, afterall that's what a tech artist would do. If its a tool that can be developed in a short span of time definitely do it but don't get bogged down in it.

If the implementation is making the engine do something it was never designed to do then its not worth it because there's normally a very good reason why it can't do it. And I will say sometimes limitations are good, they keep us grounded in the reality of what is possible, by all means be ambitious but be ambitious within the area the engine has provided you. This is primarily why I hate Unity as an engine, there was just too much missing and when you went to go add it you realized why it was missing. It also doesn't help that so much of its functionality is hidden within experimental packages that may or may not work. If you were a first time user you wouldn't even know it could do this so its annoying its all hidden, it should be an opt-out not an opt-in, but because of how buggy their shit is they can't do that.

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

Since I bought several development courses on Udemy in the past few years, they occasionally send me marketing emails with trending courses:

Almost as if there had been some change in public interest.

 

[jagged-jimmy]

Twitter says "Unity CEO resigns".

 

[mindx2]

Yep, he's out:

https://www.reuters.com/article/unity-software-ceo-idUSL4N3BF3I0

Oct 9 (Reuters) - Video-game software maker Unity said on Monday John Riccitiello would retire as chief executive officer, effective immediately.

The company has appointed James Whitehurst as interim CEO and Roelof Botha as chairman, it said in a statement.

Whitehurst previously served as senior adviser and president at IBM. He joined IBM through the acquisition of software company Red Hat, where he was president and CEO from 2008 to 2020.

Riccitiello would continue to advise Unity and the board would initiate a process to appoint a permanent CEO.

The company behind the Unity Engine software had in September rolled back key parts of a new “runtime fee” pricing policy that sparked backlash from gaming developers. (Reporting by Samrhitha Arunasalam in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)

https://venturebeat.com/games/john-riccitiello-steps-down-as-ceo-of-unity-after-pricing-battle/

John Riccitiello, CEO of Unity, has resigned from the company in the wake of a pricing controversy that left developers in open revolt.

Unity said in a press release that James M. Whitehurst has been appointed interim CEO and president of the company.

Meanwhile, hoping to avoid a stock panic, Unity said that it is reaffirming its previous guidance for its fiscal third quarter financial results, which will be reported on November 9.

Roelof Botha, lead independent director of the Unity board, has been appointed chairman. Riccitiello will continue to advise Unity to ensure a smooth transition, the company said. The news isn’t a surprise as Unity angered a lot of its loyal game developers a few weeks ago after pushing through a price increase based on numbers of downloads — and then retracted it after an uproar.
Event

Unity said the board will initiate a comprehensive search process, with the assistance of a leading executive search firm, to identify a permanent CEO.

“Working with Unity under John’s leadership has been one of the highlights of my career. John joined the Unity Board in 2013 and stepped in to lead the company in 2014, at a time when we faced significant challenges,” Botha said, in a statement. “John has led Unity through incredible growth over the last nearly 10 years, helping us transition from a perpetual license to a subscription model, enabling developers to monetize, building other game services to serve our creator community, leading us through an IPO and positioning us as a pioneer in the developer community. Unity would not be where it is today without the impact of his contributions. I remain excited for the future of Unity.”

“It’s been a privilege to lead Unity for nearly a decade and serve our employees, customers, developers and partners, all of whom have been instrumental to the company’s growth,” Riccitiello said in a statement. “I look forward to supporting Unity through this transition and following the company’s future success.”

Whitehurst is a seasoned technology and public company executive. He previously served as senior advisor and president at IBM, after joining through IBM’s acquisition of Red Hat, a leading provider of open source enterprise IT products and services, where he served as president and CEO from 2008 to 2020.

“I am honored to join Unity as interim CEO and President at this important time in its evolution,” Whitehurst said in a statement. “With the company’s experienced leadership and passionate employees, I am confident that Unity is well-positioned to continue enhancing its platform, strengthening its community of customers, developers and partners, and focusing on its growth and profitability goals. I look forward to working closely with the Board and our talented global team to execute on our strategy, and I anticipate a seamless transition.”

Unity will release third quarter 2023 financial results after the market close on Thursday, November 9, 2023, with a webcast to follow at 2 p.m. PT.

 

[Terra]

So which company is John destroying from within next?

 

[mediocrepoet]

So which company is John destroying from within next?

We should try to get him hired at various targets and see how it plays out. Too bad they already dropkicked him from EA.

 

[Caim]

So which company is John destroying from within next?

The Codex.

 

[Modron]

Too late.

 

[toro]

He looks tired.

 

[Spectacle]

Strange that he gets fired so soon after the masterful use of the "door in the face" technique to get sheeple gamedevs to accept TOS and payment changes they otherwise would have protested against?

 

[Grauken]

He looks tired.

He's probably sad that he doesn't qualify for millions of severance pay

This is a "qualified termination not in connection with a change in control," which triggers a mere $380,000 in cash severance, plus an additional $31,130 in health insurance contributions.

Source

Poor guy, how will he survive?

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

Every developer wronged by his decisions should be now allowed to punch him twice.

Then pass him to the players for some mob justice.

 

[Aemar]

He looks tired.

It's all so tiresome.

 

[negator2vc]

So which company is John destroying from within next?

Easy .... Disney

 

[mediocrepoet]

Every developer wronged by his decisions should be now allowed to punch him twice.

In the balls.

 

[mediocrepoet]

So which company is John destroying from within next?

Easy .... Disney

They don't need any help.