Unity is one of the most popular game engines today and is used to create games and applications in a variety of genres, including arcade games, shooters, puzzles, racing, and more. This engine was created in 2005 by Unity Technologies and has since become known for its user-friendly development environment and many features.
Unity's story began in 2002 when two Danish programmer friends, David Helgason and Nicholas Francis, started working on their own game engine. Their goal was to create a user-friendly and accessible development environment for mobile devices. In 2005, they released the first version of Unity for Mac OS X and continued to improve their product with new features and capabilities. Although the first version was very basic, it already had a few key features that made Unity popular among developers.
By 2006, Unity had begun supporting the Windows platform, expanding its potential audience. Web player support has also been added, allowing Unity games to run directly in the browser without needing to install additional software.
Over the course of its history, Unity Technologies has released numerous versions of its game engine. Some of them were particularly relevant to the game industry and development.
In 2009, Unity released version 2.5, which added support for iPhone and iPod Touch. This allowed developers to create games for mobile devices using the same development environment for multiple platforms. Unity also continued to add new features, such as VR support, animation tools, and new attribute types to more accurately customize the behavior of game objects.
One of the most important releases, Unity 5, was released in 2015 and included many new features, such as physical content support, multithreaded support, and WebGL support. These features helped improve the engine's performance and capabilities.
In 2018, Unity released Unity 2018, which included new tools for working with virtual and augmented reality, as well as support for devices running on the Android operating system.In 2020, Unity released Unity 2020, which included new tools for working with artificial intelligence, an improved interface editor, and new features for working with multiplayer games.
In addition, Unity Technologies continues to improve its product and develop new technologies. For example, in 2020, the company introduced Project MARS, an augmented reality platform that allows developers to create objects that are more realistic and interacting with the environment.
One of Unity's main strengths is its user-friendly and intuitive development environment. It allows you to quickly create game objects, add animations and customize their behavior, create your own shaders, and much more. Unity also supports a wide range of platforms, including PCs, mobile devices, consoles, and virtual reality.
Famous games created on the Unity engine include hits such as “Crossy Road”, “Temple Run”, “Cuphead”, “Hearthstone”, “Ori and the Blind Forest” and many others.
This engine is also often used to create custom games, including for many large companies like Ubisoft, EA, Blizzard, and others.
But it's not just games that can be created with Unity. This engine is also used for architectural design, training applications, and many other areas. In the future, Unity Technologies plans to continue to improve its product by adding new features and capabilities for game development. In addition, the company is actively working on developing new technologies for working with virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence and multiplayer games.
Unity is not only a powerful and user-friendly game engine, but also a product that is constantly evolving and improving. Unity Technologies developers continue to work on creating new features and technologies that will help make the process of creating games more convenient, faster and more fun.
If you want to learn how to create games with Unity, studying at ProgKids can be a good start into game development. Our experienced tutors will help you learn the basics of Unity and create your first project.
