// transmission.log

Data Feed

> Intercepted signals from across the network — tech, engineering, and dispatches from the void.

1696 transmissions indexed — page 44 of 85

[ 2024 ]

17 entries
861|openai.com

Building an early warning system for LLM-aided biological threat creation

We’re developing a blueprint for evaluating the risk that a large language model (LLM) could aid someone in creating a biological threat. In an evaluation involving both biology experts and students, we found that GPT-4 provides at most a mild uplift in biological threat creation accuracy. While this uplift is not large enough to be conclusive, our finding is a starting point for continued research and community deliberation.

>access_file_
862|blog.unity.com

The shift from hyper to hybrid-casual games (and why it matters for everyone)

The last 4 years are widely regarded as the age of hyper-casual. In just a few short years, the genre went from being relatively unheard of to taking 40% of the total share of voice for games - its snackability, accessible gameplay, and innovative creative strategy fueling its success.This success also impacted other game genres, which looked to the mass appeal of hyper-casual games as a source of users and an opportunity for growth. Since 2017, mobile game installs saw a 20% YoY increase, driven by hyper-casual games boosting game installs overall. The resulting growth peaked in 2020, reaching over 5B installs in the US.Since then, the growth of hyper-casual games has stayed consistent. But other mobile game genres haven’t been so lucky, with a moderate decline in downloads and eCPMs over the past two years thanks to macroeconomic shifts.A changing marketToday, hyper-casual games still reach 1.7B installs per year and bring in $2-2.5B in annual revenue. But a decline in installs is starting to show. As downloads for other genres declined, demand from these genres declined too, leading to a current decline in hyper-casual growth.It’s also no longer as easy as it once was to monetize hyper-casual games - eCPMs and LTVs have started to decline due to new regulations, app store policies, and macroeconomic conditions.While the hyper-casual genre is still very much alive and kicking, these conditions have led to an organic pivot for some studios and publishers with a new genre of games emerging: hybrid-casual.What are hybrid-casual gamesHybrid-casual games take the mass appeal and accessible mechanics of hyper-casual games and combine them with deeper gameplay loops and balanced economies of casual games. Hybrid-casual gameplay is still simple, but the quantity and quality of content are optimized for longer playtimes, aiming to keep players playing up to D60 and beyond. The result is a genre that remains accessible and marketable to the majority of players while having deeper content to motivate players towards rewarded ad units, IAP, and longer playtimes to create greater LTV.Consequently, there is less of an emphasis on interstitial and banner ads compared to hyper-casual games. In general, hybrid games get 45% more rewarded video impressions and generate 20-50% of their revenue from IAP - significantly more than hyper-casual.Also important is the longer development time required to create hybrid-casual games, usually 9-12 months. But this is not necessarily a bad thing. With games taking longer to develop, the market is less prone to saturation and is more stable - as of now, there are only roughly 15 successful hybrid-casual games that have reached scale.What this means for everyone1. A more stable supply for advertisersDue to the small number of hybrid-casual games on the market, and the long development time needed to create new ones, advertisers can expect more stability from the hybrid-casual supply. In the past, hyper-casual games launched at a massive rate, so it was hard to predict which game your ads were running on and who was seeing them. But with a narrower supply of hybrid-casual games, advertisers are more likely to know where their ads are running and who is seeing them - allowing them to more reliably predict ROAS.2. Better quality users for advertisersThis shift to hybrid-casual presents major opportunities for advertisers to acquire high-quality users. This is because hybrid-casual players are usually of higher quality and are willing to play and pay more than the average hyper-casual player. After all, they’re looking for a deeper game experience. The stability of the hybrid-casual market plus these higher quality players means that advertisers can acquire the right users.3. New monetization opportunities for developersHyper-casual games primarily monetize with interstitial and banner ads, which enable explosive growth, but can feel invasive to some players and, with the current market conditions, might offer lower performance to advertisers.In contrast, hybrid-casual games have a bigger focus on rewarded videos, and as a consequence playables. Rewarded videos are premium placements for playables since they motivate users to stay and watch an ad, rewarding them for doing it. Playable ad units demand a longer time commitment from the player (interstitial ads are usually limited to roughly 15 seconds, and playable ad units are often 45 seconds or more), but their conversion and engagement rates are far higher than interstitial ads.Thanks to the longer playtime and deeper meta of hybrid-casual games, players are more motivated to engage with these ad formats, giving developers access to effective monetization opportunities.A new mobile game market with hybrid-casualThe impact of the growing adoption of hybrid-casual will mean a bigger emphasis on playables and rewarded videos for developers. This will mean a better supply for advertisers who stand a stronger chance of converting users with these ad formats. Plus, the greater data predictability from the longer shelf-life of hybrid-casual games will lead to better optimization for developers and advertisers - offering great new avenues to success for both.

>access_file_
863|blog.unity.com

Find the right AI model for your game with Unity and Hugging Face

We’re excited to share a new integration with Hugging Face and some product updates for Unity Sentis, our neural engine for bringing AI models into Unity. With Sentis, we aim to make AI models more accessible to help you power in-game features like object recognition, smart NPCs, graphics optimizations, and more.However, given how many models are available, it’s often difficult to know which one fits your use case, ensure it’s reliable, and determine whether it works well with Unity. This is why we integrated with Hugging Face, the largest AI model hub in the world (470,000+ models as of this writing), to offer validated AI models for Unity Sentis that our team has tested to ensure they integrate seamlessly.If you’d like to start with Unity Sentis right away, check out our blog overview, documentation, or dive into the community.Going forward, we’ll continue collaborating with Hugging Face to provide high-quality, validated AI models for use with the Unity Engine. These models are optimized for easy implementation into Unity with the Sentis framework, tagged with “Unity Sentis” in the Hugging Face hub. We also share the corresponding ready-to-use C# file to perform inference in your game. The models are preconverted to the .sentis format to bypass the ONNX conversion step. Today, we’re offering 11 validated models that cover common use cases the community has asked for, like sentence similarity, speech to text, object detection, and more.In order to build an expansive free and open-source set of models across all use cases, we encourage you to post personal projects of interest to the Hugging Face Hub using the Unity Sentis tag.Please reach out on the discussions forum for help adding a model or to share the link to your Hugging Face uploads with the community.Hugging Face also works well with Unity, even if your use case is not conducive to running AI model inferences locally with Sentis. You can use the Hugging Face Unity API package to host your model on the Hugging Face Inference API, which is a free API for rapid prototyping, or you can use their Inference Endpoints, a paid API for production use.Unity Sentis entered open beta as a prerelease package in 2023, and the team has been working hard to bring some stability improvements for early this year. The most recent release is focused on addressing issues identified by our developer community. We really appreciate everyone’s continued feedback to improve the package.Unity Sentis will officially launch later this year as part of the Unity 6 release. Until then, Sentis will remain a prerelease package in Unity 2023 as we add consistent feature updates and fixes. There are also a number of exciting product updates planned.It can be challenging to implement and optimize your model without a good visualization. To this end, we plan to create an intuitive graph viewer for AI models that allows for native visualization directly inside the Unity Editor. In addition, this will give you the ability to dispatch model nodes (operations) to different compute types (CPU vs GPU). Yay, graph-based visual optimization!Performance is always a concern for game developers. Our plan is to integrate with hardware acceleration libraries and neural-specific chipsets, also known as neural processing units (NPUs), on platforms like Microsoft Direct ML, Apple Core ML/MPS Graph, Google NN API, and more to achieve faster inference on every device. What’s better, when inference is run on an NPU, it means the computation is offloaded from CPU/GPU to leave more budget for your game needs.While many AI models can run on-device with Sentis, there are some cases where having a cloud inference is preferred. For instance, the model may only be available through a hosted service, or you need to maintain server authority, or you require faster performance on low-end devices.These cases can be solved for if you want to use standard Unity web requests with your API, or, as previously mentioned if you are using Hugging Face infrastructure you can use the Hugging Face Unity API. In the future, we plan to work with Hugging Face further to align their Unity API with the Sentis API to keep the local and cloud inference inputs and outputs consistent so it’s easier to prototype between native and cloud compute without modifying your C# code.Unity Sentis is now available for free in open beta to all Unity developers operating on Unity 2021.3 or higher through the Package Manager. If you’re already working with Sentis and want to collaborate with our team, please fill out this form.

>access_file_
864|blog.unity.com

Tomas Sala on building an indie IP with award-winning Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles

Tomas Sala, BAFTA-winning solo developer behind The Falconeer, won the Indie CommUnity Choice Award during gamescom 2023. Ahead of the game’s upcoming multiplatform release on March 26, we interviewed him to learn more about why he’s revisiting the world of The Falconeer with his upcoming multiplatform game, Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles.Continue reading for insights on how Bulwark plays with genre, the reason Tomas designs for gamepad before keyboard and mouse, and why he thinks indies should consider going all-in on IP.Thanks for jumping on a call with us, Tomas, and congratulations on your Indie CommUnity Choice Award win! To start things off, can you give the community some background on your upcoming game, Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles, and how it fits into The Falconeer’s wider universe?Bulwark is set in the same world, and it's a continuation of the same story, following the events of the big war in The Falconeer. Players are dealing with the aftermath: Everything’s decimated, all the gold and treasure has been taken, and many people have left. In this post-war scenario, everybody's just trying to get along and not default to old factional conflicts. So that’s the backdrop for this game – refugees trying to build a new settlement and make a better world for themselves. As you build out your settlement, you'll meet other people and sometimes get pulled back in old patterns, get into fights, things like that.Why did you choose to set Bulwark in the same universe?There are definitely practical considerations. I've deeply invested in building out my own toolset over the past decade – there's the matter of reusing what you have. This approach is opposite of the game-jam mentality, where you reinvent the wheel and make something new to see if it sticks. You instead have to work with what you’ve got.I had a look at The Falconeer and said to myself, "Well, what're the best and worst things about this game?" The worst thing was its niche, ‘90s throwback genre, which, gameplay-wise, wasn't for everybody. The best things were the worldbuilding, visual aesthetic, emotional layering, and personal narrative surrounding the gameplay. Those things were super strong and carried the game, so I wanted to keep them. I decided to let go of the genre (which I personally enjoyed) and go in a different direction to see if it would resonate more with players.For me, it's about all that. Doing an analysis of what you've done, seeing what's worth continuing, and expanding on that and making it better. I’d already spent seven years or so investing in The Falconeer’s world. There are definitely rough edges and things that need to be improved, but if I just dropped it completely, all that effort is gone. That's what I don't understand business-wise in what we've been telling indies. “Make small, cool games.” No. Make a world, and tell a story that gets players invested in the IP.Going back to what you were saying about genre… From Black Salt Games’ DREDGE to Cosmo D’s Betrayal at Club Low, more devs are combining genres for new gameplay experiences. You call Bulwark a “chill grand strategy” game – why did you decide to mix two genres, especially ones that seem so oppositional?I want to see new things every day in what I do. Replicating somebody else's game is boring – I wouldn't be able to do that. Within the “chill” genre, there’s something that I really like and got inspired by. It’s the opposite of the “hardcore efficiency mindset” where you want to beat the game, you want to win, you want to be the fastest, the best, the most efficient… That’s our mechanical brain talking. But there’s also the dreamy side of our brains that’s more focused on enjoying the fantasy of a game. It's not concerned about winning.Creativity is what I'm interested in for Bulwark. Giving people that sense of enjoying building their own base. That's the whole essence of the “chill” genre – being in the fantasy and creating. And then what I add is the history, the events of The Falconeer. Even though that part’s not super chill in Bulwark, it makes the world feel alive.How are you balancing creativity and conflict in the gameplay to keep players engaged?It's definitely a balancing act. Even though I enjoy looking at my own buildings for hours, I realize that for some people, it's more interesting if something gets blown up after a while.Looking back at The Falconeer, it was a very artistic, personal game. It’s in the genre I liked when I was young. It's about fraughtness and burnout and depression, and it’s heavy. Because I worked on the game alone, it didn't get a lot of testing. For Bulwark, I wanted to approach things differently. I decided to do an evolving early access demo to get players’ opinions, see where I was losing them, and figure out how to keep them on board. I'm still doing that, even though I'm back to closed development for now.But that was one of the reasons – if you try to “find the fun” in a void, you're going to get into trouble. In this game I’ve tried not to make things required. There's no progression path where you need to be violent. You can just chill and build. But if you go out into the world, these things unfold. They're not there to challenge you or to frustrate you. They're just there to bring the world to life.Why did you choose to launch a demo versus Early Access on Steam?I wanted user validation and user feedback. Early in my career, I did a lot of modding on Steam, back when it was mostly open development projects. You'd release something and people would request stuff or complain, and you'd implement their feedback and they'd be happy. It was super fun – a bit hardcore, but if you're into that kind of stuff, it's an interesting kind of punishment.If you go into Early Access and you're by yourself, people sometimes forget that you’re a solo dev. I make very polished stuff, but at the end of the day, it is just me. If I had my publisher respond to everybody, the community wouldn't like that – they want to speak to the developer, not a spokesperson. Early Access would create a lot of additional work for me. The program has gone from being about evolving the game to providing players with fully polished, fully playable content to enjoy. Early Access players are not beta testers. Nowadays, you need staff to run a proper Early Access. You need a roadmap, you need milestones, and when you hit those milestones, you need to let the community know. On top of that, you’re asking for money, so players have an opinion and they’re also your customer. And the customer is always right.That's why I made an evolving demo. It was available for eight months, non-stop, free-to-play. Players responded well, and I’m listening to their feedback. Running a demo can be kind of a brutal way to validate, but I don't think it’s possible to do this and not walk away with a substantially better game.You’re adding controller support. Has that been difficult for a grand strategy game? People typically go with mouse and keyboard for this genre.Here’s an interesting tidbit: When I make games, I always start with gamepad controls and work in reverse. When you pick up a controller to play Bulwark, it immediately feels very intuitive.From a game design perspective, I like to start with gamepad controls because I feel like it lets you focus on how you are controlling the world rather than “controlling the controlling.”Interesting! What’s your preferred control method?Gamepad. What I love about controllers on a philosophical level is – and this goes back to the dreamy side of our brains – I don't need to look at the controller to play. I'm actually looking at the screen. Whenever I'm playing a game with mouse and keyboard, I'm looking at the cursor. I'm not looking into the world – I’m just controlling the world from a separate layer above it. Playing with a controller, I like that I don't need to do that.I won a Steam Deck from the CommUnity Choice Award, and I've been using it every day [since]. I found out that if you use a Steam Deck and you upload a new build to your development branch on Steam, it's on Steam Deck in seconds. On PC you have to restart your Steam for it to detect that an update has been made. So my Steam Deck is now the easiest development kit on Earth. I just press upload and I can play it, and I'm not messing up my computer that's set up to debug.How are you generating the environments for players to build on?There's actually no map generation in Bulwark. It's the same world as The Falconeer, so it's a 10x10 km open world. I threw a bunch of stuff in there and Unity can handle it. There is literally no streaming code, although I did use a lot of instancing – that’s the rocks and the ocean itself.At the moment I’m streaming in faction settlements – groups for players to fight against if they want to – and those are streamed in quite simply, not as a JSON files, but as a long string which the engine parses. There aren’t that many objects, so I can get away with it.I also don’t use any Prefabs. It gets too messy in my head. Instead there’s just a pooling of objects in the scene that I copy to build the walls and so on. Those build up the dynamic settlements, which get dispatched when you move away from them.What technical achievement – even if it’s a small one – are you most proud of?I made an interesting resource system for the game – well, it’s more of a logistics system. To build, you don’t need gold, you just need to connect one building to another. For example, you might have a windmill that supplies +4 wood, which means you can keep building wood up to four nodes of your tower network. Building houses and industry around your windmill improves the output of the windmill, because you need people to do the work, right? It’s an actual economy that iterates throughout your settlement. It’s also quite a pretty complicated bit of code. As someone who considers himself an artist, I’m like, “Ah, I made a nice recursive economy system.” I don’t know if that’s the right term, but I’m pretty proud of it!You did a case study with us not too long ago on using the Asset Store to make The Falconeer. Have you picked up any new assets for Bulwark?I picked up a nice new ambient occlusion package. I’m using Unity 2022 LTS, but I’m still using the built-in render pipeline, because I’ve spent a long time building out my own workflow and am used to my own tools. Because Unity’s post-processing is more supported for URP and HRDP, I needed an ambient occlusion solution to do some modern tricks. I ended up buying FSR 2 – Upscaling for Unity from Alterego Games – another Dutch developer – which works for both URP and built-in. It’s been amazing. It really excites me seeing Asset Store developers take this new stuff and make it accessible to developers like me.That’s great. Taking the time to add visual polish can really make the difference when getting your game noticed. What advice do you have for developers looking to find more players for their game?A lot of it's just luck. Making 20 small games might teach you the basics, but today’s market isn’t about small games anymore. Look at the Indie Arena Booth this year – they’re all highly ambitious, highly polished, beautiful, original games, all of which would have been considered “AAA” just a few years ago. And there are so many of them.Statistically, the most important thing you can do to get your game noticed is to hang in there. If you stop making games, you're never going to get noticed. It's a waiting game. Whoever has the most perseverance wins eventually. At some point you'll know more people. You'll get even better. You'll find out new tricks. You'll meet more journalists. The longer you stay in the game or in the work, the better you're going to get at it. So hang in there and don't give a damn. Just do it. Just hold on. It's a ride.This interview has been edited and condensed.Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles is available now on PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and digital storefronts. Wishlist the game and follow @falconeerdev for updates. Visit our Made With Unity hub for more stories spotlighting innovators in game development.

>access_file_
865|blog.unity.com

Samsung smartphones in 2023: The users, innovation, and technology

50 years after the first cellphone call was made in 1973 by Martin Cooper, the World Economic Forum reports that there are now more mobile device subscriptions (8.58 billion) in use than people in the world (7.95 billion). Mobile device ubiquity is undeniable, and the smartphone market is only set to grow. The global smartphone market is projected to have a compounded annual growth rate of 3.4% (2024-2028) and is expected to reach $0.5 trillion in 2024, according to Statista.These devices present a valuable opportunity for advertisers, offering significant campaign scalability using a high-ROAS channel: on-device advertising.On-device advertising connects you directly with OEMs and carriers, placing your app in front of users at the most impactful moments of the device lifecycle, like device set-up and OS updates. The rich device experience of on-device advertising then engages and retains customers, resulting in an expected conversion rate upwards of 20%.The most widely used mobile OS in the world is Android, with 70% of the global market. And the world's largest supplier of Android smartphone devices is Samsung, with 1.03 billion users.Let’s dive into the Samsung smartphone market, user base, and new technology in 2024.Samsung in numbersAs of January 2024, Samsung has a market cap of $370 billion (1) Samsung is a Top 5 Global Brand according to Interbrand Best Global Brands 2023, with a brand value of $91.4 billion, a 4% YoY increase from 2022 (2) In 2023 alone, Samsung shipped 226.6 million smartphones worldwide (3)Samsung accounted for 19.4% of total smartphone shipments worldwide, coming second only to Apple at 20% (4) Identifying the over 1B Samsung usersIn 2023 there were 1.03 billion active Samsung smartphone users - and that number is expected to grow in 2024. Before running on-device campaigns on Samsung devices, it’s important to understand the users you’ll be reaching in order to optimize your campaigns as effectively as possible.1. Most Samsung users are Gen XGeneration X ( 1965 – 1980) and Millennials (1981 – 1996) make up around 90% of both Apple and Samsung’s user base. While the distribution on iOS devices skews younger in the US, Android users tend to be Gen X or older.Gen X males have the largest labor force participation rate in the US, 90% according to the US Department of Labor. As a result, Gen X makes up a large portion of purchasing power in the US - they have money to spend. This means that by making Samsung a core channel of your marketing strategy, you’re reaching an audience with great influence over household and company decisions. 2. Samsung users care more about features than designAndroid users are 57% more likely to prefer a full-featured, advanced device that’s less attractive as opposed to a sleek device that only does a few things according to ansonalex. With all Samsung smartphones and tablets using the Android operating system, this statistic can be extended to Samsung users.Samsung is known to push the envelope on innovation with every phone they release, and its users put a lot of value in the tech advancements that have improved device functioning. For example, the ability to work on two apps on the same screen at the same time with a Samsung device is much more important than the size and color of the device.By advertising directly on Samsung devices, you’re reaching early adopters. They are likely to look past the potential challenges of being the first to jump into a new technology. Samsung users will embrace on-device advertising placements as a new and unique feature on their device - like Aura’s Game Spotlight, which puts a new game on users’ phones every week based on their current preferences, or Aura’s In-Life App Discovery, which recommends your app to users during device updates. 3. Samsung owners have high brand loyaltySamsung leads Android phones with 63.9% trade-in brand loyalty, while just 10.8% of users stick with other Android devices according to Tom's Guide. Once consumers start using Samsung devices, they’re likely to stay loyal to the brand.When running UA campaigns, your goal is to acquire users who remain loyal in the long term. Advertising on Samsung devices means reaching users that are dedicated to the brands they engage with.You’re also reaching the generation with the highest likelihood of making brand loyalty a priority - Gen X has the highest rate of brand loyalty of any generation according to Streng. All of this means that if you reach users with your food delivery app early on in the Samsung device lifecycle, users are likely to stick with you.Trends and innovations from SamsungLet’s dive into the innovations and trends shaping the Samsung brand in 2024.An equitable and secure AI-enabled tomorrowAt a CES 2024 press conference Samsung unveiled its AI for All strategy. Jong-Hee Han, Vice Chairman, CEO, and Head of Samsung’s Device eXperience Division, shared how Galaxy AI-enabled Samsung devices will improve the lives of consumers “in the background.” He stressed the importance of AI’s role in enhancing connected experiences.Included in the presentation were a number of Samsung products with integrated AI features to create a more intuitive and convenient user experience. One of the standouts for mobile marketers was Samsung’s renewed focus on security and privacy across devices. In the new hyper-connected era that Samsung is helping to build, security solutions are foundational.A case in point is the Samsung Knox Matrix, providing end-to-end encryption across Samsung Galaxy smartphones and smart TVs. It works by allowing Samsung devices to monitor, identify, and isolate security threats across one another.For advertisers, this is good news. A more secure mobile market means a more trusting pool of users, who’ll be more likely to engage with ads and apps knowing that their private data remains safe and encrypted.The Samsung Galaxy S24 has lift-offIn late January 2024, Samsung announced the global release of its anticipated Galaxy S24 smartphone. While every edition of the Galaxy series offers new features and improvements for users, the Galaxy S24 promises to be one of the most transformative due to its Galaxy AI capabilities. Following the announcement, pre-orders for the device skyrocketed, with a double digit increase in pre-order sales compared to previous models according to Samsung.TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung describes the device as “our initial step toward a new era of AI phones that go beyond the current smartphone.” AI features are set to include Live Translate, Chat Assist, and a suite of new AI-powered camera tools.With consumers showing considerable interest in AI-enabled devices and Samsung at the forefront of these innovations in consumer goods, many consumers may look to switch to Samsung as their mobile brand of choice. This could represent a major shift for advertisers, with more users choosing Samsung, and therefore Android, opening a larger market for on-device advertising.The future is foldableHalf of US consumers are either very (16%) or somewhat (34%) interested in buying a foldable phone as their next device according to CNET, and Samsung is the first-mover in this cutting-edge technology. In 2019, Samsung released the foldable Galaxy Z series and the end of 2023 saw the most recent addition join the fold, the Galaxy Z Fold5.Watch how they're made here: https://news.samsung.com/global/video-behind-the-foldable-phones-in-our-pocketsThe Galaxy Z Fold5 offers the greatest comfort and display quality yet in the series, giving consumers all the features and tools the Galaxy Z series is known for, but now slimmer and brighter.These quality of life improvements are expected to boost foldable device adoption. And that’s good news for advertisers. Foldable devices offer new ways to keep users engaged and entertained with your ads, such as ads that allow users to reveal more ad content as they fold or unfold their devices. Foldable screens also mean more room to fill your ad with more important and detailed information.Learn more about leveraging foldable phones for your app’s advertising strategy.If you’re not already leveraging Samsung for your advertising strategy, it may be time to look into it. After all, the users, technology, and innovation are some of the best in the world, making these devices an incredibly valuable channel.Start advertising on Samsung devices with AuraCompanies Market CapInterbrandStatistaStatista

>access_file_
866|blog.unity.com

Knowledge unboxed: The top learning tools of 2023

The past year was an exciting one for Unity Learn. What educational journeys did creators take in 2023? What adventures did they get into as they explored new tools, or built experimental games? Let’s get into some highlights.Unity Learn saw:4.2 out of 5 average content rating12,000 pathway completion badges issued36.2% of users who start with Unity Learn still use the Editor 6 months laterRead on to find out more about the year that was and discover top-performing content to help you make your creative goals come true with Unity in 2024.With content ranging from bite-sized tutorials to larger projects, courses, and learning pathways, Unity Learn allows you track your progress, earn badges, and bookmark any resources that look interesting. If you’re just getting started, look no further than this roundup of our most popular content from 2023.Short, step-by-step tutorials help you explore specific features or skills. These are our top three tutorials of 2023.Get ready for Unity EssentialsNew to Unity? This tutorial, the first in the Unity Essentials Pathway, teaches you the foundations for using the Unity Editor, so you can confidently create real-time 3D experiences and bring your vision to life.Start the tutorial.Publish your first mobile runner gameBuild and publish your own mobile runner game with ease thanks to this tutorial. The template provided accelerates the game development process. It also includes end-to-end runner game mechanics, custom presets, and a level editor.Start the tutorial.Get started with the Unity HubThis tutorial provides you with a tour of the Unity Hub, the Editor, and the Package Manager in order to get you comfortable with using each feature.Start the tutorial.Projects help you create a Unity application, with opportunities to mod and experiment. Give our most downloaded projects from last year a try.Roll-a-BallUse this project to learn how to write custom scripts and create UI for your first game. In it, you’ll use the Editor and its built-in capabilities to set up a simple game environment, write scripts, and more.Start the project.Introduction to Visual ScriptingThis is the perfect place for creators of all levels to start learning about Visual Scripting. This project introduces you to the different windows and tools in our Visual Scripting user interface.Start the project.Creator Kit: RPGThe RPG Creator Kit is made for intrepid adventurers who love completing NPC quests to fill up their inventory. This code-free kit helps you focus on learning about the Editor and customizing a game based on your own ideas and interests. Plus, when completed, you’ll have a game to share with friends.Start the project.We design courses that allow you to explore a topic in depth using step-by-step resources. Check out which ones were most popular in 2023.Create with CodeProgram your own exciting projects from scratch using C#. This course will transform you from beginner to capable Unity developer as you iterate with prototypes, tackle programming challenges, and develop your project. It is also a stepping stone for the Unity Certified User Programmer exam.Start the course.Create with VRIn this course, learn to design and develop VR applications by creating prototypes, attempting challenges, and completing quizzes that will build and solidify your skill set. You’ll also be guided through creating a VR project from start to finish, beginning with a blank design document and ending with a fully functional project.Start the course.Create with AR: Markers and PlanesLearn how to create AR apps that respond to a user’s physical environment in this course. Anchoring AR content to real-world objects, like markers and flat surfaces, produces more compelling, grounded, and immersive AR experiences – which you’ll know all about when you’re finished.Start the course.Build all the skills you need to master the Editor with our free online pathways. These learning journeys, designed by Unity creators, for Unity creators, all build on one another to make achieving your goals as simple as just “following a path.” Start your journey with our top most-completed pathways of the last year.Unity EssentialsNew to Unity? This guided experience includes everything you need to get started. Designed for any beginner, this is a great first step toward gaining the background, context, and skills you need to confidently create in the Unity Editor and bring your vision to life.Start the pathway.Junior ProgrammerReady to code? Designed for anyone interested in learning to code or obtaining an entry-level Unity role, this pathway assumes a basic knowledge of Unity and has no math prerequisites. It also prepares you to get Unity Certified so that you can demonstrate your job-readiness to employers.Start the pathway.Creative CoreLooking to go deeper? Level up your core understanding of Unity by focusing on the creative aspects of the engine. Creative Core is an excellent next step toward becoming a Unity creator. With Unity Essentials as a foundation, this free pathway will teach you all the elements you need to know in order to bring your projects to life with Unity.Start the pathway.Feeling inspired? Create a Unity ID (or sign in with an existing one) to start learning today.

>access_file_
867|blog.unity.com

A look at mobile screen reader support in the Unity Engine

In a positive shift toward inclusivity, an increasing number of game developers are prioritizing accessibility as an integral aspect of their creations. Unity is dedicated to providing support to help developers achieve their accessibility goals. As Leah Skerry presented during GAconf USA 2023, Unity has been actively working on mobile screen reader support, marking the first of many accessible runtime features slated to enhance gaming experiences in the coming years.Since projects developed with Unity use our own graphical user interface (GUI) systems, it was not previously possible for mobile screen readers to be compatible with Unity-made content. This meant that when an Android or iOS user opened a game made with Unity on their devices while a screen reader was running, there was no way to interact with it until the screen reader was turned off. Allowing users of all abilities to enjoy gaming on their mobile devices has been one of our main objectives, so let’s dive into what this support means for Unity developers today.A screen reader is a form of assistive technology that allows visual input to be output in a nonvisual way, such as speech or braille. Mobile devices running Android and iOS have built-in screen reader technology, such as TalkBack and VoiceOver, respectively. This form of assistive technology is essential to people who are blind, and also useful to people who are visually impaired, illiterate, or have cognitive disabilities.For mobile devices, screen readers use a text-to-speech (TTS) engine to translate on-screen information into speech. They can be used to navigate the UI by either touch or gestures.Older games made with Unity are, by default, incompatible with screen readers. For a screen reader to navigate such an application, its technology has to receive information about what the accessible elements are, where they are placed on the screen, what role they have, and how a user can interact with the UI. This means we needed a way to tell the screen reader that, for example, there is a label in this position, with this particular text, and in this position there’sa button with thisparticular text, and the action to take when the button is activated is this function, and so forth.Starting with Unity 2023.2 Tech Stream, and improved with 2023.3 Tech Stream (now known as Unity 6 Beta), developers can now convert their GUI into data that a screen reader on mobile devices can use to allow navigation and interaction with a Unity game. This API was developed to not depend on a particular GUI system and can therefore be used by anyone developing a game with Unity – no matter what technology they use to implement their GUI. Non-GUI elements can also be represented as screen reader elements.The screen reader API is a simple data structure hierarchy that contains the information that a screen reader needs in order to allow interaction with each GUI element. Every node in the hierarchy usually represents an accessible element in a game, featuring a label (the first thing read by the screen reader when the node is focused), a position on screen, sometimes a value, and extra information to help the screen reader give a user more information about that element, such as if it’s a button or a toggle, or if the element is disabled.The order of nodes in the accessibility hierarchy are what defines the order in which the screen reader will navigate a screen. That means sibling nodes (nodes at the same level of the hierarchy) are read in order, and a parent node is read before its children, for example.Currently, the initial implementation of this API for screen readers works only with mobile devices running Android or iOS operating systems. According to our product strategy, we are also considering extending support to MacOS and Windows, each with native screen reader capabilities, and to desktop-based web browsers as well. While game consoles are not inherently accessible platforms, we are looking into what is possible for them, too.Unity recognizes the significance of ensuring that every gamer, regardless of ability, can fully engage with all that the world’s developers create. This latest capability underscores our commitment to fostering an inclusive and enjoyable gaming industry for all players. Our Accessibility Team is just getting started and has a lot more to do – check our roadmap, along with the one for UI Systems, to learn more.The APIs mentioned are documented and found in the Scripting API section of the Unity Manual. Get started through the AssistiveSupport class. Additionally, we’ve put together a GitHub repository with a practical example (LetterSpell, pictured in the banner at the top) on how to implement screen reader capabilities in your Unity application or game, alongside extra AccessibilitySettings usage examples.We’d love to hear how you’re using our tools to support accessibility. Show us the amazing things you’re working on in Unity and send us feedback directly in the Accessibility forum.

>access_file_
868|blog.unity.com

Best conferences for mobile app developers in 2024

Each year the number of conferences filling up calendars only seems to increase - for every niche in the market, there’s an accompanying event. With so much to attend, it can be hard to figure out where you should be and when. So, to help you do just that, here’s a handy guide to the top conferences in 2023 for mobile app developers, publishers, and marketers. We can’t wait to see you there.Mobile app conferencesThis post will be updated with more mobile app conferences as they become available.GamesforumWhere: BarcelonaWhen: February 7 - 8, 2024What: Gamesforum Barcelona is designed to be a highly informative and intimate networking event for sponsor partners. The event focuses on F2P mobile games and ad monetization, with a concentration on providing actionable content for its delegates.Why you should be there: With topical keynotes and interactive panels, Gamesforum Barcelona is a key chance to network with the top players in the industry.Learn more here.MWC BarcelonaWhere: BarcelonaWhen: February 26 - 29, 2024What: Every year MWC Barcelona brings together app marketers, telcos operators, vendors, and device manufacturers for the largest event in the connectivity ecosystem. This year, attendees will hear from top executives from Microsoft, Dell, Accenture, and more.Why you should be there: There are few better opportunities to connect with senior executives from some of the largest connectivity companies in the world.Learn more here.Game Developers Conference (GDC)Where: San FranciscoWhen: March 18 - 22, 2024What: GDC is one of the gaming industry’s most prominent events, bringing the game development community together to discuss, determine, and inspire the future of the industry. It welcomes the best of the best – game designers, programmers, producers, business leaders, and more.Why you should be there: GDC is not just an opportunity to immerse yourself in great content and networking, but also includes a must-see expo showcasing the latest development tools and innovation from top tech companies. Also on offer are the Game Developers Choice Awards, a peer-based video game awards show celebrating the best games and their developers, and the Independent Games Festival, dedicated to honoring the best indie games of the year.Learn more here.Mobile Apps UnlockedWhere: Las VegasWhen: April 2 - 4, 2024What: The renowned MAU returns for yet another year, gathering experts from top mobile app brands for two days of learning, connecting, and building relationships. As an inclusive event, registration is simple and admission free for app marketers and businesses.Why you should be there: With leaders from top mobile companies in attendance, you’ll get to hear from and connect with the movers and shakers of the app economy.Learn more here.Mobile Apps UnlockedWhere: LondonWhen: July 2 - 4, 2024What: MAD//Fest is the kind of event that marketers look forward to all year. With speakers ranging from top ad execs to award-winning broadcasters and novelists, it’s the perfect mix of value and entertainment.Why you should be there: MAD//Fest has become a destination event in every marketer's calendar, sure to be jam-packed with quality content and connecting with top-tier talent.Learn more here.ChinaJoyWhere: ShanghaiWhen: July 26 - 29, 2024What: Chinajoy is the largest digital entertainment and gaming exposition held in Asia. It highlights the present and future of the tech and gaming industry, including product demos, tech showcases, developer sessions, tech talks, and much more.Why you should be there: ChinaJoy is a key opportunity to connect with leading industry experts in the global digital entertainment industry - not to mention, it’s completely free.Learn more here.

>access_file_
869|blog.unity.com

Dive into the URP 3D Sample

Many studios have used Unity and the Universal Render Pipeline (URP) to build games of various genres and visual styles, running on many different platforms. Yet it’s sometimes hard for beginners and even experienced users to get started with a reference setup.We released the HDRP 3D Sample in 2021 to help you get started on high-fidelity rendering, and last November we announced the launch of our URP 3D Sample during the Unite 2023 Keynote.This robust sample features four environments with different art styles, rendering paths, and scene complexity to help you learn how to create and scale rich graphics across many platforms. From low- to high-end mobile, PC to console, and VR, we wanted to make a visually engaging experience so you can better learn and use URP. The sample is designed to help you build, optimize, and scale your next game efficiently against your target hardware.You can also discover how to use the latest features available with URP, such as Forward+ rendering, Decals, Lens Flares, Physically Based Rendering (PBR) materials, Shader Graph, Volumes, and Post-processing.The sample requires Unity 2022 LTS and will deliver added support in the next release, Unity 6, also announced at Unite. Unity 6 will also include powerful new URP features including Render Graph, GPU Resident Drawer, and an innovative cross-platform temporal upscaler called Spatial Temporal Post-processing (STP).You can download the sample in the Unity Hub, and we can’t wait to see what you create. In the meantime, let’s take a look at what each scene delivers.The Terminal scene takes place in an architectural sci-fi building that features PBR materials and realistic lighting. The Terminal allows you to teleport into the other three scenes, each built to showcase the capabilities of URP with different art styles: a garden, a spaceship’s cockpit, and an oasis.With its neutral setting and lighting, The Terminal is the ideal scene for you to drop in assets for look development. The scene showcases various custom shaders made with Shader Graph (water, teleportation signs) as well as advanced effects like the teleportation allowing transition between two scenes. To learn more, watch our GDC 2023 talk.Follow the ramp to access the three scenes by focusing on the Unity logo above the teleporting device for a few seconds (requires Play mode).This stylized nocturnal garden, inspired by the Japanese shoin-zukuri, features beautiful vegetation crafted with SpeedTree, interconnected interiors, a meandering stream, and numerous decorative lights that take advantage of the new Forward+ Render path, which surpasses previous lightcount limits.This environment is a great showcase of URP’s range because it’s optimized to scale for low-end mobile devices through to higher-end platforms. You can learn, for example, how we optimized the shaders using custom function nodes in Shader Graph, custom translucency for vegetation, as well as optimizing lighting or simulating shadows using light cookies.The Oasis is a photorealistic environment showcasing advanced shaders tailored for higher-end, compute-capable platforms. It features Decals, Lens Flares, PBR materials, and more complex custom Shader Graph shaders for sand, water, fog, and vegetation. It shows you that URP can reach a higher level of visual quality for platforms with more performant GPUs.This rollercoaster ride puts you in the seat of a spaceship, where you will witness an epic battle between two factions. The heavily stylized environment uses a custom lighting model in Shader Graph, and it’s particularly well suited to the high-performance requirements of VR headsets such as the Meta Quest 2.Install Unity 2022.3.12f1 via the Unity HubCreate a new Project, and select “3D Sample Scenes (URP)”Click the “Download template” button on the right panel, and click “Create project”The project will load in the Editor (the first import may take a few minutes)Are you new to Unity?A Unity subscription lets you unlock the full potential of URP and deploy across multiple devices such as game consoles. Learn more about our plans to see which is right for you and see how creators, like Two Point Campus, are using URP today.Join the conversation in the URP 3D Sample forum channel and stay up to date on bug fixes, additions, and major changes. We invite you to share your general sentiment, ask questions and request help directly in this thread. We also encourage you to experiment with the content of this project and share your findings.Session | Accelerate your multiplatform development with the latest for URPDiscover the latest enhancements for URP in this Unite 2023 session, including the new Render Graph, additional lighting capabilities with GPU Lightmapper and APV (Adaptive Probe Volumes), and improvements to VFX Graph.Livestream | What’s new in Unity’s Universal Render PipelineJoin technical artists and product managers for a live discussion as they go over Unity’s URP 3D Sample scenes, looking at the latest graphics features, device support, and more. This includes a live coding session to create a custom fog and custom renderer features.Session | Cross-platform game development with the new URP sample sceneWatch this talk from GDC 2023 to get a deeper understanding of the URP samples’ teleportation effect, lighting in VR in the Garden and Cockpit scenes, and performance optimizations.Blog | How to make nature shaders with Shader Graph in 2022 LTSExplore how to create two distinct nature shaders using Universal Render Pipeline (URP) in 2022 LTS. We also take a closer look at a stylized water shader and a semi-realistic sand shade, released with the new URP 3D Sample.

>access_file_
870|openai.com

Democratic inputs to AI grant program: lessons learned and implementation plans

We funded 10 teams from around the world to design ideas and tools to collectively govern AI. We summarize the innovations, outline our learnings, and call for researchers and engineers to join us as we continue this work.

>access_file_
871|openai.com

How OpenAI is approaching 2024 worldwide elections

We’re working to prevent abuse, provide transparency on AI-generated content, and improve access to accurate voting information.

>access_file_
872|openai.com

Building agricultural database for farmers

Digital Green uses OpenAI to increase farmer income.

>access_file_
873|blog.unity.com

From AI to code style: The best of Unity on YouTube in 2023

The year 2023 was chock-full of new patterns, products, and Unity creators. To commemorate the year that was, we’ve decided to round up some of our most exciting YouTube content and resources that you may have missed.Keep reading for the best of tutorials, livestreams, and session recordings of 2023.This video covers how to use the command design pattern in a Unity project. Discover ways to delay logic so that you can execute, manage, or plan a series of actions, undo and redo a set of actions, and evaluate a sequence of actions. We’ll even break down the components of the command pattern.For more on programming design patterns, download the Level up your programming with game programming patterns e-book.Recorded at GDC 2023, this session gives you a glimpse of the Water System, which is fully integrated into the High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP). Unity engineers Rémi Chapelain and Adrien de Tocqueville show you how the system works and explain what you can achieve in terms of art direction, gameplay, and performance.Read this blog from the team to learn even more about features for Unity 2022 LTS and the 2023.1 Tech Stream.For this Let’s Dev stream, Unity’s own Nathan Thomas helps viewers get familiar with animations in Unity by building a basic example of “looting a chest.” The example runs through Unity’s animation system, timeline, and Cinemachine. By the end, you should be able to build your own chest unlocking animations.Subscribe to our Twitch channel to get notified about future streams.Get your head in the clouds during this tutorial, where you’ll learn how to construct a cloud in Unity in three stages. In addition to cloud construction, we dive into how to create simple spheres within a cube mesh, use 3D textures to define shapes, and add lighting for shadows and highlights. To follow along, download the project from GitHub.This tutorial comes from a recipe featured in the Recipes for popular visual effects using the Universal Render Pipeline e-book.With just a few natural-language prompts, Unity Muse delivers the power of generative AI, so you can save significant development time in the ideation and iteration phases of your game. Watch this Unite 2023 session to see how it can transform the way you work in the Unity Editor. Regardless of skill level, you’ll learn ways you can use this powerful technology to build an entire game level in just 20 minutes.Read this blog post to learn more about the AI models behind Unity Muse’s asset generation, responsible AI practices, and how we can extend output quality with only owned data.Currently available in the Unity Asset Store, this stream showcases Shapes by Freya Holmér. Watch as Freya walks you through her gamedev journey from making tools to games, as well as being a math influencer.This tutorial provides you with useful tips and tricks for developing and maintaining a clear, helpful code style guide that can help your team work more efficiently. The recommendations featured are based on general industry standards for C# and are meant to be inspirational rather than rules set in stone. They also include insights on naming, formatting, classes, and methods.If you like what you see, take things even further with the Create a C# style guide: Write cleaner code that scales e-book.Subscribe to Unity’s YouTube channel to keep up with the latest sessions, tutorials and livestreams, or head over to our best practices hub for more in-depth technical resources. If you’re ready to dive into the Editor but don’t yet have a subscription, check out available plans and pricing.

>access_file_
874|openai.com

Introducing ChatGPT Team

We’re launching a new ChatGPT plan for teams of all sizes, which provides a secure, collaborative workspace to get the most out of ChatGPT at work.

>access_file_
875|openai.com

OpenAI and journalism

We support journalism, partner with news organizations, and believe The New York Times lawsuit is without merit.

>access_file_
876|openai.com

Delivering LLM-powered health solutions

WHOOP delivers personalized fitness and health coaching with GPT-4.

>access_file_
877|blog.unity.com

Made with Unity: 2023 in review

From award winners and nominees for The Game Awards, Unity Awards, MWU Korea Awards 2023, and more to everything in between, the Unity community has accomplished a lot in the past year. As we kick off a new one (Happy New Year, by the way), let’s reflect on all the amazing games released over the past 12 months.To the best of our abilities, here’s a non-exhaustive list of games made with Unity and launched in 2023, either into early access or full release. This is a long list, so we’ve attempted to categorize projects by genre (19 in all, including Action, Comedy, Horror, Metroidvania, and Survival) to make it easier to parse. Of course, many titles aren’t so easy to categorize – like horror-fishing sim DREDGE, management-adventure-RPG Dave the Diver, or the DREDGE x Dave the Diver hybrid. Hopefully, you can find something that inspires what you’re making or playing in 2024 and beyond.For additional fun, see which made with Unity games you can spy in this year-end list from NPR.El Paso, Elsewhere, Strange Scaffold (September 26)Other action releases included:Zombie Admin, Hastily Assembled Games (January 13)Rain World: Downpour, Videocult and Akupara Games (January 19)WuJiDaoRen, indielight incubator (March 13 – early access)Re:Fresh,Merge Conflict Studio (April 24)We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie, MONKEYCRAFT Co. Ltd. (June 1)Pixel Ripped 1978, ARVORE Immersive Experiences and Atari (June 15)Rider Worlds, Ketchapp (July 13)Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise Of The Dragons, Secret Base (July 27)Hammer of Virtue, No Pest Productions (August 7)Savant – Ascent REMIX, D-Pad Studio (September 29)Delicious Dungeon, Digital Cauldron (November 3)Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2, Fair Play Labs (November 7)Robocraft 2, Freejam (November 7)Big Fat Battle, Robot Squid (November 10)World Reborn, Wicked Saints Studio (December 1 – Demo) [Unity for Humanity grantee]LONE RUIN, Cuddle Monster Games (January 12)Other bullet heaven releases included:Nebula, JuTek Pixel (January 25)GunSuit Guardians, Matt Glanville (March 31)20 Minutes Till Dawn, flanne (June 8)Yet Another Zombie Survivors, Awesome Games Studio (July 13 – early access)Vampire Hunters, Gamecraft Studios (July 26 – early access)Whisker Squadron: Survivor, Flippfly LLC (August 21 – early access)God Of Weapons, Archmage Labs (September 12)Pathfinder: Gallowspire Survivors,BKOM Studios (September 14 – early access)FatalZone, Midhard Games (October 23 – early access)Battle Grid, Barking Dogs (October 25)Slime 3K: Rise Against Despot, Konga Games (November 2 – early access)Survivors of the Dawn, indieGiant (November 6 – early access)Death Must Die, Realm Archive (November 14 – early access)Warhammer 40,000: Warpforge, Everguild Ltd. (October 19 – early access)Other card and deckbuilder releases included:Power Chord, Big Blue Bubble (January 26)Aces & Adventures, Triple.B.Titles(February 23)Star Survivor, SpaceOwl Games (March 2)Munchkin Digital, Dire Wolf (March 9)Crush the Industry, Cognoggin Games (March 31 – early access)Wildfrost, Deadpan Games and Gaziter (April 12)Sunshine Shuffle, Strange Scaffold (May 24)Rune Gate, Devwind (August 25)Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles, Little Leo Games (September 21)Beneath Oresa, Broken Spear Inc. (September 27)Death Roads: Tournament, The Knights of Unity (November 15)Pizza Possum,Cosy Computer (September 28)Other casual and party releases included:Gorilla Tag, Another Axiom (January 1)My Lovely Planet, Ubisoft Lab (January 18 – Apple release) [Unity for Humanity grantee]Devolver Tumble Time, Nopopo (January 26)Rhythm Sprout: Sick Beats & Bad Sweets, SURT (February 1)Innchanted, DragonBear Studios (March 28)Soundodger 2, Studio Bean (April 10)MONOPOLY GO!, Scopely (April 11)Bread & Fred, SandCastles Studio (May 23)Goosey Guess, Gas Lantern Games (July 14)Moving Out 2, SMG Studio and Devm Games (August 15)KallaX, Unexpected (September 18)Party Animals, Recreate Games (September 20)Headbangers: Rhythm Royale, Glee-Cheese Studio (October 31)Secret Shuffle, Adriaan de Jongh (November 1)Terra Nil, Free Lives (March 28) [15th Unity Awards, Best Social Impact Project]Other city builder releases included:Surviving the Abyss, Rocket Flair Studios (January 17 – early access)Plan B: Terraform, Gaddy Games (February 15)Outlanders, Pomelo Games (March 7)Fabledom, Grenaa Games (April 13 – early access)Havendock, YYZ (April 20 – early access)Pan’orama, Chicken Launcher (May 9)Pile Up!, Remoob (June 2 – early access)Cardboard Town, Stratera Games (August 18)BRIXITY, Studio Kingdom Corporation (August 24) [MWU Korea Awards 2023, Best Graphics]URBO, Door 407 (September 13)InfraSpace, Dionic Software (September 22)dotAGE, Michele Pirovano (October 4)Cities: Skylines II, Colossal Order Ltd. (October 24)SteamWorld Build, The Station (December 1)Against the Storm, Eremite Games (December 8)Bare Butt Boxing, Tuatara Games (May 4 – early access)Other comedy releases included:Clunky Hero, Chaosmonger Studio (January 25)Pineapple on pizza, Majorariatto (March 28)Orbo’s Odyssey, Feverdream Softworks (August 20)Billy Bumbum: A Cheeky Puzzler, Frambrosa (September 7)BattleBit Remastered, SgtOkiDoki, Vilaskis, and TheLiquidHorse (June 15 – early access)Other FPS releases included:Hellscreen, Mixtape Games UK (March 9 – early access)Vertigo 2, Zach Tsiakalis-Brown (March 30)Breachers, Triangle Factory (April 13)MEATGRINDER, Vampire Squid (April 13)KILLBUG, Samurai Punk and Nicholas McDonnell (May 3)Friends vs Friends, Brainwash Gang (May 30)We Are One, Flat Head Studio (June 1)Battle Bows, WIMO Games (July 13)Trianga’s Project: Battle Splash 2.0, Dranya Studio (September 26)Battle Shapers, Metric Empire (October 3 – early access)Deadly Rain, FireRing Studio (October 6)Executive Assault 2, Hesketh Studios Ltd (October 18)GUNHEAD, Alientrap (November 8)Wizordum, Emberheart Games (November 29)Blood West, Hyperstrange (December 5)Notable horror releases included:Life Gallery, 751 Games (January 12)Death in the Water 2, Lighthouse Games Studio (January 26)PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, Square Enix (March 8)STASIS: BONE TOTEM, THE BROTHERHOOD (May 31)Killer Frequency, Team17 Digital (June 1)My Friendly Neighborhood, John Szymanski and Evan Szymanski (July 18)Labyrinthine, Valko Game Studios (August 18)The Fabulous Fear Machine, Fictiorama Studios (October 4)EMPTY SHELL, CC ARTS (October 16)Lethal Company, Zeekerss (October 23 – early access)The Voidness – Lidar Horror Survival Game, Steelkrill Studio (October 30)You Will Die Here Tonight, Spiral Bound Interactive LLC (October 31)Little Goody Two Shoes, AstralShift (November 7)Dinky Guardians, Endless Loop Studios and Code Monkey (October 2)Other management and automation releases included:The Pale Beyond, Bellular Studios (February 24)Potion Tycoon, Snowhound Games (March 13)Diluvian Winds, Alambik Studio (May 25 – early access)Mad Games Tycoon 2, Eggcode (May 31)Nova Lands, BEHEMUTT (June 22)DAVE THE DIVER, MINTROCKET (June 28)A Long Journey to an Uncertain End, Crispy Creative (June 28)Techtonica, Fire Hose Games (July 18 – early access)One Military Camp, Abylight Barcelona (July 20)Lakeburg Legacies, Ishtar Games (July 20)Let’s School, Pathea Games (July 26)The Cat Fishing Village, Nexelon (September 19) [MWU Korea Awards 2023, Best Monetization]Definitely Not Fried Chicken, Dope Games (September 29)Mob Factory, LiterallyEveryone Games (November 9)Dyson Sphere Program, Youthcat Studio (December 15)Blasphemous 2, The Game Kitchen (August 24)Other metroidvania releases included:Glimmer in Mirror, MapleDorm Games (January 9 – early access)Alice Escaped!, illuCalab (January 27)Elderland, Mantra and Sinergia Games (February 16)9 Years of Shadows, Halberd Studios (March 27)DOOMBLADE, Muro Studios (May 31)Curse of the Sea Rats, Petoons Studio (April 6)The Last Case of Benedict Fox, Plot Twist (April 27)Laika: Aged Through Blood, Brainwash Gang (October 19)Ebenezer and the Invisible World, Orbit Studio and Play on Worlds (November 3)The Last Faith, Kumi Souls Games (November 15)Cookie Cutter, Subcult Joint LTD (December 14)Dordogne, UN JE NE SAIS QUOI and UMANIMATION (June 13)Other narrative and mystery releases included:A Space for the Unbound, Mojiken (January 19)Roller Drama, Open Lab Games (January 26)JETT: The Far Shore + Given Time, Superbrothers and Pine Scented (January 31)Ten Dates, Wales Interactive and Good Gate Media (February 14)The Wreck, The Pixel Hunt (March 14)Storyteller, Daniel Benmergui (March 23)The Last Worker, Oiffy and Wolf & Wood Interactive Ltd (March 30)MINDHACK, VODKAdemo? (April 5 – early access)Tron: Identity, Bithell Games (April 11)Mask of the Rose, Failbetter Games (June 8)Fall of Porcupine, Critical Rabbit (June 15)OXENFREE II: Lost Signals, Night School Studio (July 12)Frank and Drake, Appnormals Team (July 20)Crime O’Clock, Bad Seed (July 21)Venba, Visai Games (July 31)Goodbye Volcano High, KO_OP (August 29)I doesn’t exist – a modern text adventure, LUAL Games KIG (October 5)Saltsea Chronicles, Die Gute Fabrik (October 12)Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom Complete Edition, Maze Theory (November 2)Notable platformer releases included:Catch Me!, ByteRockers’ Games (January 24)Rise of Fox Hero, Josep Monzonis Hernandez (February 17)Joon Shining, Orchid of Redemption (February 17)Clive ‘N’ Wrench, Dinosaur Bytes Studio (February 23)BETON BRUTAL, Jan Malitschek (March 31)Moons Of Darsalon, Dr. Kucho! Games (April 19)CONVERGENCE: A League of Legends Story™, Double Stallion (May 23)No More Rainbows, Squido Studio and Robot Teddy (June 1)Life of Slime, 0-Game Studios (July 13)Disney Illusion Island, Dlala Studios (July 28)Meowmentum Mori, Vancouver Film School (August 1)[15th Unity Awards, Best Student Project]Ninja or Die: Shadow of the Sun, Nao Games (August 2)Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Team Reptile (August 18)Corn Kidz 64, BogoSoft (October 17)Cavern of Dreams, Bynine Studio (October 19)Here Goes Muffin, Project610 (October 23)SANABI, WONDER POTION (November 8)Bzzzt, KO.DLL (November 13)A Highland Song, inkle Ltd (December 5)Viewfinder, Sad Owl Studios (July 18)Other puzzle and adventure releases included:Children of Silentown, Elf Games and Luna2 Studio (January 11)Colossal Cave, Cygnus Entertainment (January 19)Birth, Madison Karrh (February 17)Rytmos, Floppy Club (February 28)Stuffo the Puzzle Bot, Hapatus Ltd (March 2)Figment 2: Creed Valley, Bedtime Digital Games (March 9)Life of Delta, Airo Games (March 13)The Forest Cathedral, Brian Wilson (March 14)Ogu and the Secret Forest, Moonlab Studio and Sinkhole Studio (March 23 – early access) [MWU Korea Awards 2023, Best PC, Console]The Library of Babel, Tanuki Game Studio (April 7)Cynthia: Hidden in the Moonshadow, Catthia Games (April 10)KATOA, Sankari Studios (April 22)Unboxing the Cryptic Killer, Eleven Puzzles (April 27)Humanity, tha ltd. and Enhance (May 15)Tin Hearts, Rogue Sun (May 16)Planet of Lana, Wishfully (May 23)The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales, DO MY BEST (June 22)Rose and Lotus: Petals of Memories, 5minlab Corp. (June 28) [MWU Korea Awards 2023, Best Innovation]Stories of Blossom, Soft Leaf Studios (August 16)Chants of Sennaar, Rundisc (September 5)Headlong Hunt, Toombler Games (September 28)COCOON, Geometric Interactive (September 29)A Tiny Sticker Tale, Ogre Pixel (October 4)Midnight Girl, Italic (October 6)Monolith, Animation Arts (October 11)Reliefs The Time of the Lemures, Calepin Studio (October 14)Logic Town, Mark Ffrench (November 3)Have a Nice Death, Magic Design Studios (March 22)Other roguelike or roguelite releases included:Corpse Keeper, Melancholia Studio (February 15 – early access)Dust & Neon, David Marquardt Studios (February 16)Patch Quest, Lychee Game Labs (March 2)Mortal Sin, Nikola Todorovic (March 15 – early access)Stories from the Outbreak, Coldwild Games (March 27)DROP – System Breach, Etherfield Studio (March 28)Spiritfall, Gentle Giant (April 3 – early access)Wall World, Alawar Premium (April 5)Blocky Dungeon, SquareAnon (April 6)Trinity Fusion, Angry Mob Games (April 13)Beyond the Long Night, Noisy Head Games (April 17)Mr. Sun’s Hatbox, Kenny Sun (April 20)Darkest Dungeon® II, Red Hook Studios (May 8)Inkbound, Shiny Shoe (May 22 – early access)Battle Talent, CyDream (June 1)Oblivion Override, Humble Mill (June 13 – early access)Ember Knights, Doom Turtle (July 18)Let’s! Revolution!, BUCK and Antfood (July 19)Quasimorph, Magnum Scriptum (October 2 – early access)ENDLESS™ Dungeon, AMPLITUDE Studios (October 19)The Unliving, RocketBrush Studio (October 26)Voltaire: The Vegan Vampire, Digitality Games (October 26)Cuisineer, BattleBrew Productions (November 9)Backpack Hero, Jaspel (November 14)Below the Stone, Strollart (November 17 – early access)Sea of Stars, Sabotage Studio (August 28)Other RPG releases included:Vendir: Plague of Lies, Early Morning Studio (February 21)Limbus Company, ProjectMoon (February 26)Kowloon’s Curse: Lost Report, Studio [notes.] (March 22)Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, Questline (March 30 – early access)Hunt the Night, Moonlight Games (April 13)The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story™, Digital Sun (April 18)Honkai: Star Rail, HoYoverse/miHoYo (April 26)Greedventory, Black Tower Basement (May 17)Ghostlore, Andrew Teo and Adam Teo (May 17)Evil Wizard, Rubber Duck Games (May 25)Bleak Sword DX, more8bit (June 8)Arcadian Atlas, Twin Otter Studios (July 27)Waven, Ankama Studio (August 16 – early access)BOOK OF HOURS, Weather Factory (August 17)WrestleQuest, Mega Cat Studios (August 21)Eternights, Studio Sai (September 12)WitchSpring R, KIWIWALKS (September 25)The Lamplighters League, Harebrained Schemes (October 3)Embers Off, IfThenElse Digital (October 5)Stolen Realm, Burst2Flame Entertainment (October 14 – early access)Dreadhunter, Trickster Arts (October 18 – early access)Dark Envoy, Event Horizon (October 24)Dungeon Full Dive, TxK Gaming Studios (October 24 – early access)Lunacid, KIRA LLC (October 30)For The King II, IronOak Games (November 2)The Iron Oath, Curious Panda Games (November 2)Thirsty Suitors, Outerloop Games (November 2)Don’t Die in the West, Funday Games (November 9)Worldless, Noname Studios (November 20)Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, Owlcat Games (December 7)Hello Kitty Island Adventure, Sunblink Entertainment LLC (July 28)Other simulation releases included:Waves of Steel, TMA Games LLC (February 6)My Dream Setup, Campfire Studio (February 20)Chef Life: A Restaurant Simulator, Cyanide Studio (February 23)Kerbal Space Program 2, Intercept Games (February 24)Contraband Police, Crazy Rocks (March 8)DREDGE, Black Salt Games (March 30)Shadows of Doubt, ColePowered Games (April 24 – early access)Everdream Valley, Mooneaters (May 30)Space Reign, Propulsive Games (June 12 – early access)Mars First Logistics, Shape Shop (June 22 – early access)One Lonely Outpost, Freedom Games (June 26 – early access)Void Crew, Hutlihut Games (September 7)Mineko’s Night Market, Meowza Games (September 26)Paleo Pines, Italic Pig (September 26)Thief Simulator 2, CookieDev and Ultimate Games S.A. (October 4)Ooblets, Glumberland (October 5)Hotel: A Resort Simulator, Ringzero Game Studio (October 12)Outpath, David Moralejo Sánchez (October 16)Hero Planter, Aleda Games (October 19)This is Fine: The Game, Andris Gauracs (October 30)Back to the Dawn, Metal Head Games (November 2 – early access)My Time at Sandrock, Pathea Games (November 2)GearBlocks, SmashHammer Games (November 9 – early access)Undisputed, Steel City Interactive (January 31 – early access)Other sports or driving releases included:Punch A Bunch, Pontypants (January 20)MiLE HiGH TAXi, Cassius John-Adams (March 13)Monster Racing League, Flightless (March 23)Disney Speedstorm, Gameloft (April 18)Tape to Tape, Excellent Rectangle (May 3 – early access)Toasterball, Les Crafteurs (May 3)Punch Club 2: Fast Forward, Lazy Bear Games (July 20)Synthwave Racers, Corrtex Games (August 10)DepowerBall, Mega Power Games (August 21)Karting Superstars, Original Fire Games (September 13 – early access)RoboDunk, Jollypunch Games (September 25)subpar pool, grapefrukt games (October 12)NFL PRO ERA II, StatusPRO Inc (October 16)Elfboarders, Lylek Games (November 6)Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, Mimimi Games (August 17)Other strategy releases included:We Are The Caretakers, Heart Shaped Games LLC (January 6)Inkulinati, Yaza Games (January 31 – early access)Phantom Brigade, Brace Yourself Games (February 28)The Last Spell, Ishtar Games (March 9)Mechabellum, Game River (May 11 – early access)Kingdom Eighties, Fury Studios (June 26)Xenonauts 2, Goldhawk Interactive (July 18 – early access)The Banished Vault, Lunar Division (July 25)Thronefall, GrizzlyGames (August 2 – early access)Cantata, Afterschool Studio (August 15)Six Ages 2: Lights Going Out, A Sharp (August 21)Towers of Thana, Bishop Games (August 21 – early access)Spirited Thief, Koi Snowman Games (September 19)DinoBlits, Taba Marton (September 23)Project Planet – Earth vs Humanity, Fifth Harbour Studios (September 25)PROTOTYPE, Cold Enemy Gaming (October 15)Growth, VoodooDuck (October 16)Warcraft® Rumble™, Blizzard Entertainment (November 3)Stronghold: Definitive Edition, FireFly Studios (November 7)Dungeons 4, Realmforge Studios (November 9)Demeo Battles, Resolution Games (November 9)Howl, Mi’pu’mi Games GmbH (November 14)Sons Of The Forest, Endnight Games Ltd (February 23 – early access)Other survival releases included:Atrio: The Dark Wild, Isto inc. (January 10)Osiris: New Dawn, Fenix Fire Entertainment (January 18)The Pioneers: Surviving Desolation, Supercube (January 20 – early access)ZED ZONE, Leven Liu (March 29)Survival: Fountain of Youth, Odinsoft Inc. (April 19)Above Snakes, Square Glade Games (May 25)Farworld Pioneers, Igloosoft (May 30)I Am Future: Cozy Apocalypse Survival, Mandragora (August 8 – early access)Dawnlands, SEASUN GAMES PTE. LTD. (August 9)Sunkenland, Vector3 Studio (August 25 – early access)Wildmender, Muse Games (September 28)Saleblazers, Airstrafe Interactive (September 29 – early access)Wizard with a Gun, Galvanic Games (October 17)That’s a wrap for 2023. Want more Made with Unity and community news as it happens? Don’t forget to follow us on social media: X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, or Twitch.

>access_file_

[ 2023 ]

3 entries
878|blog.unity.com

Why folder structures matter

As a consultant on the Customer Success team, I often get asked “Have we built our asset bundles right?” or a variation of this question. My answer is always the same: It depends on the project. I then chat with customers about the specifics. Although this answer is accurate, it doesn’t provide any insights to aid future projects.While a common dilemma, I struggle to find a more general answer to the question (despite our existing guidelines and best practices for addressables). Some users don’t know if bundles are correct to start with, and my time is often limited to examining projects for memory optimization. This means I can’t tell the intended use for every asset in a project. Additionally, as a project scales, it can become impossible for any one person to answer the same question for each and every asset.Eventually, a realization hit me: The question of building asset bundles correctly limits the perspective to find a more general answer. Let me explain.An asset bundle occupies memory to load, so if assets are bundled together with other assets that don’t get loaded and unloaded at the same time, you’re not using memory as optimally as you could. Therefore, asking if an asset is in the right bundle or if the bundles have the right assets in them is essentially the question of whether you’re loading the right assets at the right time. The answer to when specific assets should be loaded is what the intended use of that asset is, which is why the answer is usually, “It depends on the project.” In practice, I’ve found that learning the intended use of the asset reveals how the assets are loaded in memory, and how they should be bundled.So, “intended use” is the key phrase: Who knows what the intended use for an asset is? How do you communicate that intent to everyone? And, finally, when should this happen?In my opinion, there is one moment where the answer to this question is crystal clear: upon asset creation and modification. Whether it’s a specific texture for a character, a global lighting shader, or a tree mesh for use in multiple game levels, the creator knows its intended use and, thus, they are best suited to communicate that intent. Artists can communicate this intent by implementing a consistent file naming convention and grouping files with the same intended uses in the same folder.Programmers and other team members can then use this information to decide when and if an asset should be bundled with other assets that will be loaded simultaneously. Because of this, the intended use of an asset must be made very clear – at a glance – for the duration of a project, and the file directory acts as the source of truth for all team members.In this blog post, I will look at some best practices and common edge cases that will hopefully help you better structure future projects. First, let’s discuss some of the common folder structures and their issues.From my experience, there are four types of folder structures: random, by asset type, by feature, and by purpose. Of these, the last one is the best by far, because it conveys the intent and is therefore most suitable for an optimal bundling strategy.Random is not one I see often. This mostly happens with solo developers who might be unfamiliar with software development, this becomes untenable, for obvious reasons, as a project grows in size or complexity. A lack of structure, or a random structure, comes with many problems – assets are hard to find, and understanding the intended use is practically impossible.Structuring by asset type is quite common as this is how many artists work on assets before importing them into the engine. If you know the asset type, finding its location is easy but everything else about it is obscured. Even with a great naming convention, it can be hard to tell if a character, environment, UI, or any combination of the three requires a specific shader, texture, mesh, etc. An appropriate file directory should not obscure information, but reveal it.Folder structures by feature are rare, but seem sensible at first glance. Many companies divide into feature teams, so why not group the data similarly? Well, that is not how the game uses the data. In the past, I have seen examples, such as shaders and audio, that should be bundled together but because they are authored by different teams this truth becomes obscured.A file directory with a clear naming convention driven by the assets’ purpose bypasses these issues. To illustrate this, I will use a fictitious game example called “Dinosaur Brawl.”For the purposes of this example, Dinosaur Brawl is a third-person 3D action-adventure game where the player chooses one dinosaur to control across a vast open world with multiple biomes, fighting other dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures in an attempt to grow stronger and pass their genes to the next generation – all in a giant struggle to survive the coming Ice Age. The game is designed for mobile, and some of the data will be distributed as part of the original application. The rest will be downloaded from a CDN as needed.We can devise a general folder structure for the whole project from the above synopsis. Since the player can select and fight other dinosaurs, it makes sense to create a folder per dinosaur that will hold all assets specific to that dinosaur: meshes, sound effects, textures, animations, particle effects, etc. I'll categorize these as Unique Assets.Since it is an action game, it will have environments that are separate biomes. We should therefore create a single folder for each biome, or level, in the project: plains, deserts, tundra, swamps, volcanos, etc.Of course, there will also be assets whose presence will be required for whole sections of the game. One such set is UI elements. You can think of these assets as Global Assets. Just like we made one folder for all Unique Assets, there should be a global folder that sits on top of the folder hierarchy. For example, a Global UI folder, a Global Dinosaur folder, a Global Environment folder, and so on. This way, all things shared by these game sections are stored in one place.This category of assets is defined as being shared by some Unique Assets but not all. As such, they fit in neither the Global or Unique Asset categories. For Dinosaur Brawl, an example of this type of shared asset could be those that are present in all flying dinosaurs, such as particles, shaders, and sound effects required to give the sensation of soaring through the air.What often happens is that these assets are put in the folder for the first dinosaur that needs them. Unfortunately, this does not accurately describe how they are meant to be used and therefore muddles their intent. In the worst-case scenario, assets get duplicated into each flying dinosaur bundle which is inefficient for memory, debugging, and application size.The best solution is to create a new folder with a name that indicates its intended use, such as Flying Dinosaurs. The specifics of deciding the location are trickier; there is no standard. I prefer to put these in a subfolder at the same level as the global and unique dinosaur folders, but putting them with other Unique folders is just as suitable.A typical edge case with this convention is when the project requirements change and an asset that was originally intended to be Unique becomes Shared. In our Dinosaur Brawl example, to save development time, the decision is made to use the Velociraptor prefab as the base for all other Raptors (such as the Utahraaptor, Dokataraptor, etc.).What the developers don’t realize, though, is that when the Velociraptor prefab is added into a bundle, all the Velociraptor assets will be downloaded when all other raptors are loaded, increasing download times despite only the prefab being used.This happened because the intent of the asset was changed and the folder structure no longer reflects that. When a change in intent happens, the asset(s) location and name should be updated to reflect this, in order to maintain consistency and accuracy in the system. This communicates to the team creating the bundles which assets should be in a “Shared Raptor” bundle and which should stay in the Unique Velociraptor model.One of the most common and hard-to-fix edge cases is when an asset is unintentionally used in a way it was never intended. When this happens, it is usually an accident. For example, someone has a deadline to meet and they use an already existing asset in the project to finish the job quickly.Take this scenario: An artist is adding a tutorial for an upcoming expansion of Dinosaur Brawl and finds a “gold glow” shader to accentuate when players can do a counterattack on elite enemies. What the artist doesn’t know is that this shader is end-game content against a massive T-Rex – it’s a unique boss that has a lot of assets bundled together. Now all of these assets will be downloaded during the tutorial, in a place where most of the assets are not used. This bundle is enormous, so the system that usually downloads minor assets like this in the middle of a game is stressed, causing anything from performance spikes to crashes because the asset can’t be downloaded quickly enough by players with poor connections.The above is an extreme, but entirely realistic, example and one that I have seen happen in more than one project. This is why, in addition to folder structure, all assets should have a name that communicates their intent. If the shader were called gold_glow_trex_endgame, for example, it would be apparent what the intended use was. Then, upon debugging, it would be obvious that this asset should not be loaded during the tutorial.If you are familiar with Addressables, you may know that Groups and Labels are used to group and label assets in much the same way I have suggested in the game example above – by using folders and sensible naming conventions. You may wonder, “Why bother with all of this if you can do this using Groups and Labels?”My answer is that you should do both. As I explained at the beginning, as the number of assets in a project grows, it becomes harder and eventually impossible for one person to know how all assets are meant to be used. Knowing the Addressables Groups should match the folder structure can be used as a way to confirm that they are set up correctly.I have seen many of our clients that use Asset Bundles without Addressables code complex systems as a solution to this problem. For instance, they will create and maintain a master list that is used to create the bundles, or check version control commits to compare changes in bundles, etc. My experience has been that these solutions are not cost-effective in the long term. It is yet another system to develop and maintain, which creates additional points of failure. As the project scales, they buckle under a myriad of exceptions and edge cases that long-lived projects naturally accrue. Worst of all, at a fundamental level, they fail because they don’t have a remedy for user error.A well-structured folder system and file naming convention should result in a 1-to-1 match for asset bundles and addressables groups. Categorizing files into logical groupings and subfolders ensures that all team members interpret and locate files uniformly, mitigating potential misunderstandings and discrepancies as personnel change and project requirements evolve. Asset creators can facilitate easy access and navigation, sparing other team members from the time-consuming task of hunting down specific assets. A systemic approach saves valuable time and minimizes the likelihood of errors and oversights. Becoming an enduring reference point, a source of truth, easing the onboarding process for new team members and ensuring the project's viability over time.Looking for support or advice on folder structure? Chat with us in the forums. And check out more technical blogs from Unity developers as part of the ongoing Tech from the Trenches series.

>access_file_
879|blog.unity.com

Made with Unity October/November 2023 roundup: Meme-ification, year-end celebration, and a $1B milestone

How can it already be the holiday season? With a trip to Amsterdam for Unite 2023 and the exciting reveal of our 15th Unity Awards and MWU Korea Award 2023 winners, the last two months at Unity have been packed with pizazz. Keep reading to discover what Unity creators accomplished in October and November, including the latest game releases.From Andris Gauracs turning a meme into a playable game (see above) to reports on how games impact the climate, Unity creators keep making eye-popping headlines. October and November saw one horror game blow up in popularity, a shooter reach the coveted 500-review mark, and a mobile game make the switch to a F2P model. And year-end lists have arrived, starting with this one from Paste Magazine, of which nearly half of the honorees are made with Unity.If you’re curious which PC game studios packed the biggest punch in the latest Steam reports, look no further. Steam’s top 20 new releases in September featured four games made with Unity: WitchSpring R, Void Crew, Party Animals, and Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles. October, on the other hand, saw seven titles, including Lethal Company in the top five.When it comes to the top most played games recently, Rust and Unturned continued to shine, with NARAKA: BLADEPOINT, Lethal Company, and Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel joining the ranks.*Last but not least, Scopely’s Monopoly Go hit $1 billion in player spending within seven months of its release, making it the biggest casual game launch ever. Check out the team’s celebratory post below.Moving to the world of video and streaming, the last two months have been somewhat quiet on the Unity side. We’ve begun to ramp things up, however, starting with a recent spotlight on Best Artistic Tool winner Febucci Tools’ Text Animator (above) and this deep dive on the Universal Render Pipeline. Keep an eye on our schedule for future videos. And, if you’re looking for bite-sized tips, check out our YouTube Shorts.While we may have been a bit quiet, Unity Insiders added to the conversation in big ways. Here’s a roundup of the top content (in our opinion) from your favorite community voices.AIAAIA (@AIAdev) shared a YouTube short that walks though advanced probe volumes, which is a new feature that will make day and night cycles simpler in Unity 6.Coco CodeIn a first look at Unity Muse, Coco Code (@CocoCode) shares examples of working with the tools compared to other AI generative solutions. We appreciate all feedback and encourage you to share your thoughts on Muse in our discussions forum.Code MonkeyAlso coming out of Unite, Code Monkey (@CodeMonkeyUnity) dove into Unity 6 and recapped the Keynote session. Check it out below. And congrats to Code Monkey on reaching 500,000 subscribers.There are so many impressive shares on social media using the #MadeWithUnity hashtag. With so much activity – from award winners to Unite 2023 chatter – here are some highlights from October/November.With Halloween on the horizon, developer Adam Gryu launched his annual pumpkin carving game and saw more carvers than ever before at 6,000+. Keep your eyes peeled next year so you, too, can spend time carving in Ghost Town.In the end, it was all eyes on Unite, with speakers, award winners, and more spreading the love online. If you’re thinking ahead to 2024 and how your next project can have an impact, dive into AR Earth Savers – MWU Korea Award 2023 winner for Best Innovation – in this blog about the project.Last but not least, here are some Unity Asset Store highlights from the last two months:Little Heroes Pack | SURIYUNOffice With Conference Room | AK STUDIO ARTAlien Planet Fantasy Environment - Jungle Plants | Etherion DesignsKeep adding the #MadeWithUnity hashtag to your posts to show what you’ve been up to and spread the project love.Just in time for the holiday season, the last two months were huge for releases of games using Unity. Read on for some highlights (and maybe even add some of these games to your holiday wishlist).The Lamplighters League, Harebrained Schemes (October 3)Battle Shapers, Metric Empire (October 3 – early access)The Fabulous Fear Machine, Fictiorama Studios (October 4)Ooblets, Glumberland (October 5)I doesn’t exist – a modern text adventure, LUAL Games KIG (October 5)Embers Off, IfThenElse Digital (October 5)Midnight Girl, Italic (October 6)Deadly Rain, FireRing Studio (October 6)Monolith, Animation Arts (October 11)Hotel: A Resort Simulator, Ringzero Game Studio (October 12)Saltsea Chronicles, Die Gute Fabrik (October 12)subpar pool, grapefrukt games (October 12)Reliefs The Time of the Lemures, Calepin Studio (October 14 – early access)PROTOTYPE, dennispr33 (October 15)Growth, VoodooDuck (October 16)NFL Pro Era II, StatusPRO Inc (October 16)Corn Kidz 64, BogoSoft (October 17)Wizard with a Gun, Galvanic Games (October 17)Dreadhunter, Trickster Arts (October 18 – early access)Laika: Aged Through Blood, Brainwash Gang (October 19)ENDLESS™ Dungeon, AMPLITUDE Studios (October 19)Hero Planter, Aleda Games (October 19)Warhammer 40,000: Warpforge, Everguild Ltd. (October 19)Cavern of Dreams, Bynine Studio (October 19)Here Goes Muffin, Project610 (October 23)Lethal Company, Zeekerss (October 23 – early access)Dungeon Full Dive, TxK Gaming Studios (October 24 – early access)Dark Envoy, Event Horizon (October 24)Cities: Skylines II, Colossal Order Ltd. (October 24)This is Fine: The Game, Andris Gauracs (October 30)Secret Shuffle, Adriaan de Jongh (November 1)Back to the Dawn, Metal Head Games (November 2 – early access)My Time at Sandrock, Pathea Games (November 2)Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom Complete Edition, Maze Theory (November 2)Thirsty Suitors, Outerloop Games (November 2)Delicious Dungeon, Digital Cauldron (November 3)Logic Town, Mark Ffrench (November 3)Warcraft® Rumble™, Blizzard Entertainment (November 3)Elfboarders, Lylek Games (November 6)Little Goody Two Shoes, AstralShift (November 7)Robocraft 2, Freejam (November 7)Cuisineer, BattleBrew Productions (November 9)Demeo Battles, Resolution Games (November 9)Don’t Die in the West, Funday Games (November 9)Dungeons 4, Realmforge Studios (November 9)GearBlocks, SmashHammer Games (November 9 – early access)Mob Factory, LiterallyEveryone Games (November 9)Big Fat Battle, Robot Squid (November 10 – early access)Bzzzt, KO.DLL (November 13)Howl, Mi'pu'mi Games GmbH (November 14)SUPER CRAZY RHYTHM CASTLE, Second Impact Games (November 14)Buildest, Arkhipov Pavel (November 15)Hell Throne, BoomBit (November 15 – early access)Lake – Season’s Greetings, Gamious (November 15)The Last Faith, Kumi Souls Games (November 15)Naheulbeuk’s Dungeon Master, Artefacts Studio (November 15)Flashback 2, Microids Studio Paris and Paul Cuisset (November 16)UKNON Jones & Guynelk – Awesome!, Guynelk ROSAMONT (November 19)Worldless, Noname Studios (November 20)Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade, Sumzap, Inc. (November 21)Lose Ctrl, Play From Your Heart Ug (haftungsbeschränkt) (November 30 – early access)Do you see any on the list that have already become favorites or find that we’re missing a title? Share your thoughts in the forums.We post new game releases and milestone spotlights every Monday on the @UnityGames Twitter and @unitytechnologies Instagram. Be sure to give us a follow and support your fellow creators.If you’re creating with Unity and haven’t seen your projects in any of our monthly roundups, submit them for the chance to be featured.That’s a wrap for October and November. For more community news as it happens, follow us on social media: X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, or Twitch.*Ranking as of December 6, 2023 at 8:30 am PT.

>access_file_
880|openai.com

Increasing accuracy of pediatric visit notes

Summer Health reimagines pediatric doctor’s visits with OpenAI.

>access_file_
< prev1...434445...85next >