For my Online Capstone Project, I was assigned the Create and Play Board Games project. This entails creating a drag and drop editor where users can create board games that they can save and then play the created board games with their friends. My team had multiple options for a game engine to use for this project and we picked Unity.
Unity is a gaming framework I have been curious about for the past year. When I looked into game development, two gaming frameworks kept coming up in my research: Unity and Unreal. The consensus appears to be that Unreal has better graphics but Unity is easier to use, especially for beginners (1). While looking through job listings, I noticed that quite a few jobs list Unity as a required or preferred skill. Even jobs not related to game development mention Unity! Companies are seeing how Unity can be useful for tasks such as creating simulations, visualizations, and interactive touch screens (2).
With how useful Unity can potentially be in getting a game development job or any job that sees its value, I wanted to create at least one project in Unity to put on my resume. Even if my Online Capstone Project was not going to use Unity, I was planning on learning Unity this term anyway. It’s pretty exciting that I can merge my side project and course project into one project!
No one on my team has used Unity before. This is a big relief for me! I was worried that one person would be getting impatient while the rest of the team rushed to learn the basics of Unity. Also, it’s fun learning a new skill with a group. My team is communicating with Discord and we have been sharing tips and tricks on learning Unity. One of the hardest aspects of an online program is feeling lonely and isolated at times so it’s nice to be able to chat with my fellow classmates about shared experiences.
It’s currently the beginning of the second week of term. I have a fun project and I get to learn a gaming framework that I’ve been meaning to learn for some time. So far, it’s been a good start to my Winter 2022 school term!
Source:
(1) https://www.incredibuild.com/blog/unity-vs-unreal-what-kind-of-game-dev-are-you
(2) https://transforminteractive.com/5-best-uses-for-unity/
