unity-engine posts

The growing first person shooter MMO genre is going to get a new entry next year. Publisher Aeria Games has just announced plans to release a new free-to-play FPS MMO that will be set in the "modern warfare genre" with a closed beta test scheduled for the first quarter of 2011.

The unnamed game is being developed by Aquiris Game Studio and will use Unity Engine 3 as its graphical basis. Details of the game are sparse but the press release stated that it will have "multiple game modes and an extensive arsenal of realistic military weapons." The game will be released for both the PC and Mac platforms. After the game is launched a browser version will also be released.

Announced some time ago, the Unity Technologies game development tools company has just announced the availability of Unity 3, the next version of the game engine that is becoming more and more popular with game developers. Among the new features of Unity 3 are a unified edtor, shown above, that allows developers to work on one project and move that project to any supported platform.

The company is still allowing its entry level tools, Unity, to be made available to use for free for commercial use. The more advanced version, Unity Pro, can be purchased for $1,500. Current Unity Pro members can update to the new version for $750.

While Epic Games' Unreal Engine licensing business is still the biggest in the game industry, the Unity engine has been gaining more and more customers as well, particularly for web based PC games. This week Unity Technologies announced that it has signed a deal that will see the Unity engine used by one of the biggest game publishers, Electronic Arts.

EA has already used the Unity engine for its web-based PC game Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online. This new multi-year agreement, according to the press release, will allow the Unity engine to be used by all of EA's development studios. EA will use the engine for the graphics behind "multiple franchises and genres". Specific games were not announced.

PC sports players who have been waiting patiently for an official NFL pro football game for the past couple of years can now finally play one. QuickHit Football, which launched last fall with a fictional pro football roster, has relaunched its browser-based game with an official National Football League license. This is the first PC-based NFL game since Electronic Arts decided to no longer publish a PC port of its Madden NFL game series back in 2008.

While the game can be played for free, QuickHit Football has also announced a Pro membership feature which adds more in-game cash and coaching points, eliminates in-game ads and more. You can sign up for $5.95 a month, $29.99 for six months or $47.99 for 12 months. While free-to-play gamers can play the game in 2D mode, Pro membership adds support for full 3D graphics via the Unity engine (as seen in the above screenshot). You can also upgrade to the 3D version for a one time fee of $14.95 without having to pay for a Pro subscription.

Sometimes when you play a fairly graphically intensive game on a web browser you have to download some kind of plug in or another similar file to get it to work. Now the Unity Engine folks have announced they are developing a web browser based version of their game graphics engine that will eliminate the need for any file downloads.

The new venture is being worked on in association with mega internet company Google. On their official blog site the company states that if you use the Google Chrome web browser you will be able to play Unity Engine-based games "using just default access and no additional installation or user interaction. It's kind of wild!." Unity is already calling this move a"potential game changer for rich web applications and games in particular." There's no word yet on when these features will go live but Unity says more info will be revealed in the coming months.

The indie dev team at Zero Point Software have tried some innovative ways to promote their upcoming sci-fi shooter Interstellar Marines. That includes offering some browser-based Unity Engine powered interactive elements on their web site including a playable shooting gallery called Bullseye. Now the team has released their latest browser-based interactive teaser but unlike the shooting gallery this game isn't free to play.

The Running Man game is a variation of Bullseye. Instead of a stationary shooting gallery your running around in levels and shooting animated placeholder characters. However it's only available for folks who put down some money to pre-order the final version of the game. Since this is an indie game there's non guarantee that the title will actually come out. On the other hand, the web browser teasers so far have been pretty cool. You can check out a trailer of Running Man after the jump:

A few days ago we reported that a countdown had begun for Space Paranoids Online, a web-based version of the game that was shown in the original Tron movie. Now that site has officially gone live. The game, which uses the Unity web game engine, puts you in a tank to shoot other enemy tanks and Recognizers.

The game, which is a promotion for the upcoming Tron movie sequel Tron Legacy, is quite fun as you pilot the tank in first person mode through a series of maze levels. Your tank has only a limited amount of shots before it has to recharge at several stations in the maze. Of course all the high scores of the game are for Flynn, the Jeff Bridges character in both movies.

Giving high end game development tools to the general masses got a big boost in 2009 thanks to Epic Games releasing the Unreal Development Kit for free and Unity releasing a free version of their Unity engine. Now Develop reports that Crytek wants to release a free version of their CryEngine 3 development tool set.

Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli pointed out that they have released free editing tools for their previous two engines for the mod community but, " it's not the same as what Epic or Unity are currently doing, but we are now pushing harder on this area." He added, " . . . we do want to make a standalone free platform that people can run independent of CryEngine that will also be up to speed with the latest engine." Crytek has already announced they will offer a free version of CryEngine 3 that can be used by schools for game development courses and research projects.

[Via VG247.com]

First, we don't think this is a way early April Fool's joke but on the surface it certainly could pass for one. A newly announced game development company called Grimoire Assembly Forge (made up of 100 forum posters at the NeoGAF message boards) has revealed its first game project; a free browser based title called (deep breath) "Dudebro - My S*** Is F***** Up So I Got to Shoot/Slice You II: It's Straight-Up Dawg Time" (exhale).

Yep, this game is designed to be a parody of a number of typical gaming cliches. Even the game's title makes it a sequel to a game that wasn't released because "sequels are always more awesome than original games - as all hardcore gamer dudes know." The 3D top down shooter will have John Dudebro as the lead character along with his sidekick Habemus Chicken. They will have to fight off a number of enemies that "threatens the world's brodiocity." The press release says that while paying tribute to previous games, it will also give some respect to the old school action genre with "power-ups, pixel art story sequences and ridiculous boss fights."

The game, which will use the Unity 3D engine, has also secured the voice talents of Jon St/ John who is best known as the voice of 3d Realms' Duke Nukem character. Dudebro II is due for release later this summer.

[Via Blue's News]

A few months ago, the folks at Zero Point Software launched their "interactive" portion of their Interstellar Marines web site. However the "interactive" part was limited to walking around static visuals of the upcoming first person shooters playable characters and the "land shark" enemy. Now the developers.have truly come up with an interactive way to promote their game.

Using the Unity engine, the developers have created a browser-based shooting gallery and it looks and plays very well. It even includes features like achievements to unlock and leaderboards to compare your progress with others. The developers are already taking pre-orders for the full game although it looks like they are looking to the game community to help fund the majority of the game's development.