Yeah, I’m feeling old saying this….

10 years ago I was teaching multimedia programming in the Helsinki University of Tehchnology. I proposed my superiors to start moving away from Director and looking into where Flash was going. Back then Macromedia Director was considered programming, while Flash was thought of as scripting. But it was clear for me to see it was a superior approach: Macromedia’s Flash team was looking into changing how the web was being used, while the Director team was adding new features on top of something already getting old.

For a while I’ve been saying the time for Unity 3D is here. Adobe has failed to hold it’s domination in web gaming and originally a 20-person company from Denmark has taken over browser 3D for a while.

The main reasons clients shy away from Unity 3D are the fear of new technology and the fear of being stranded after a small tech company goes belly up. The web player has no penetration compared to Flash. But times are changing. One-click install of the web player is quite OK for web gaming. It’s easier than Shockwave used to be and the quality of games seen even now is amazing. Check the Unity 3D paradise demo if you don’t know what the fuss is about.

One good reason to choose Unity 3D is the paradoxically fierce competition in the field. While choosing between Flash and Silverlight is forcing you to practically choose the tools you work with (you often choose Flash since it just works with Photoshop and Illustrator – and is also bundled in deals). But Unity’s praised-for-reason asset pipeline is not locked into Unity-related products at all. If you develop a Unity project now, but one of the other promising Web 3D platforms take over (eg. Torque has some promising stuff out already, and Unreal engine is also looking good), big part of the work does not need to be ported. You just import your 3D Max/Maya/Photoshop files to another environment and off you go.

So choosing Unity is not choosing Unity. It’s betting this kind of tools will be used for publishing 3D to the web, iPhone, and for casual console games. You don’t dig a hole with the nice hammer you’re familiar working with, waiting for Adobe to upgrade it to a more suited version. Get a shiny shovel from a shop and start digging. I’d propose starting with Unity, since it has a free version and the tutorials are just great. Or start with the Unreal Engine. Just keep your eyes open for the other players in the field.