Unity and Nintendo partner to bring Unity Engine, and its 1.2 million devs, to Wii U

Unity and Nintendo partner to bring Unity Engine, and its 12 million devs, to Wii U

Unity Engine is best known for supporting mobile and digital games, but Unity Technologies CEO David Helgason sees his company's game development engine as more flexible than that. Nintendo apparently does as well, partnering with Unity on a worldwide licensing agreement that offers first- and third-party developers Pro level engine access to Unity's tools for Wii U development. The partnership also grandfathers in the existing 1.2 million Unity licensees to the Wii U platform, which Helgason tells us is, "extremely easy" to port to -- Unity's calling the partnership an "excellent opportunity" to port existing Unity games from "thousands of studios currently developing mobile and social games." The partnership's effects aren't immediate, however, as Unity Engine's Wii U support won't go live until 2013, which tells us that we won't see any fruit from the collaboration until some point in 2013 at the earliest.

When pushed, Helgason wouldn't out any potential games headed to the Wii U via Unity, nor would he offer up names of studios interested in working with Nintendo's next console. It's not hard to imagine big Unity games like Slender and Rochard ending up ported to the Wii U, of course, but it sounds like we'll have to wait a bit longer before we hear which games will benefit from the partnership first.

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Unity and Nintendo partner to bring Unity Engine, and its 1.2 million devs, to Wii U originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Sep 2012 17:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BitGym Motion SDK brings Kinect-style games to Android and iOS, no huge living room required (video)

BitGym Motion SDK brings Kinectstyle gaming to Android and iOS, no massive living room required video

If there's a common barrier to playing with a Kinect controller, it's free space. The sheer amount of necessary distance between sensor and player is fine for suburbanites with expansive living rooms, but not so hot for apartment dwellers. Thankfully, BitGym is doing its best to bring hands-free gaming to small spaces with a new Motion SDK for Android and iOS developers. The kit takes advantage of the front cameras on phones and tablets to track three-axis movement, leans and multiple players without any special hardware -- and without necessarily rearranging the furniture. It's built to work with Unity 3D and most common app code on both platforms, all with a reportedly low overhead for mobile processors. Just don't anticipate any leaps and sidesteps in your loft for the next little while. Although the SDK is ready today, we won't see shipping games built on the motion-friendly framework until early 2013.

Continue reading BitGym Motion SDK brings Kinect-style games to Android and iOS, no huge living room required (video)

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BitGym Motion SDK brings Kinect-style games to Android and iOS, no huge living room required (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Sep 2012 03:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unity 3D for linux gets two playable demos

DNP Unity 3D for linux gets two playable demos

Linux gamers are really just having the time of their lives right now. They've been embraced by indie game devs, by Valve, Epic and the increasingly popular Unity 3D. And, some of these properties aren't quite ready for the big show yet, you can get a taste of what to expect from Unity 4 thanks to a pair of playable demos that have hit the web. AngryBots and Unitroids are both available as standalone executables for your open-source desktop. They're not complete games, but they at least serve as practical demos of the progress being made in porting the gaming engine. They've both got their quirks at the moment, but it's hard not to get excited about the prospect of plummeting through AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome on your Quantal PC. Hit up the source for download links.

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Unity 3D for linux gets two playable demos originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Aug 2012 07:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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