Notgames Forum

Creation => Technology => : Michaël Samyn April 07, 2011, 12:57:54 AM



: Visual programming for Unity
: Michaël Samyn April 07, 2011, 12:57:54 AM
There's currently three plugins being developed for Unity that allw you to program in a visual way.

PlayMaker (http://hutonggames.com/playmaker.html) is basically a Finite State Machine editor. The only graphical representation is of the different states. The programming happens in Inspector-style panels which is a bit tedious but does have the advantage of removing syntax errors. It's a very well made package and available now from the Unity Asset Store.

Universe (http://forum.antares-universe.com/) is more sophisticated. It aims to completely replace all scripting with an interface that seems deeply inspired by Virtools. But with a touch of Quest3D as it allows for realtime programming while the game is running! It's complex however and documentation is still lacking. Beta version is currently available from the Unity Asset Store.

uScript (http://www.detoxstudios.com/?page_id=10) is a Kismet clone. It looks very clear and polished but I'm not sure how powerful it is. One thing I like is that it allows for dragging a Unity object into the graph. A beta version should soon be available.

I'm very happy with this evolution as I have been getting more and more frustrated with prototyping in code. Before I learned about these plugins, I had already decided to go back to using Quest3D for doing creative work. Now I may be able to stick with Unity.

If you have any experience with any of these tools, please share!


: Re: Visual programming for Unity
: Erik Svedäng April 07, 2011, 08:26:19 PM
Cool, thanks for sharing!


: Re: Visual programming for Unity
: Booger April 08, 2011, 01:00:15 PM
I only read about that today.  Although I already have a programmer to do the heavy lifting.  Maybe I'll just tell him after our game is finished that he can sell his toolset on the asset store.  He himself said that you can make more money selling tools to game developers than selling games to gamers.


: Re: Visual programming for Unity
: Albin Bernhardsson April 08, 2011, 04:13:09 PM
He himself said that you can make more money selling tools to game developers than selling games to gamers.
Well, people tend to be willing to pay more when there's potential profit coming from the purchase and not just entertainment.


: Re: Visual programming for Unity
: God at play August 04, 2011, 07:09:18 PM
Well, people tend to be willing to pay more when there's potential profit coming from the purchase and not just entertainment.

That is quite profound. Maybe it should be our goal to write software that gives people a "profit."  ;)


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