Unity – The Future of Browser Games
Traditionally, browser based MMORPGs were either text based or built using Adobe Flash or Shockwave. There are dozens of high quality browser games like RuneScape that utilize these methods, and they are still popular options. But a new platform for creating browser games has emerged. It offers developers a powerful and highly versatile all-in-one tool. That tool is Unity.
After several years in development, Unity Technologies released version 1.0.1 of their software on June 2005. Since then the platform has received continued updates and is now a powerful tool for creating 3D game worlds that can be launched on a browser using the Unity web plugin. Just how powerful is Unity? Consider that several major companies like EA and Cartoon Network have turned to it to create some of their latest online offerings. Let’s take a quick look at some of the top free to play browser games built using Unity.
Developer: Cartoon Network, Grigon Entertainment
Originally released in 2009 as pay to play game with a free trial, FusionFall went free to play on April 2010. The game is set the Cartoon Network universe and allows players to explore a world filled with all their favorite characters. An overarching plot takes players from one time period to another as the try to stop the evil Fuse from devastating Earth. FusionFall has great graphics, a fast paced combat system, and plenty of customization features. The ability to freely explore the detailed environments sets FusionFall apart even from most client MMORPGs.
Developer: Electronic Arts
EA has been making a big push into the free to play space of late. Their Phenomic studio is behind the MMORTS BattleForge and the browser based Lord of Ultima. Need for Speed World has just been released. But their first free to play game from the popular EA Sports studio is Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online. Launched straight from the browser, Tiger Woods Online is easily accessible and even saves players progress on a given course so they can return to it later. It’s not likely to appeal to gamers who aren’t already golfing fans, but the graphic quality is impressive.
Developer: Silverlode Interactive
Captains of DarkTide is the most recent free to play title by the studio behind the MMORTS Saga. Players control a ship and can sail around the seas in search for treasure and adventure. Recruit new crew members and equip more powerful cannons to increase combat prowess. Take on other players, or AI controlled monsters. While not quite as in-depth as other nautical MMORPGs, the graphic quality of DarkTide compares favorably with many client games.
The diversity of these three games shows what the Unity platform is capable of. Unity is not specifically designed for browser games. It can also be used to create offline games, games for mobile platforms, and even video games for Nintendo’s Wii console. Best of all, the standard version is free to download! This means homebrew enthusiasts or those interested in taking their hobby to the next level are free to dabble to their heart’s content. Unity allows would-be game designers to create their first project using a simple drag and drop editor. The ability to ‘test’ a project within the editor, and the inclusion of tons of premade content makes it easy to get started.
Have you experimented with game design using Flash or simple drag-and-drop editors like RPG Maker? Do you have the perfect MMORPG idea but never knew where to get started? Well Unity may be just the thing you’ve been waiting for!
By, Erhan Altay
August 8, 2010
#
The graphics in games like FusionFall and Captains of Darktide are gorgeous. Unity Player looks win.
August 8, 2010
#1
Dark tide grahics are awesome it looks way better than alot of the client games over there ,also u should hve mentioned quake live its grahics r gr8 too not sure if it uses unity :S
August 8, 2010
#2
unity is a beast program, its fairly simple and you can make some really cool stuff with it.
August 8, 2010
#3
The first time i tried unity, on their site, i was really impressed
August 8, 2010
#4
i like browser gaming but i will always prefer to down load the game
that just maybe me
August 8, 2010
#5
Unity is one of the greatest gifts to both development and playing. The devtools are free, too, meaning we can look forward to more of these detailed browser games in the near future.
August 9, 2010
#6
um…u forgot Atmosphir…but other than that…good job
August 9, 2010
#7
unity ftw
August 9, 2010
#8
That’s great. Unity will change the face of browser MMOs, it already has. I love the graphics of FusionFall but the thing is it looks kinda kiddish to me.
I hope they make more games using this awesome devtools. I think in the future MMOs will exist only on browsers. We won’t need to download a whole client to play a game. Just a browser.
August 17, 2010
#9
Fusion Fall was meant for kids so you really shouldn’t be surprised. ^^
August 9, 2010
#10
Makes me laugh to myself at how game platforms ten years ago couldn’t even handle this.
August 9, 2010
#11
Yes the gaming is developing I think personally the The The reason a lot of old games like wow or uo or even rs have such big playerbase is simple they don’t require a top notch computer meaning the games will run just fine on old PCs and the thing with web-browser based games correct me if I’m wrong they dint require a graphics card at all and I figure we all know what that means
August 10, 2010
#12
i don’t think there is any other way to render those graphic without graphic card and actually from what i know browser game eat more performance than client base game to obtain equal graphic.sometimes they also cache their data file for indefinite time similar to how we download game client.
btw that captain of darktide cache 275.1MB of data file in ur computer.
August 10, 2010
#13
To be honest, Unity should be good for even client-based games. It’s a pretty lean base to build off of, meaning pretty good-looking games that run well on a wide range of machines.
August 11, 2010
#14
I have played a lot of browser games but not one with unity.
Also Unity looks awsome to try out for myself. because I have been using RPG maker a lot for school projects and also just for fun =P
August 16, 2010
#15
i played runescape until lvl 69 the game is not bad for a browser based game
i also played fusion fall until lvl 4 and fusion fall is great u should try when u play it u wont feel like u r in a browser game its better than conquer online and other……
August 17, 2010
#16
Well,ive been using editors like RPG Maker 2003,AVG and Adventure Maker for years now,and was looking for an mmo creatr for years now,the only one wich was at least usable was Eclipse client,but still dosent compare to this wonder.
August 20, 2010
#17
I’ve used Unity on several occasions, and it’s certainly a great tool. I’ve had a chance to meet some the guys behind Unity, and they’re an awesome bunch
Unity does some things easy that you’d otherwise have to spend a lot of time on. For instance, tracking physics and tracking when entities collide is so much easier in Unity than, take, XNA. But Unity still requires some background knowledge, like basic JavaScript or C# skills, and thinking that you alone will be making the new MMORPG is very optimistic – creating multiplayer games is never easy. I’d recommended trying to put together a small, creative idea and then polish and perfect that. It’s fun, achieveable and doesn’t take more than a couple of weeks, if you’re new in Unity and know one of the mentioned programming languages.
Finally, Unity has in this article been advertised as a browser-game tool, but it can also publish to PC, Mac, iPhone, Xbox 360 and Wii. Talk about possibilities here.
October 29, 2010
#18
why the hell do we waste our times downloading large files anyway
this way is best
ecspecially all 2d mmorpgs should be on web like Shadowtale which has its own engine (no plugin, no addon, just 2D pure action with also right click support)
February 6, 2011
#19
pirate galaxy is also pretty sweet
September 9, 2011
#20
captains of dark tide’s site doesent work on my comp for some reason are others haveing this issue as well