unity

Microsoft touts gaming engines and advancements for Windows Phone 8

By Paul Acevedo, Monday, Apr 22, 2013 at 9:58 am

Over the weekend, we wrapped up our ‘How Microsoft can save Xbox games on Windows Phone’ series with a Microsoft video interview that we’d been saving for just such an occasion. That video focused exclusively on the Xbox Windows Phone issues raised in our editorial series, but it didn't exactly put our concerns to rest. All we Xbox enthusiasts can do is keep pushing the editorials and issues with Microsoft until finally the right people realize the need for improvement and start effecting changes.

And while many of those issues have yet to be resolved, I’d be hard-pressed to claim that Windows Phone gaming has not improved since the debut of Windows Phone 8. Game development is easier than ever, and many companies who ignored Windows Phone 8 are now onboard for 8. When we sat down to talk with Microsoft's Larry Lieberman, Senior Product Manager and Casey McGee, Senior Marketing Manager, our first subject of business was all those recent advances that make Windows Phone gaming better than ever.

Head past the break to learn just how things are looking up and see the second part of our video interview!

Unity 4 Beta program expands to cover Windows Phone 8

By Rich Edmonds, Wednesday, Mar 27, 2013 at 3:32 pm

A handful of weeks ago Unity opened up early beta access for apps on the Windows store, enabling developers to try out the tools available. We were all wondering just when the company would open up the beta program and cover Windows Phone 8 development. That time has arrived, folks. It has been announced on the Unity blog that version 4 of the engine now covers Windows Phone 8.

Drift Mania Championship 2 for Windows Phone 8: First game featuring the Unity game engine

Games

By Daniel Rubino, Monday, Mar 11, 2013 at 1:38 pm

One of the big advantages for developers on Windows Phone 8 is the ability to use new gaming engines to drive the graphics. Unity is such an example, and it’s used by many gaming houses for development. The problem previously was that developers would have to rewrite their games specifically for Windows Phone with degradation in performance and appearance. Between the time and the final product, most developers walked away.

We’ve been anticipating the first Unity-driven game for Windows Phone 8 for some time and that day is evidently upon us. Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore tweeted today that Drift Mania Championship 2 is the first game on Windows Phone to feature the Unity engine. The game runs for $1.99 with no trial and weighs in at 200MB.

The game itself is your typical racer game, complete with car customizations and head to head battles, but it also features the whole ‘drifting’ sub-genre where through controlled skids, you drift through turns. Doing so will get you points and doing it with flare even more so.

Peep our hands on video after the break...

Unity 4 early access program for Windows Store apps begins, Windows Phone still on the horizon?

By Rich Edmonds, Thursday, Mar 7, 2013 at 11:28 am

The Unity team (behind the Unity video game engine that powers a number of popular titles) has announced on the official blog that the Windows Store apps early access programme is kicking off. With Unity 4.2, developers will be able to create games for computers and tablets running Windows 8 and RT, publishing them on the Windows Store.

This opens up the floodgates for both developers and consumers to connect with Unity-powered content, but what about Windows Phone?

New video game engines announced for Windows Phone 8

By Rich Edmonds, Tuesday, Oct 30, 2012 at 4:09 pm

Microsoft unveiled a number of video game engines and components amidst Windows Phone 8 announcements the company made today at its BUILD 2012 event. To provide more opportunity for game developers to get started on the platform, the company revealed a total of five new engines, as well as five new components.

Unity is coming to Windows Phone 8 - They tell us why it's going to be a big deal

By robert brand, Wednesday, Aug 29, 2012 at 6:01 pm

Unity as a company has one mission: help games developers be more successful. Unity is one of the top game development platforms, routinely seen powering the biggest games on a multitude of platforms such as Castle Warriors, Battle Bears, Max & the Magic Marker, CSR Racing, Temple Run and Shadowgun and now its the turn of Windows Phone to get in on the Unity action.

We recently sat down with CEO of Unity Technologies, David Helgason--freshly back from Unite 12--to hear why they are betting on Windows Phone 8 and why it is good news for developers and gamers alike.

David tells us right off that they want to bring Unity to the platforms that matter most. Surprisingly their decision to bring Unity to Windows Phone was driven by an upwelling of requests from developers...

Windows Phone at Casual Connect Seattle Wrap-up

By Paul Acevedo, Tuesday, Aug 28, 2012 at 10:39 am

It’s a bit late in coming, but at last we have an official wrap-up of our time spent at Casual Connect Seattle this year. Unlike the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), which is a console-focused event, Casual Connect centers around casual games – a ‘genre’ or subset found mostly on smartphones, tablets, and PCs. As such, we ventured forth in hopes of scoring some juicy Windows Phone games coverage as well as gauging the casual gaming industry’s feelings towards Microsoft’s smartphone platform in general.

Head past the break to see what we learned, plus links to all of our exclusive Casual Connect coverage!

Games development for Windows Phone 8 gets boost with confirmed Unity Engine Support

By robert brand, Wednesday, Aug 22, 2012 at 8:15 am

The keynote address for Unite 12 has seen the announcement that Windows Phone 8 will get full support for the Unity engine. Unity is a very popular engine and it was notably absent from the Windows Phone 8 announcement. The next version of the OS looks to be getting some excellent gaming support with native code and these powerful rendering engines.

The engine is used to power a host of games across and number of platforms and hopefully this means rapid porting of those games to WP8 devices. Unity is one of the top engines on the market so this support is pretty exciting for Windows Phone.

Here is what David Helgason, CEO of Unity Technologies, had to say on Windows Phone 8.

“Our mission at Unity has always been to provide solutions for developers to effortlessly bring their work to as many different platforms as possible. The Unity community has been asking for access to Windows Phones and have been eagerly anticipating the release of Windows 8. We’re happy to announce that we will support both.”

Press Play releases beta version of their Unity 3D Windows Phone porting toolset

By Rich Edmonds, Saturday, Mar 10, 2012 at 6:16 am

Press Play, the game studio behind the Xbox LIVE games Tentacles (our review) and Max & the Magic Marker (our review), has released a beta version of their Unity porting toolkit (Fast Forward - FFWD) for Windows Phone developers who wish to port across a Unity game engine developed title to the mobile platform.

"The framework has been used for creating the games Max and the Magic Marker and Tentacles for Windows Phone 7, and is currently being used by another project at Press Play."

Developers will be able to use this toolkit (released under the MS-PL license) to export assets in the Unity editor. Full 3D support is present for graphics, but physics are limited to the 2D Farseer Engine. What's great about the toolkit is that it enables developers to do most of the work in Unity 3D and then port it to XNA.

Head on over to GitHub to download FFWD and be sure to check out the wiki.

Source: GitHub, via: WPSauce; thanks David for the tip!

Press Play to open source their Unity 3D Windows Phone porting toolset

By Rich Edmonds, Monday, Feb 20, 2012 at 2:54 pm

Unity Technologies, the company behind the Unity gaming engine, previously announced they would be 'skipping' Windows Phone 7.x due to a closed environment being present, much like Epic Games with Unreal. For those who have games built using said engines this was a fairly confusing situation, especially since Microsoft is actively pushing the mobile platform as a gaming platform.

Current gaming development is aided by both Silverlight and XNA. Cue Press Play, developer of the Xbox LIVE games Tentacles (our review) and Max & the Magic Marker (our review), who have announced in a Facebook post that they will be releasing their Unity 3D porting toolkit to the community as open source. This move will enable developers who have built games using the Unity engine to bring across their titles to the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Check out the post in full detail below. Good news for both game studios and consumers alike, bravo Press Play. Let us hope that we see some exciting titles brought over to fill up the catalogue of games.