25 Best Unity Game Engine Showcase

The Unity game engine from Unity Technologies has already proved to be very popular with developers and with good reason. It allows you to develop a game once using a very simple and powerful tool-set and then one-click deploy it to PC, Mac, Wii and also the iPhone and Android platforms

Unity game engine is a game development tool that has been designed to let you focus on creating amazing games. The Unity Game engine offer reusable components that can be manipulated to bring a game to life. Loading, displaying, and animating models, collision detection between objects, physics, input, graphical user interfaces, and even portions of a game’s artificial intelligence can all be components that make up the engine. In contrast, the content of the game, specific models and textures, the meaning behind object collisions and input, and the way objects interact with the world, are the components that make the actual game. It can also produce browser games that use the Unity web player plugin, supported on Mac and Windows, but unfortunately not Linux. The web player is also used for deployment as Mac widgets.

It consists of both an editor for developing/designing content and a unity game engine for executing the final product. It is similar to Director, Blender game engine, Virtools, Torque Game Builder, and Gamestudio, which also use an integrated graphical environment as the primary method of development.

Unity game engine won numerous awards including the 2010 Technology Innovation Award in the software category.In 2009, Unity Technologies was named one of Gamasutra’s “Top 5 Game Companies of 2009” for Unity. Unity was a runner-up for the best use of graphics on Mac OS X in the 2006 Apple Design Awards.

In this post, I will feature the Best Unity game engine collection and game starters to help you developers out there. Enjoy!

Best Unity Game Engine Showcase

1. Cave Run 3D

This is a 3D version of my Cave Run Flash Game . Run like crazy, jumping on platforms and avoiding obstacles. Collect as many gems as you can and don’t fall!

2. Last Stand

You are stranded on a space platform overwhelmed by aliens. Fight wave after wave of enemies, using Bullets, Rockets, and Lasers. Keep moving to avoid being hit and pick up ammo and repair kits from fallen enemies.

3. Mini Golf Construction Kit

Mini Golf Construction Kit has everything you need to create a mini golf game.You can create a 18 hole commercial ready game in a day.Package contains over 80 prefabs of course pieces and obstacles, a complete game demo with 6 courses included and a GUI example to help you get started, a setup guide and one video.

4. 2D Platform Game Starter Kit

Ever wanted to make your own Mario? Perhaps MegaMan is more your thing? This starter kit includes everything you need to get going, including a 2d sprite system (complete with 2d animation) and tile-based levels generated at runtime.

5. WarPlanes

WarPlanes is a WWII themed flight shooter with an Arcade gameplay style. Shoot incoming enemy Planes and Zeppelins. When shot you can slowly regain health by avoiding bullets.

6. FPS Starter Pack – Upgrades & Store

Have you ever wanted to make your own ‘Call of Unity’ FPS ? With this weapon upgrades and store system, along with the base Dastardly Banana FPS Constructor (included), you can! Create varied weapon upgrades, like scopes, secondary weapons, and camouflage, without any coding through the modular upgrades framework! Unlock weapons and upgrades through the store system; just drag the provided Store prefab into your scene and hit play! Add these new features, along with two new fully animated weapon models, to the base Dastardly Banana FPS Constructor and you can make your Unity game engine, FPS in no time.

7. Kill Red

This is physics based logic game. You must drop down the red cube and save the green cube . You can remove other objects.

8. Active Jump!

Use the mouse to move the character left or right in this exciting and fun game starter kit. ActiveJump! Is a Unity game engine featuring a main character jumping as high into the sky as possible via platforms.

9. Match 3

This is physics based match-3 style game. It would be helpful for beginners, here is tricky things: locking object’s position and rotation, parenting objects, instantiate particles and change their color to match destroyed ball’s color and much more.

10. Bowling Game

The bowing game starter kit will help you to develop bowling games in Unity3d. It’s a bowling game all ready to go!

11. UFO3D

UFO3D is the Unity game engine version of my other game, UFO2D Move with the mouse, pick up cows and drop them at the portal. Get as many cows as you can before time runs out!

12. 3D Memory

3D Memory is a classic memory game. This game is going to help you create any other matching game and high score system with multiple elements. In this case we have name, avatar and time, game is keeping scores of the ten best scores per level. There are 135 images to be matched so you can’t play the same game twice.

13. Mighty Cannon Shooter Game

Shoot the targets and try to get as many points as possible! The further you shoot, the more you get.

14. Guitar

This game starter kit has you on the way to your own guitar reaction game. The included custom editor helps you create new songs, add your own music and design challenging note patterns with just a few simple steps.

15. Turret Defense

This is a turret/tower defense start point. There are many different types of this game and this package contains basic elements to get you started. From here on you can add your own game elements or you can just stick to the template project.

16. Air side-scroller

This will be very helpful for beginners to understand basic scripting and some tricks.

17. Brickout Starter

Highscore System Menu System Brickout system Powerups: bigger paddle, smaller paddle, bigger ball, smaller ball, multi ball, fire-ball, extra points, extra-points, nuke, lasers and rockets.

18. Unitroids Space Shooter

Unitroids is a game where you fly a small spaceship through unknown space worlds. Unfortunately, pesky little asteroids are cluttering up your way. You can either avoid them , or shoot them and blow them up. But when they explode, they will split and make things more complicated.

19. Mini Putt

Get a head start with the mini putt starter kit.

20. Zombie pack

A complete zombie pack, designed for easy and fast use in Unity game engine. Four animated zombies, complete with behaviour and ragdolls. Their heads can be blown off in a gory fashion too! Includes particles, audio files and easily configured scripts.

21. RC Helicopter Simulation

RC Helicopter Simulation can be used like a helicopter template project. Based on this simulation you can create your own helicopter game in no time. By adjusting helicopter stability control you can choose between simulation style and arcade style game

22. Tower Defense

This package contains a Unity game engine project of a basic Tower Defense game. The king has only a handful of guards left, and needs help to defend his castle against invaders!

23. Bounce

This game bounce is based on idea. The player controls the ball and competing level by level.

24. Trebuchet – 2D Destruction Game

This is a 2D physic game, the goal of this game is to destroy buildings on every level. There are five levels in this package and some prefabs that are going to help you get started.

25. Connect 5

Simple board game for one or two players. Solid A.I. with customization options. This is my one out of ten board game A.I.’s.

Who'll Win the Explosive Next-gen Game Engine Fight?

Who'll hold the dominant position in the engine fight? Someone may think I'm talking about automobiles or motorbikes, but seriously, I'm discussing something about some games to be pushed into the market soon.

The hottest topic concerning games in recent days is something like "what kind of engine does the game apply". Different engines will lead to different gaming feels, development degrees and quality levels, etc.

The first Game Technology Conference held in 2009 was just a conference focusing on the latest info about the game engines that game developers at home and abroad cared about. In the conference, the newest technical directions of the famous engines like Unreal Engine, CryEngine, Gamebryo and Havok Physics were discussed and favorably responded to.

In the third Game Technology Conference which was held on Feb. 29, 2011, main principals of Red 5 Studios and some other engine development companies like Epic Games showed up and made important speeches.

In such a bustling situation, which famous game engine will be the final winner? The most eye-catching projects include Gears of War 3 based on Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3, Crysis 2 based on CryEngine 3, and Battlefield 3 based on DICE's new engine Frostbite 2.

Korean Gears of War 3 Confirmed to Be Released on Sep. 20

According to Epic Games, the Xbox 360 version of Gears of War 3 set to be released in Sep. applies the best game engine, and is thus highly anticipated by players. With undoubtedly excellent performance, Unreal Engine 3 manages to provide the best-quality graphics and solve many technical problems, and is well spoken of by game developers.

Gears of War 3 developed with the application of Unreal Engine 3 is the newest title of Epic Games' hot Gear of War series, and features improved graphics compared to its prequels. This Xbox360-based game is expected to come up with the best performance. Particularly, in contrast with the prequels, Unreal Engine 3 helps boost up Gears of War 3's expressiveness by 10+ times, which lets players feel overwhelmingly outstanding performance and makes it possible for the game to stand as a new representative work.

In the game, CGs of mass troops do not amount to real-time acts, and something like vast scenes of destruction is generated in real time. The game engine and illuminant effects work together to endow the game with magnificent scenes.

Crysis 2, a Shooting Game 

By use of CryEngine 3, Crytek's new title Crysis 2 boasts the best graphics & physical effects. The Crysis series once broke out from numerous games with the help of overwhelmingly good performance, and CryEngine 3 is also one of the game engines featuring the most excellent performance from the perspective of FPS and TPS games' development.

Crysis 2 set to enter the market in Mar. is an FPS that brings full play to CryEngine 3's performance. In this game, with effects thoroughly demonstrated, the ruined city is realistically rendered through delicate graphics and scenes. 

In particular, CryEngine 3 has become more outstanding thanks to numerous developers' precious suggestions. Some foreign insiders once said that compared to other games at the same level, Crysis 2 is so much better.

Battlefield 3 from EA

Finally comes the new engine Frostbite 2! Based on Frostbite 2, Battlefield 3 provides large-scale combats, and realizes the development of lighting & physical elements and actions in terms of battlefield control, which is thought-provoking and draws much attention from insiders. 

Battlefield 3, slated for release in the second half of 2011, is a sequel to Battlefield 2 which was released in 2005, and can be said as a mix of EA's technical cores.

As a great many game engines focus on visual effects, Frostbite 2 presents satisfactory sound effects in certain places in the gaming world while working to generate the best possible physical and lighting effects.

Though these games will be released at different times, they all strive to present players with the most impressive gameplay content on the basis of different engines. An insider expressed that different game engines could bring players different gaming feels and preferences, and looked forward to the new leader in the worldwide explosive fight among next-gen game engines.

Best-looking RPG and game engine of 2011? The Witcher 2

Developer CD Projekt RED claims The Witcher 2 will be graphically superior to any other role-playing game released between now and the end of 2011, mostly due to their in-house developed engine which is also self-proclaimed as the best RPG engine ever made.

During their demo at GamesCom 2010, CD Projekt RED claimed "We're not afraid to say that The Witcher 2 will be the game... the RPG that will look the best in 2011.  If you want to put any screenshots of any RPG that's coming up in here, you could compare."

TGL Interview: Nathan Camarillo Executive Producer Crysis 2

TGL recently caught up with Crytek’s Executive Producer Nathan Camarillo in London to discuss their forthcoming FPS, the highly anticipated Crysis 2. Will Crysis 2 set a new benchmark for 3D gaming? How does the Nanosuit define the gameplay experience? And how tough was it bringing Crysis 2 to your home console? Nathan left no projectile taxi unturned and debriefed TGL on all things Crysis 2. Here’s how we got on:
 
TGL: The first Crysis was defined by its visual aesthetic and the strength of its graphics. What was the most difficult component of the Crysis package to transfer to the home console?

NC: So the big challenge that we set out for ourselves when making Crysis 2 was making a game that would be multiplatform for console and for PC. Not only did we have that goal but also re-establishing the Crysis franchise as the continued visual benchmark for PC gaming. So it’s a tall order to work with five year old hardware while simultaneously setting a new benchmark for yourself. So we ripped the guts out of Cry Engine 2 and created Cry Engine 3 to scale appropriately what hardware was available and what platform we were playing on and it posed a lot of challenges, but the main thing was that we looked at those as challenges and not as things we couldn’t do. We weren’t willing to give up any ground anywhere so we had to find innovative ways to push visual fidelity even further and not having huge disparity between the visual quality of the PC version and the visual quality of the console version. So we’re doing a lot of things on consoles that a lot of people aren’t able to do and would have never thought possible and quite honestly we thought they were the same as well but we didn’t give up and we just kept trying and trying and trying. So if you’re playing on Xbox 360, PC or PS3 your going to get an awesome experience. You know you can see today that it’s running 30FPS on Xbox 360. Its looks amazing. Its looks phenomenal. If you play in 3D on 360 you don’t lose anything. The visual fidelity looks even better because you don’t lose any frame rate. It’s an awesome experience on console. If you have PC you can crank the resolution up and you know it looks amazing. It’s quite an achievement. We really can’t wait for people do experience it no matter what platform they choose to play it on.
 
TGL: The market is becoming more and more saturated with FPS game but for the most part the quality and integrity of FPS games increases all the time. What is it about Crysis 2 that makes its stick out from the crowd, particularly with a number of high profile shooters about to launch in the next couple of months alongside it?

NC: There are three main things for us. Obviously there’s the Nanosuit. The Nanosuit is the core of the Crysis intellectual property so the fact that we make you the ultimate super soldier with stealth and armour gameplay, plus motilities like sliding, sliding and shooting, ledge grabbing, all different types of melees, kicking taxis and creating booby trap. So we have that aspect, that’s the first one. The second one is being set in New York and creating an authentic and visual appealing version of New York. And the third one is the sandbox gameplay. Its different than most first person shooters which all tend to be linear these days. So we have the combination of all these awesome elements. Sandbox gameplay in New York with the Nanosuit, I think, is a hard one for anyone to compete with. On top of that, just the core technical competence and visual fidelity that we’re able to offer, I mean, it’s a very solid package. It has a very much longer than average single player campaign. The average single player campaign is about 6 hours these days and we’re significantly longer than that. It wasn’t something we planned for. We didn’t know how long it would be. But then when we got all the A.I in and everything else, we were quite surprised and quite shocked at how long that game wound up becoming. But I mean it’s intense throughout that entire time and it’s fun and your always playing with the Nanosuit and with sandbox. It’s always fresh and you have this awesome story throughout the campaign that you get to experience that traverses New York. Then beyond that, having multiplayer, like, 50 hours of multiplayer to unlock everything first time through and then being able to reboot the Nanosuit and do that multiple times, I mean, you’ve got a massive game in one box.


TGL: How do you hone that experience? There’s so much to Crysis 2’s gameplay that some gamers might find it intimidating at the entry level. How are Crytek making Crysis 2 accessible to not only the hardcore shooter fans but the shooter gamers who don’t usually except that much depth from their FPS?

NC: It is quite challenging. But that’s the beauty of sandbox gameplay. You can find as much game in there as you want. So when you’re playing the first levels of that game, if you’re playing it like most linear first person shooters, like moving cover to


cover and being cautious and creeping your way ahead, you won’t find yourself overwhelmed. You won’t find yourself lost, you’ll just find a lot of opportunity for you to play the game and explore and when you have confidence you’ll look around and realise that you can pick things up and throw stuff. Then you start to find sandbox gameplay elements and then as you get into the campaign and the game, you start to master these sandbox elements and recognize opportunities for them. So you teach yourself. The beauty of sandbox gameplay is that you’re not forced to do any of this. You can find it and create opportunities yourself and just start to think like a soldier, this ultimate solider on the battlefield going ‘you know what? I could shoot the guy behind the car, but I could actually blow the car up or I could sneak over to the car and kick it at him’. You just start to invent and improvise and find things to do. The game educates you as you play it. It’s unique in that way cause we don’t force a mandate on you to play in a particular way.

TGL: With the first Crysis, people were blown away by the visuals. Nowadays there’s a shift towards complementing these visuals with 3D gaming. Is it true that James Cameron has played Crysis 2 in 3D?

NC: I don’t know if I can comment on that. That’s a news story that hit in the last couple of days. I don’t know what I can say about that.

TGL: Is Crysis 2 going to be the definitive 3D gaming experience?

NC: We’re taking 3D extremely seriously at Crytek. It’s technology we’ve been working on for the last couple of years. We have collaborated with a lot of people on 3D technology and have been exploring it not only as an aspect of Cry Engine 3 but as an experience that we can offer games as well. What’s really important for us is to make sure we have a solid 3D experience that isn’t straining on the eyes, that it’s a very pleasant, pleasing and very accurate experience that doesn’t negatively affect the frame rate. It’s a type of magic that we’ve been able to do. It’s not a simple process; it was really through a lot of iteration. We want you to have a solid 3D experience from the beginning to the end, from the cinematics in the game, to the gameplay, to the interface and the main menu. We have 3D all over the place and we really want that to be recognised in Crysis 2 as a very prominent feature, not just something that we tacked on.

10 most wanted games of 2011

Find out what you should be most looking forward to playing at some stage, fingers crossed, between now and Christmas 2011. Oh, it will soon be here.

Dead Space 2 Gameplay

Dead Space 2

Publisher: Electronic Arts
Format: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Due date: 28 January
The gist: Electronic Arts’ sci-fi horror sequel starts the year with doom and gloom. There are superb special effects in store, however, so not all depressing. It is three years after the Necromorph virus transformed the crew of the Ishimura space ship into cannibalistic mutants. Our unwilling but capable hero Isaac Clarke awakes in a space-colony hospital to find, yet again, that all is not well.
The gameplay: New weapons and a wider variety of protective suits help Isaac to tidy up this mess. He can use his environment to battle the Necromorphs, the vacuum of space can swiftly evacuate a room full of enemies. On top of that, Isaac uses telekinesis to control objects with his mind.

Dead Space 2 Official Trailer

Killzone 3

Publisher: Sony
Format: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Due date: 22 February
The gist: Can PlayStation Move enable Sony’s flagship first-person shooter to belittle its biggest rival, ‘Halo: Reach’ for Xbox 360? Accurate motion-controlled targeting is just one of the ideas touted for this second outing of ‘Killzone’ on PlayStation 3. It will also display in 3D if your telly is capable. We rejoin earth’s Interplanetary Strategic Alliance troops versus the alien Helghast Empire. Hua!
The gameplay: Expect jetpacks to take advantage of the huge environments explored vertically and horizontally. Higher vantage points will prove a great place to launch the multi-firing rockets of the new WASP ordinance. ISA troopers have learned mean and dirty close-quarter combat techniques. 

Killzone 3 Official Trailer

Marvel vs Capcom 3

Publisher: Capcom
Format: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Due date: February
The gist: Heroes from the Marvel universe, e.g. Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk, take on well-known characters from Capcom classics that include ‘Street Fighter’ and ‘Resident Evil’. The last time this happened was 10 years ago, and the explosive potential of today’s gaming consoles is several times that of PlayStation 2. This ought to be a comic book fan’s idea of console gaming nirvana.
The gameplay: One of the series’ trademarks is linking moves that take place in the air. Capcom will introduce an Air Combo button to launch aerial moves consistently, keeping Light, Medium, and Heavy attack buttons from previous games. ‘Marvel vs Capcom 3’ is all about the crazy combos. 

Marvel vs Capcom 3 Official Trailer

Gears of War 3

Publisher: Microsoft
Format: Xbox 360
Due date: Autumn
The gist: Return of the overtly violent creature feature, in which mankind battles a subterranean race dubbed the Locust Horde. The original ‘Gears of War’ introduced the infamous Lancer, a high-calibre machine gun plus onboard chainsaw designed to rip the Locust Horde into shreds. We’ve already seen weapons for ‘Gears of War 3’ that make the Lancer look like a feather duster.
The gameplay: New female characters join the fray, toting the same weapons as the blokes-built-like-bulldozers that include: The Digger (a gun that fires a creature that burrows underground), One Shot (sniper-rifle meets cannon), and Incendiary Grenades for those who like to see things burn.

Gears of War 3 Official Trailer

L.A. Noire

Publisher: Rockstar Games
Format: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Due date: Spring
The gist: Boasting new technology that precisely captures the nuances of an actor’s performance, ‘L.A. Noire’ combines the open-world elements of ‘Grand Theft Auto IV’ with movie directorial smarts of ‘L.A. Confidential’. Present-day Hollywood talent has been recruited to depict the 1940s heyday of the American film industry. The designers have faithfully recreated L.A. from that era.
The gameplay: This is a crime thriller, and as Detective Cole Phelps of the L.A.P.D. you’ll be firing questions at suspects as readily as your side-arm and shotgun at the villains. Cases are solved by paying attention to crime-scene detail then skilfully reading facial expressions and body language.

L.A Noire Official Trailer

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Publisher: Square Enix
Format: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC
Due date: Autumn
The gist: A ‘Bladerunner’ vibe runs through the digital veins of this futuristic action adventure, spectacularly pushing the technical limits of the latest consoles and gaming PCs. Lead protagonist Adam Jensen is a biotechnologically enhanced security specialist at the centre of an industrial conspiracy. Ultimately this leads to mind-blowing set-piece shoot out against monstrous villains.
The gameplay: You might be pleased to know that it’s not all shooting, in fact there are special rewards for completing the story without harming anyone other than the linchpin adversaries. As Adam, your approach can be stealthy or go-getting, and different routes open up accordingly.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Official Trailer

Doom 4

Publisher: id Software
Format: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC
Due date: 2011 – or thereabouts
The gist: Original ‘Doom’ can be considered the godfather of first-person shooting games, and was certainly genre-defining up to and including ‘Doom 3’. So with ‘Doom 4’ the gaming world, including the console guys, is rightly expecting to be shocked to the core by cleverness… and gore. As you can tell, we know next to nothing about it, however. That’s because it’s shrouded in secrecy.
The gameplay: “Gosh, that's actually an excellent question,” said id Software’s CEO in 2009. “It's not a sequel to ‘Doom 3’, but it's not a reboot either. ‘Doom 3’ was sort of a reboot. It's a little bit different than those.” Although details were promised for August this year, nothing surfaced. Ah well.

DOOM 4 Trailer

Crysis 2

Publisher: Electronic Arts
Format: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC
Due date: Early 2011

The gist: The second chapter of the sci-fi series that features a man wearing a military prototype Nanosuit. This doesn’t shrink our guy down to the size of a gnat; rather it bestows upon him superhuman capabilities in a most spectacular fashion. With the original ‘Crysis’, the producers maxed out performance of PCs at the time. The same is being said of ‘Crysis 2’ for consoles too.
The gameplay: Events take place in New York City, with our super soldier tackling aliens boasting superior artificial intelligence. They’ll hunt you in organised packs, requiring great ingenuity in your use of the Nanosuit plus all available weapons and gadgets to bring them down.

Crysis 2 Official Trailer

Rage

Publisher: id Software
Format: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Mac, iPhone / iPad, Android
Due date: Autumn 2011
The gist: The other big first-person shooter from the makers of ‘Doom’, of which hard information is scarce but it will feature driving and racing gameplay in addition to blasting. There is also indication that there will be a role-playing type experience system, applying to the development of the hero alongside his weapons and vehicles. It is set in a near-future, post-apocalyptic world.
The gameplay: Shooting stuff is id Software’s forte, but the driving sections will take their influence from the likes of ‘Burnout’ and ‘MotorStorm’. Since this is a post-apocalyptic wasteland the races are off-road affairs, most likely strewn with debris allowing for crazy stunts and improvised shortcuts.

Rage Official Trailer

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Publisher: Activision
Format: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC
Due date: Autumn 2011
The gist: We admit to this being pure speculation at this stage, but come on. Just as sure as there will be a new FIFA in the autumn, a gangbusters shoot-’em-up from Activision is almost certain to arrive with military precision. When and where it’ll take place is anyone’s guess. Pick your conflict zone, and opportunity for covert soldiers with unique skill sets and tools. It’ll be one of those.
The gameplay: Community support and incremental rewards are becoming par for the course in today’s best-selling games. ‘Call of Duty’ remains hugely popular on Xbox LIVE and PlayStation Network, and we expect it will extend the bragging-rights concept of badges, medals and trophies. 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Official Trailer