Unity

Unity is a cross-platform game engine and editor made by Unity Technologies. Developers build scenes in its editor and write gameplay code in C#, then export to targets such as Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, consoles and the web.

Why it matters

Unity is popular for mobile, indie and cross-platform projects, and also for non-game uses such as simulations, AR and VR, and interactive visualization. Its asset store and large community reduce the work needed to start. Licensing and pricing terms have changed over the years, so check Unity's current terms before committing a commercial project.

Example

A minimal Unity script that moves an object, written as a component:

using UnityEngine;

public class Mover : MonoBehaviour {
  public float speed = 3f;
  void Update() {
    transform.Translate(Vector3.forward * speed * Time.deltaTime);
  }
}

Update() runs once per frame, and multiplying by Time.deltaTime keeps the speed independent of frame rate.

Common mistakes

• Doing heavy work inside Update() every frame, which hurts FPS.
• Skipping profiling on real target devices; the editor on a desktop PC hides mobile limits.
• Assuming one project builds identically for every platform without testing.

Related

• Game engine
• Unreal Engine
• SDK
• GPU

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