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News, updates, and other wonderful things

Posted on Jul 12, 2016

Yes, it's that time again -- another Unity Asset is almost ready for release.  This time, it's uTemplate -- a truly smart templating system that makes script creation easier, and more streamlined.  You can read all about it on its product page, here.

Instead of releasing it straight to the store and charging money,  I'm trying something a little bit different with uTemplate -- I'm going to be giving the beta away for free.

"Wait, seriously?" you may be asking.

Yes, seriously.  The beta version of uTemplate is 100%, no-strings-attached free.  You can read about how to get it over here.  I'm really proud of uTemplate (and have been using it in my personal projects for a couple of months) but given how complicated code-generation can be, I've decided to do an open, free beta.  And if that wasn't crazy enough, there's also the Early Beta Giveaway, where multiple copies of uTemplate, U2DEX and uNote are all up for grabs -- just for giving me feedback on the uTemplate Beta.  Am I crazy?  Quite possibly.

So there you have it -- uTemplate is something truly great, in my opinion, and it's available right now, for free.  What are you waiting for?  Everybody loves free stuff -- go grab it before I come to my senses!

Spoiler alert: the beta will remain free -- I'm not going back on that.

And that's a wrap.  Until next time!

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Posted on Mar 5, 2016

It's been a long time coming, but nevertheless: Unfinity Games 2.0 is here!

The entire website has been rebuilt from the ground up to be more in-line with modern website standards.  The forum is the least affected by all of this, but everything else (main site, product pages, this blog, etc.) have all been completely retooled and redesigned.  It took a bit of work, but the end result is well worth it, I think.  Not to mention that this is now a proper blog (with very pretty syntax highlighting -- check the archives for older articles to see it in action!).

"Why do this now?", you might be wondering.  I've got some cool stuff to share in the months ahead, and getting an updated website in place was the first step towards all of that forthcoming greatness.  There'll be more info coming soon-ish, so stay tuned!

But, for now, a new and sexy website design will have to do.

Until next time!

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Posted on Aug 24, 2015

It's been quite a while since my last post.  A lot of stuff has happened, between being featured in a few Unity Asset Store sales, to Space Crüesader being greenlit, to the creation of a new Unity plugin, uNote.  To say that the last year has been busy would be an understatement!  A play-by-play of all of the milestones and accomplishments would be a very, very long list, so, instead, I'm going to stick to the broad strokes.

So, to sum up, here's some information on things past, and future.

  • U2DEX received multiple updates, lots of praise and a featured spot in the Unity Asset Store March Madness sale
    Over the past year U2DEX has really come into its own.  Some new features were added along with various refinements to the already-existing feature-set, but the most exciting development was receiving fantastic comments like "Why is this not part of Unity?", "I can't imagine not having it now.", and "Mandatory purchase for 2D work in Unity.".
    A lot of this culminated in getting an email from the Asset Store team telling me U2DEX had been selected to participate in one of the Asset Store's sale events.  Being chosen was an amazing thing in and of itself, but the after-effects of the sale were also really great.  Word-of-mouth for U2DEX has really started to pick up, and I'm truly humbled by the response and emails I've gotten from satisfied users.  You guys rock!
  • Space Crüesader was Greenlit for release on Steam
    After almost three years, Space Crüesader was finally greenlit!  Honestly, I had pretty much given up hope, but now that it's happened I'm pretty excited.  Given that Space Crüesader is about two and a half years old by now (and was heavily targeted for the Xbox 360), I made the decision to remake it in Unity, targeting PC this time.  There are numerous bonuses to this approach, but the biggest will be better cross-platform support, as well as a much better representation of what I wanted the game to be.  It'll be a lot of work, but the end result should be worth it.  This is less of a retread/remaster and more of a from-the-ground-up, version 1.5 remake -- so once it's a bit farther along, I'll be sure to share more about it.
  • A new Unity plugin, uNote, was released
    uNote was released earlier this year, and already has many satisfied developers using it (including myself!).  It's a relatively simple plugin, in terms of what it does, but it's really handy to be able to drop notes wherever you need to while editing.  It's done pretty well thus far, so I'm excited to see where it goes from here.

That's the broad strokes for 2014-2015.  There's still a lot of work to be done, but overall things have been moving at a pretty brisk pace.  I've got some more stuff planned, but Space Crüesader is my priority for now.  It, too, is coming along nicely, but there is still a lot left to do.

Maybe this year I can get in more than one blog post? (Hope springs eternal!)

Until next time!

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Posted on Aug 11, 2014

It’s been quite a while since my last post, so there’s a couple things to cover.  A lot has changed on the site in the past month or so, as well as some updates to U2DEX.

For starters, the newest version of U2DEX (v1.20) is officially on the Asset Store!  It includes quite a bit of reworking and new features, so it should make your 2D editing experience even more awesome than before!  You can check it out on its store page, or read up about it on its product page.  You can read the full changelog in the v1.20 forum thread.

This post also marks the unveiling of the new forums.  I wasn’t pleased with the direction the old forum software was taking (not to mention the near-constant updates and custom changes that I had to apply just to make it “functional”) so I’ve scrapped it entirely in favor of the very, very nice XenForo.  It’s a much nicer forum platform, both to work with as well as use.

In addition to that I’ve also redone some of the site to make it a bit more visually appealing.  The styling between the various areas of the site should also be more consistent, as well as being fully responsive, so it should look pretty snazzy even on smaller-screened devices (phones, mini tablets, etc.).  You might also have noticed that I’ve updated the logo a bit, and you’d be correct.  It was a little…ugly once I’d done the rest of the site changes, so it got a redo as well.

There you have it.  Lots of small things that add up to a fresher site, as well as a fresher U2DEX.

Until next time!

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Posted on Oct 18, 2013

Been a while, eh?  With Xbox Live Indie Games slowly being pulled off life-support, it was time I moved on to something else — turns out that something else is the Unity game engine.

Which brings me to the topic of the day: U2DEX — my first foray into making plugins for Unity.

From its asset store page:

U2DEX streamlines areas of the Unity Editor for 2D development, further turbocharging your 2D workflow.

By stripping away 3D values, or presenting them in a way that makes sense for 2D space, U2DEX rounds out and polishes some of the Unity Editor’s sharp, 3D corners, while still maintaining the Unity look-and-feel you know and love.

Essentially, U2DEX makes creating in Unity even more awesome for 2D games.  Here’s a run down of some features:

  • Grid tool – Aligning objects has never been easier!
  • Snap tool – Snap objects to numerical units, or to a Grid component’s Grid if you have one enabled!
  • Applicable class editor – Apply the 2D Transform Inspector to virtually any class with a name!
  • 2D Toolkit support!
  • Orthello support!
  • Enhanced Size and Scale – Use the underlying object’s scale, if possible. Preserve your dynamic batching with no extra work!
  • Enhanced Rotation – Use Degrees, or Radians, and watch as U2DEX converts between the two in real time!
  • Compatible with Unity Free and Pro
  • FULL source code access!

There’s more in-depth info on it’s product page.
In addition, you can now talk about stuff on our forum!

By the way, U2DEX is only $10, which makes it super cheap.
You can buy it here!  (I’ll love you forever!)

That’s it for today.  Hopefully some people get some use out of U2DEX — I had fun making it, so I'm hoping you have fun using it!

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