December 29th we had our 9th (or something) meetup – our IGI Christmas meetup. This was actually an early January meetup, but since we had the opportunity to have David Helgason, CEO of Unity, it was moved a little. Needless to say Balthazar bar was packed upstairs (and there were a few people downstairs watching the Aston Villa game).
Davíð talked about the his company Unity and how he and his partners started the business. This is the typical story of big ambitions, humble and naive beginnings, sort of the impressive fearlessness of those who don’t know what they are getting into. They just do it. And it sounded like they enjoyed the ride. It was also a story of difficult times, which takes persistence to survive. But if you prevail, the reward are worth it.
Unity is small game software development company based in Copenhagen and San Fransisco. The main product is multiplatform game development tool that allows for easy creation of 3D games. Davið showed the tool and how easy it is to use. Unity features an integrated editor that allows for editing the 3D environment and the assets. The results can be deployed on platforms such as Windows and MacOS, and also as a web solution using the Unity Web Player plug-in. Unity also support iPhone and Wii making it truly multiplatform.
Interesting point of the talk was about how the company has matured over the years. How they are moving from being a nice small group of talented individuals into a corporation with more managerial duties. Classic example of growing pains.
As usual this IGI event was very enlightening and entertaining.
More information on this event can be found on the IGI web site: Davíð CEO of Unity – Taking the pain out of game development.