September Update (the Unity debacle)

Hello, little birds.  I've missed you terribly and hope you've all been well.

No moody video or fancy image for this one, because I needed this to be timely and there's a whole lot to say.

The thrust of this update is that I've been forced to stop using Unity after ~8 years as an almost entirely Unity-based developer.  Some of you who pay attention to game development circles may know why that is, but for those of you who don't, here are some links.  The five-word summary: Charging Devs For Every Installation.  Yes, it's as bad as it sounds (it's actually worse), and while the numbers may look like it wouldn't effect me, it DOES make for an absolutely ghoulish effect on the entire game development (and game playing) landscape that I simply can't stand by.  There's no guarantee that the implementation of this wouldn't result in some kind of reporting software or DRM that would be foisted on all of you which I won't allow, and the effects of this on other more successful indies genuinely can't be overstated in their awfulness and potential for financial harm.  Unity has gone full AAA Game Company with their naked avarice and jaw-dropping overreach, and even if they walk this decision back completely and frog-march John Riccitiello into the Atlantic in an ill-fitted duckling onesie, the fact remains they've tipped their hand and can never be trusted again.

Needless to say, I feel devastated, defeated and hollowed-out.  I've already been struggling with sixteen-hours-a-day-in-bed levels of depression (some of you have even reached out to me just to ask me if I'm still okay, still active, or even still alive, which I feel no end of guilt for, but I love you all terribly for as well).  Now I'm forced to pull the plug on the engine I've spent eight years learning and becoming competent with and start back at zero using something else.  The long-term project I teased in a couple of videos last year is now scrap.  The project I've been quietly chipping away at for a couple of months, hoping to make screenshot-worthy by October and playable by December, is now scrap.  All the project files of things I've worked on that I told myself just maybe one day I'd go back to are now scrap, except for the assets that can be salvaged from them.

And the fact is, I'm on the luckier end of the spectrum.  There are developers and small teams out there who are 50, 60, 70, 80% through their multiple-year-long Unity projects right now, and this has just been dropped in their laps.  I can't imagine their grief and anger and betrayal and frustration.  For me, there's nothing really to do but get the self-pity out of my system and get to work, and some of those scrapped projects might feasibly be re-created in another engine with a little elbow-grease.  There's even a chance the use of a new engine will rekindle the old spark and you'll all get to enjoy the shakey, glitchy, experimental byproducts of my self-education.  All to say, I have a silver lining I can cling to.  Other devs out there aren't so fortunate.

So if you've read this far and you're wondering if you can help in some way: first of all, you're wonderful and I'm so proud of you and you look really, really nice today, like... woof, little intimidated over here.  If you're the social-media-using type, make some noise about this and help hold Unity's feet to the fire.  With a little luck and a lot of pushback, Unity may just be pressured into walking this unbelievably bad decision back.  As I said before they'll never be trustworthy again, but it might at least buy some time for other developers to finish their works and seek other options at their own speed.  If you follow any other gamedevs who use Unity, be patient and understanding if they're in a similar position.  You've already given me far, FAR more patience and understanding than I deserve, more than I could ever ask for, and you'll never know how grateful I am for that.  Luckiest artist in the world because of all of you, and I'll never be convinced otherwise.

I'm not going to stop making games.  The only way I'll ever stop making things (or more fairly, wanting to make things) is if I'm dead.  I'm looking into Godot, Flax and a couple other engines to possibly hook my little tarsal claws into.  I might shift my focus to other ways of haunting you-- videos, 3D art, interactive fiction, who knows.  I won't puff myself up too much here given what an abject failure this year has been, but I at least want you to know where my intentions are at.

Please help stand with and support other Unity developers who've been effected by this.  It's a pretty agonizing moment for us right now, and a lot of them have it worse than I do.  For everything that you do for them and for me, thank you.  And thank you so much for your patience this year, as always.  I'd like to be worthy of it one day.  But until then, know that I love you and I think of you often.

Stay aloft, little birds.  Talk to you soon

♥