If you are a 3D game developer/designer or simply enjoy playing web games, the name of Unity 3D is certainly familiar to you. Somehow the guys from Unity managed to create a multiplatform animation and game development application that is intuitive, flexible and deep, all in one. So what exactly makes Unity so popular? Let’s look under the hood and find it out!

One of the best things about Unity is that it’s accessible for both professional and non-expert users. Thus, if you are a decent game designer but you programming skills are your weak point, Unity engine can fill those gaps pretty well. Here are the main features making this possible:

• Integrated development environment with visual editing, drag and drop interface and live game preview.
• Universal web player available both for Mac OS and Windows and works in all browsers.
• All the impressive performance speed and great 3D rendering is built with JavaScript and C# only. In other words, Unity-powered games work on iPhone which is definitely an advantage in terms of Apple-Adobe intrigues of today.

• Supports many popular 3D modeling applications, including free Blender, low-cost Cheetah3D and expensive Maya and 3ds Max.
• Powerful engine delivering a profound physics, animation and effect performance, as well as streaming video and sound.

This is just a tip of an iceberg. The first version of Unity was released in 2005 and since then over 15 notable games, released and in-development, were built with Unity, including Need For Speed World, My Animal Centre (first Wii game create using Unity), Gooball and others.

Although the engine enables to create games and interactive content that can run on Windows, the software itself is Mac only. It is rumored that the company is working on a PC version of the Unity engine, but in our opinion, such a comfortable and easy workflow Unity provides is worth spending some money and time on Mac, even if you are a devoted Windows fan.

Currently the huge Unity audience is excited about upcoming Unity 3 release. Apparently this is going to be a big-bang update, indeed. Among the main highlights announced so far are:

• Unified editor: allows you to build and preview your game for iPhone, xBox 360 and web inside the same editor.
• Source-level debugging: from now on you can pause your game, do line-by-line single stepping, set breakpoints, and inspect variables. Forget about print-based debugging.
• Project Browser: Unity 3 contains a content browser that shows everything with previews – including tagging and searching – so you always have the assets you need at your fingertips.

More improvements and innovation is expected to come with Unity 3, you can find out more at unity3d.com/.

No doubt, if you are at least slightly interested in creating 3D games, Unity is worth checking. By the way, they have a free version which is limited in features but more than enough for a trial. It’s hard to find an easier way to get 3D out there on the Web. [Don’t agree with this statement? Share your opinion in comments!]