The top 14 game engines: Unity 4

Company: Unity Technologies
Platform: Android, Browser, Flash, iOS, Linux, Mac, PC, PS3, Wii U, Xbox 360
Used in: Bad Piggies, Castle Story, Dead Trigger 2, République, Wasteland 2
www.unity3d.com

Unity now claims to have over 1.5 million registered users and has brought us the likes of Endless Space, Kentucky Route Zero and Thomas Was Alone.

Yes, the herald of the indie revolution has gone from strength to strength, and the latest version of its engine brings its mission to democratise development closer still.

Unity 4 has a new animation system, Mecanim, which its maker says brings high-end character animation to those who have previously never had access to such a tool.

Unity CEO David Helgason believes engines today are about community: “The most important innovations in game engines haven’t been of a technical nature – they’re about building a community and a marketplace around engines, and thus making the engine more than just a piece of software.

“An engine with a big community more resembles a social movement than a software tool, and at Unity, we intend to push the bar on this very hard going forward.”

And when it comes to maintaining the Unity community, Helgason says keeping up with “platform fragmentation” can be taxing, but he feels the breadth of support and its strong financial situation means Unity can shine.

Along with existing support for DirectX 11 and Wii U, plans are in place to bring Unity to BlackBerry OS and Windows Phone this year.

Support for Oculus Rift is also on way, and the engine maker is keeping an eye on the likes of Ouya and Nvidia as they bring their Android platforms to market.

And other consoles may yet be on its list, as Helgason says: “We are currently researching the other next-gen consoles while having open communications with their makers. We’re committed to giving our community the best publishing options possible to open up as many avenues for success as we can.”

You can view all of the top 14 game engine profiles as they are published here.