Back in March 2017 we started noticing th at people did not believe that Antigraviator was made with Unity. Most people thought we were using Unreal. So, I thought to myself, “why not contact Unity and see if there might be a possibility of doing cross-promotion?”
It took a while, but eventually Unity got back to us and invited us to Unite Amsterdam, a developer conference for Unity, to come and see what a Unite event was all about. At Unite Amsterdam the idea grew that we might be able to help Unity during their next training day, Unite Austin.
Unite Austin 2017
Unite Austin is an event hosted by Unity. It was held from October 3 – 5 of 2017 at the downtown convention center in the beautiful city of Austin, Texas.
In order for us to help at Unite Austin, we had to upgrade to Unity 2017.1 and implement some of these features ourselves. Of course, they were kind enough to help us with the move. In return, we provided some of our assets for use on the Unite Austin training day.
Helping Others Make An Anti-gravity Racing Game Of Their Own
Before the conference took place, a training day was held on the 2nd of October. During the training day we taught people how to work with all the new features that Unity 2017 has now put in the hands of game developers, such as Timeline and Cinemachine. We joined the training day and saw how people created a similar game to ours.
Our work was done in advance, we tested the build Unity made and helped them understand some of our code. They were however not allowed to use our actual code but made something similar.
The true heroes of the day were Mike Geig and Andy Touch, two Unity evangelists who created the training and taught the people the ropes at the event.
Antigraviator In The Spotlight
Aside from hosting trainings on how get the most out of the Unity Engine, Unite Austin was also home to exhibitions. We had a booth on the Made with Unity showcase, which featured a playable Antigraviator demo.
On stage, we provided a talk about our company, our journey and how we use Unity 2017. This talk, Racing Ahead With Unity 2017, was later uploaded to YouTube. In a previous life I was a Microsoft certified Teacher and, in that role, I had spoken before larger crowds before. Unite Austin, however, was the first time I would be talking about my true passion: video games.
It was an absolute pleasure to attend Unite Austin. It was also an honour to have our assets used to teach others Unity 2017. The Unity party was also a highlight. Unity sure knows how to throw a party! We also got some great feedback on the game. It was a joy to talk to American developers and hear their take on the game industry and the indie scene.
For those that missed Unite Austin, Unity released the training series through Youtube: the Hover Racer Live Training Series. Mike Geig and Andy Touch, who hosted the Unite Austin training day also hosted the Hover Racer training live training.