BUILD | GAME ENGINES UNITY FOCUS I Am PlayR demonstrates Unity’s relevance for Facebook gaming
I AM PLAYR Developer: We R Interactive Platform: Facebook What is it? An online social football lifestyle simulator
www.werinteractive.com
FOOTBALLING lifestyle game I Am PlayR was launched on Facebook back in October, and already boasts an impressive 412,000 monthly active users. The game is growing fast, and developer We R Interactive is turning heads. Not bad for an original IP that serves as the
studio’s first release. And who has developed the engine
We R Interactive executive producer Steve Didd says the Unity engine allowed the team to blend 3D graphics (left) with video footage (right)
powering this soccer-themed Facebook game, with ambitions for Android, iOS and Flash? Unity of course. “The fact that Unity is so user friendly was one of the key reasons we chose the Unity engine for the development of I Am PlayR,” says We R Interactive executive producer Steve Didd of betting the studio’s creative vision on the engine. “It’s great that the production team are
able to get hands on with building training drills and other game elements. Also, the fact that Unity supports both Android and iOS development was a key consideration in our mobile strategy for I Am PlayR.”
THE BEAUTIFUL GAME Unity is, of course, most commonly associated with iOS and browser games. But the active community for which the engine outfit is famed for, along with a wealth of online tutorials geared towards developing for social networks, means it is emerging as an increasingly popular tool for Facebook games development. The We R Interactive team toiling away on
I Am PlayR have certainly been impressed by the engine’s suitability for making games on the ever-alluring social network. They have been especially awe-struck by its AB testing functionality, which has allowed the studio to optimise the install flow and user uptake that is so vital to making a Facebook game a success. “Unity lends itself really well to fast
iterative development,” says Didd of Unity’s other Facebook-friendly features. “It’s quick and easy to tweak the scripts and then click ‘play’ to see the effects immediately, without
58 | FEBRUARY 2012
having to wait for the code to compile every time. This speed is essential to I Am PlayR, where we are we constantly creating new game content and responding to feedback from users.” Equally, Didd and his colleagues were
impressed by the prefabs that make Unity such a popular engine. “The fact that you can utilise prefabs to
store a master copy of a game object and then instantiate copies of it at will for quick set up of your scenes is great,” he confirms.
Unity's speed is essential to I Am
PlayR, where we are we constantly creating new game content .
Steve Didd, We R Interactive
“For I Am PlayRwe have all the characters, standard player actions and stadiums saved as prefabs – so when it comes to creating a new match chance you don’t have to start from scratch – you just play with the ready- made pieces. “We also take great advantage of the clear and concise Unity interface, which works
WHAT IS I AM PLAYR?
In developing I Am PlayR, London studio We R Interactive strived to create an aspirational world which allows the player to step into the studded boots of a professional footballer and explore the soccer star’s tumultuous lifestyle, both on the pitch and in the glare of the public eye. “I Am PlayR is the first POV online football game that lets the user play the life of a professional footballer,” explains the game’s
executive producer Steve Didd. “It fuses live action video, interactive story- telling and first-person perspective 3D gameplay to create a truly original narrative, where the storyline is dictated by the player’s decisions and
actions both on and off the pitch.” Currently thriving on Facebook, expanded mobile and Flash integration is presently underway.
really well for our developers and designers. Our developers work on writing the scripts and setting up the game objects and environments, then we pass on the Unity project to our designers who can play around with the public settings to create the variations they want.”
IN THE MIX It wasn’t all plain sailing for the I Am PlayR team. Merging the filmed sections and 3D gameplay in a way that would not jar the player from the illusion of the game world proved tough, and user testing became an essential part of balancing the blend of typically contrary visual approaches. “When building something new and
untried, it’s important to get user feedback early on in the project,” offers Didd. “We wanted to test that the game’s on-field parts were fun and engaging, and Unity allowed us to build the 3D elements quickly to get the all important user feedback. “Through blending live action video and
first-person perspective 3D gameplay we’ve created amazingly realistic match experiences. And the level of personalisation we are able to deliver through leveraging the social graph data – such as signing your contract for [the game’s team] River Park FC – is pretty special.”
www.werinteractive.com
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