Nekoyoubi vs. PlayMaker
I just got done jotting down some thoughts on RageSpline yesterday and I thought “why in the world haven’t I written a review of PlayMaker yet?!”, so here goes.
First off, @Unity3D, that review system in the Asset Store should get some love. Real reviews are more than just testimonies, and there’s no way someone can write an honest review in there. ;)
We’re here about PlayMaker though, not Unity, so I’ll get started by saying that I’ve only had PlayMaker now for about a month now, but in that time I’ve had many small projects (and one big one) that use it, so I think I know enough about it now to write a decent summary and review on the product.
Marketing
Not joking, PlayMaker is marketed through the Asset Store (and Twitter… @CaitlynUnity!) as a way to write games in Unity without having to write any code. Let me break down what that really means - as to be honest, as cool as that sounds, it was almost a turn-off immediately.
PlayMaker can enable you to create a game without writing a single line of code, yes. The problem with the statement is that to a developer (what I actually pay the bills with), the idea of an extension to Unity that would constrain me to some WYSIWYG process wire-up was not at all something I wanted.
I did however, get very interested in the lack of a need to rewrite tiny scripts every few minutes for the simplest things (e.g. spin an object, turn a light on, etc…). Fortunately, I was interested enough that I went and found some videos and got the real sales pitch.
Reality
Wow, how far from the marketing. After looking over the videos provided by Hutong Games (its creator) I was floored. It wasn’t a “you don’t have to know how to code” at all! Also, unfortunately, to sum it up in a similar expression would be a great insult to the product, so here are a few of the things it actually is.
It’s a solid FSM. It’s a visual scripting tool. It’s a hierarchical logic framework. It’s a time saver. It’s a code-snippet storer. It’s an inspiration engine.
That’s the reality; so much more than the pitch.
FSM
As a finite-state machine, PlayMaker does its job with style and grace. Hell, it even adds per-state debugging to your game with zero-effort. Write cleaner logical processes and game states; trust me, without help this can get unwieldy.
Support
Hutong Games offers the most amazing support compared to any third-party developers that I’ve ever known… in any industry. They make sure PlayMaker is well documented, they offer professional videos, and have an amazing community that is always willing to help.
Growth
The improvements that made it into it right as I got into it were pretty significant (v1.1), and while 90% of what is discussed as needed are actions (the bits of visual scripting that let you dowith PlayMaker), the suggestions that the community has raised have been addressed and are looking to make an even brighter future for the extension.
Price
At first, I was reluctant to buy this at its current $100 (USD) price point. I mean, I’m just an after-work indie. I have a very limited budget for things like this, so to me $100 was a lot.
I basically just used the expected “lift” from not having to write those simple scripts I mentioned before as the basis and justification of the cost. Wow. If only I had broadened my perspective. I wouldn’t have waited a second.
If you think about it, for most of us (older) indies, we are new to awesome engines like Unity3D being free. I remember paying $100 for my indie license to Torque (as I’m sure many others do as well). Given how drastically PlayMaker changes the way you write games, it almost feels like jumping into a new-and-improved Unity. So here’s the way I would suggest looking at the cost:
“Old indie-engine” == $100 || “New amazing indie-engine” == (Unity + PlayMaker) == $100
tl;dr
If you write games in Unity, can afford $100, and aren’t an idiot… you’ve already bought PlayMaker.
