How to Get Hired as a Unity Game Developer

Unity is a cross-platform game development environment created by Unity Technologie and used to develop video games for the PC platform, consoles, mobile devices, and websites. A significant advantage of Unity is portability without performance loss. The demand for highly skilled talent in Unity development exceeds supply, this creates an impressive shortage in the market.

The Profession of Game Developer

A game developer is a person who writes the code for the game using some game engines such as Unreal, Unity, and others. There are plenty of options where you can find a job and start your career in game development.

Large Project

Among the advantages: are stability, better pay, social bonuses, most likely a really cool team, and well-established work processes. At the same time, you won't always be working on something you're really interested in.

Indie Project

Indie developer is often described with their eyes signing bright while they are working on the project they love. However, it’s not always like that. Indie teams are much smaller, which means that one person can do much more work by themselves, and they probably won’t be paid as much as those working on large projects.

Freelance

You can earn enough and work on a bunch of different projects, however, it’s only you who is responsible for looking for the clients, and managing your workload.

Which of these ways is better? It’s only you to decide.

Pros and Cons of the Profession

Here`re some positive aspects of working with game software:

• High salary;
• Enjoyment of your projects;
• Creative fulfillment.

On the other hand, there’re also some disadvantages:

• Burnout – some developers even stop playing games because of the loss of interest.
• Crunches happen, and they are not uncommon. And companies do not always pay for overtime.

Why Choose Unity Software

The two main conventionally free popular game engines in the industry are Unreal and Unity.

Unity is more often used in mobile development, it supports many platforms, has a large community, and uses the simpler and more accessible C# language. Unreal is probably more high-budget AAA games, built-in free visual scripting, and cool tools, but less friendly C++ language.

Unity has great potential for job hunting and freelancing opportunities and is becoming even more used primarily because of the huge popularity of mobile games. Some of the most popular games built on Unity are Pokemon GO, HearthStone, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, Albion Online, and others.

It's a great time to become a Unity game developer because the industry is booming. A lot of companies that weren't involved in games before are starting to develop their own game projects, hence the increased interest in developers and hiring unity game development companies. Speaking specifically about Unity, it is a great opportunity for aspiring Unity developers to get their first job more quickly.

What Do Unity Developers Do?

Examples of duties a Unity developer might have:

• Achieving high-quality project graphics for next-generation consoles and PCs;
• Working with shaders, optimizing code, offering solutions, and implementing them;
• Creating toolsets for 3D artists and game designers;
• Leading game development from scratch on Unity for iOS and Android;
• Building project architecture, thinking through approaches to implement game mechanics and features;
• Maintaining and improving processes within the team;
• Leading the development team;
• Setting and overseeing tasks, estimating the scope of work, planning, prioritizing, and decomposing tasks;
• Conducting code reviews, mentoring, and training other team members;
• Solving complex technical problems independently;
• Optimizing games (RAM, build size);
• Participating in application updates.

General requirements from Unity game development company may include:

• C# programming
• Game logic programming
• Creating optimal Low Poly model topology
• PBR-texturing
• Knowledge of Unity API
• Game development for various platforms
• Working with High Poly models
• Creating a Character Skeleton
• Designing and maintaining design document
• 3D Modeling and Animation in Blender
• Texture Map Development
• Importing Models and Animations into Unity

Getting Started in Game Development

When they talk about a low threshold of entry into game-making, it's largely a marketing ploy. Yes, you can quickly learn how to do visual scripting in Unreal, and simple things in Unity, but it is not where the real work begins. In order to get your start in Unity game development, it's best to learn C#.

Other than that, you have to make sure you have a technical mindset – if you prefer to draw characters or make them up, then most likely the development profession is not for you. However, I never give up on anyone: I believe that strong motivation and desire will bear fruit. After all, I went all the way from a 3D artist to a Unity developer myself.

I recommend watching any video tutorial on the subject at the start, trying to get into the process, and writing code for hours - see if you enjoy spending so much time going over the details of game mechanics implementation. And whether it works.  If the answer is yes, then go to gamedev.