How to Hire the Best Unity3D Developers
One of the prerequisites to a successful game development project is hiring the Unity3D developers who match with your business requirements as well as your company culture. To be able to find the right Unity3D developer, employers and hiring managers must first understand the game development tool, other related technologies, as well as the technical and soft skills they must look for in their candidates.
With that being said, let’s discuss some of the most important and crucial information regarding game development and Unity3D that will help employers and hiring managers like you tell a great Unity3D game developer apart from a sea of candidates.
Developed by Unity Technologies and under the direction of David Helgason, Nicholas Francis, and Joachim Ante, Unity3D (also referred to as Unity) is a cross-platform tool that powers more than 50% of all mobile games and more than 60% of AR/VR. It was first announced to the public in June 2005 as an OS X-exclusive game engine at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. At present, it has evolved to become an engine that supports up to 27 platforms.
Unity3D developers can program in C# to create two-dimensional and three-dimensional games as well as simulations for various platforms. Moreover, the engine provides its users with primary scripting APIs in the form of plugins, games themselves, plus a drag-and-drop functionality.
Unity3D supports the following graphics APIs:
- Direct3D (Windows, Xbox One)
- OpenGL (Linux, macOS, and Windows)
- OpenGL ES (Android, iOS)
- WebGL (Web)
- Proprietary APIs (Video game consoles)
- Metal (iOS, macOS)
- Vulkan (Android, Linux, Windows)
- Direct3D 12 (Windows, Xbox One)
Beyond building visually-stunning and dynamic games, the Unity3D engine also allows its users to build engaging simulations through texture compression, mipmaps, and separate resolution settings for the different supported platforms. Moreover, the engine also supports bump mapping, reflection mapping, parallax mapping, screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO), dynamic shadows, render-to-texture, and full-screen post-processing effects.
With all of these features and functionalities, Unity has become the all-in-one solution for building interactive and immersive real-time experiences from games to medical, manufacturing, and beyond.
Why should you hire a Unity3D developer?
Building and developing dynamic games requires not only great ideas but also great tech talents who know the ins and outs of game development. Hiring developers who are skilled and experienced in working with Unity3D will help you leverage the benefits of the engine in developing your product or project:
Render beautiful 2D and 3D scenes
We live in an era full of visual content, where companies, business, and organisations with eye-catching materials are able to stand out among the rest. With a Unity3D developer in your team, you will be able to effectively render 2D and 3D scenes and images with quality that is relatively higher than other apps.
Develop apps for multiple platforms
Developing native apps demands a lot of time and effort. Unity addresses this concern by enabling game developers to use and compile a single script for many platforms. This makes the development process significantly simpler and easier compared to native app development.
Extensive tech support
Unity has an assets store that is relatively greater compared to other platforms. Your Unity developers will receive all the tech support they need to address any technical issues they may meet throughout the project.
What kind of projects can a Unity3D developer work on?
Aside from its uses in the gaming industry, Unity’s flexible and powerful real-time tools can be utilised to build all kinds of applications for all industries.
Gaming
- Mobile games - Unity3D offers everything mobile game developers need to create device-ready to content plus options for monetisation.
- Instant games - The engine can also be used to build lighter and faster instant games.
- Console/PC games - Game developers can create console and PC games with rich visual fidelity and artist-friendly tools.
- AR/VR games - Unity provides developers with various dynamic real-time tools for unlimited creative possibilities.
Automotive, Transportation, and Manufacturing
- Sales and Marketing - Unity can also be used to create rich marketing materials such as online car configurators and virtual showrooms which help drive engagement and increase sales.
- Design and Visualisation - With Unity, designers and engineers can rapidly prototype designs in an interactive and immersive 3D environment
- Training and Guidance - Unity helps create interactive training applications that maximise safety and eliminate dependency on physical proximity or materials.
- Autonomous Vehicle Training - Unity can also be utilised in creating virtual environments that help train autonomous technology and AI through real-world scenario simulations.
- HMI Development - Unity helps seamlessly connect HMI development processes from research to design and deployment, redefining the passenger experience for vehicles of the future.
Film, Animation, and Cinematics
- Animation - Artists can use this real-time platform to create and dramatically improve short, episodic, and feature-length stories.
- Virtual Cinematography - Unity has production and camera tools that helped directors like Steven Spielberg and Denis Villeneuve make creative decisions in real-time.
- Facial Mocap - Unity can be used for facial performance capture with AR to make animation work faster and more efficient.
- Cinematic VR
- 360 Video
Unity3D is also used in the following industries:
- Architecture, Engineering, and Construction - particularly in Design and Data Visualisation, Marketing, Training and Safety, and Onsite Visualisation)
- Brand ads and Experiences - particularly in building highly immersive, emotional, and positive brand experiences through mobile video, playables, AR ads, and VR ads)
- EdTech - for creating engaging educational games, simulations, and VR/AR tools
- Extended Reality (XR) - particularly in creating 360 video, cinematic VR and mobile AR materials.
What skills should you look for when hiring Unity developers?
Strong IT skills
It’s important that you properly assess a candidate’s skills and knowledge in software design and programming, as well as their IT skills and how adept they are at video graphics and handling hardware.
Beyond coding, your candidates must also possess the technical chops in areas such as character design, scenery design, and user interface design. These are instrumental in building a game or any application that is impressive and realistic—which significantly boosts competitive advantage.
Problem-solving aptitude
One characteristic of a great game developer is that he/she has an aptitude and drive for overcoming challenges and resolving technical glitches. Game development requires a lot of grit and patience, and so hiring Unity3D developers with solid problem-solving skills will benefit your team’s performance and efficiency.
Creativity
Aside from technical and problem-solving skills, another factor to consider during the screening process is a candidate’s creativity and cultural fit. You need developers who love and can conceptualise original game ideas to help you make unique games, and therefore gain a competitive advantage in the heavily saturated gaming industry.
Further, you need game developers who understand that a game, in essence, is a human activity—it must capture and keep a player’s attention quickly for it to become successful. With this, a great game developer is someone who understands human psychology and culture, and how to blend creativity in it.
Time management skills
Video games these days are complex products with multiple moving parts. Often, they require multiple teams of artistic and technical professionals responsible for pulling different pieces together. To thrive in such an environment, you will need to be able to work well under pressure, learn to collaborate with others, and keep to project deadlines.
Communication skills
This is sadly a commonly overlooked skill by many technical people, but in reality, communication skills are crucial in all teams and all industries, including game development.
To build a successful and well-coordinated game development team, always look for communication skills in your potential Unity developers. Assess how they express their vision and their ideas, and how they communicate with both technical and non-technical people.
Staying updated with industry developments
Lastly, it helps to look for game developers who have a passion to stay updated on the latest trends and developments, as well as what is happening in the gaming world in general. It’s also a big plus to find Unity developers who genuinely love games and play them often. The more they play and the more they are exposed to other games of varying types and genres, the more likely they are to understand the factors that make a game click with its target audience.
WHY HIRE OFFSHORE UNITY3D DEVELOPERS WITH CLOUD EMPLOYEE
