GameSalad is game development software from the Austin-based company of the same name. For Education, GameSalad aims to bring the power of a world class game development to empower students to learn Computer Science concepts in an engaging manner. GameSalad aims to promote 21st Century Skills in a fun project based learning environment.
$199
per year
Unity
Score 9.4 out of 10
N/A
Unity Technologies headquartered in San Francisco offers the Unity real-time 3D and 2D development platform.
$200
per person/per month
Pricing
GameSalad
Unity
Editions & Modules
GameSalad Basic
$199
per year
GameSalad Pro
$299
per year
Enterprise
$200
per person/per month
Plus
$399
per person/per year
Pro
1,800
per person/per year
Personal
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
GameSalad
Unity
Free Trial
No
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
Student and educator discounts available. Monthly pricing available.
Unity can cover most of the needs of game development, both for 2D and 3D. It is particularly well suited to games designed to be played presented and played on web pages, but it can create high-end content as well. Perhaps it would be less suited in high-end games which depend to much of sophisticated lighting effects since Cryengine and Unreal are more evolved in this area. On the other extreme, in the case of very simple 2D games for web pages, like newsgames, simpler game engines probably would be more advisable for a faster production, like Construct (2 or 3) or even Twine (in case of text adventures)
It's actually incredibly easy to use given the complex tasks you have. Once you learn the various windows it becomes second nature. Compared to something like Blender (which I would probably rate as a 2 on usability), the learning curve of Unity is a breeze! The only improvements I can think of would be to streamline some common workflows so you don't have to dig through menus to find them.
I have not had to use Unity's support extensively. This is likely because there is so much documentation and so many classes available for free online. Due to this, there is little need for support. They were very responsive when I requested educational licensing. Setting it up and providing it all quickly.
Unreal Engine is a fantastic piece of software but it has a much steeper learning curve and an arcane, idiosyncratic way of developing software that is quite foreign. Unity uses some similar concepts to Adobe Flex, which we've always found easy and sensible. It is also easier to go to Unity having either a Java or C# background. We also explored using Android Studio and Xcode on their own for AR experiences and that is a suitable option depending on the use case, but Unity is still a great tool for rapid prototyping and even for building finished, shipped apps.