this isn't about the current unity nonsense, but it got me thinking, I don't think I like unity's model. it always seems kind of... silly?
i've never really used unity, but what i want to do when i'm building a game is to write a bunch of code that makes the game go brrr, make a bunch of level layouts externally, and the code loads the level files just like any other data. if i want multiple levels, i just make multiple level asset files. this all seems very sensible and obvious to me, but unity does almost the opposite: it wants me to create a level and import all the code into it.
it makes sense to me for the player character object to include all the movement code and what-have-you, but like if you need a level time then you have to make a "level timer" object and then put it in the level somewhere. and i do mean "somewhere", it has a physical (x,y,z) location within the level. that all just seems very silly to me, i find it confusing to think about building software that way up, and it seems like a sure-fire way to have bugs like "there's no HUD in level five specifically" which is just not a kind of bug that should exist. it's neat that simply placing a certain kind of object in a level will necessarily load all the code that powers it, but at the same time, there seems no obvious reason why each level should need to individually include the pause menu logic — that kind of thing fundamentally belongs in a general "run level" function? like the game logic should depend on the level maps and not the other way around?
all of that said i do write react code every day at work, and that uses much the same model where you build a page and then drop little functional components into it, but even with that i resent that dialog boxes have to live somewhere within the silly pretend dom rather than just being modally inserted above it all, and we actually do have an active bug ticket right now caused by this exact nonsense, so idk
this reminded me of a particular game bug i was made aware of thanks to the power of Miiverse. in Affordable Space Adventures (an excellent Wii U eShop exclusive headed by @Nifflas of Knytt fame which you can no longer buy), getting out‐of‐bounds (which you could do in a handful of levels — less after some of the collision issues were patched out) enabled you to fly over to where the Wii U Gamepad’s UI was placed in the level — since, per the above, this is Unity, and you have to just Place Everything Somewhere. flying your ship into the background mesh would actually render your ship on the Gamepad interface, as you can see in the screenshots above.
i was only able to dig up screenshots of this thanks to the Archiverse project. i seem to remember that the user who originally posted about finding the Gamepad UI out of bounds did so in a different level and wrote some in‐universe fiction to accompany their screenshots where the pilots encounter and investigate this curious anomaly, which was very appropriate and cute as the game itself gets pretty meta and existential at times. i can’t find those specific posts on this archive anymore, but Miiverse user “belongsinamuseum” posted the 4 screenshots i ended up using here (which i truly thank them for, because posting that many screenshots required several minutes of your time as you have to go back into the game, set up a new screenshot, and then re‐open Miiverse which was itself agonizingly slow to load).
going through the Miiverse community for this game to find these posts has given me some genuine nostalgia for it. ultimately, hosting user‐generated content on the internet is an unsustainable nightmare, and a social network where adults can easily find a huge audience of children is unquestionably a terrible idea, but Miiverse’s limited scope enabled it to bring some real joy. all sorts of real players sharing charming drawings, pretty screenshots, reviews full of praise, and cute little moments… and of course all the posts from kids going “helfp what do i do here”.
also this game rips, if you are somehow able to play Affordable Space Adventures i strongly recommend it, especially if you can do 3‐player co‐op. i consider it in my personal “top 20 games of all time”. IMO its usage of the Gamepad surpassed even the strongest first‐party outings like Nintendo Land and Game & Wario.
