At Unity’s developer conference in Vancouver, Facebook announced a new SDK that can help game developers using the Unity engine bring their game to Facebook. Usually, Facebook is seen as the home of casual browser games such as Farmville or Candy Crush Saga, but the new developments have allowed developers to port their 3D action games built in Unity directly into Facebook, making them playable in-browser. The developers of Shadowgun: Deadzone (pictured) are among the first to implement the SDK into their game.
This makes the game accessible to a comparatively more vast market than before. While the Unity Web Player has existed for years, this level of integration means for a potential audience of over 260 million people (according to Facebook).
The SDK boasts the ability to publish a game developed for, say, Android, to Facebook – in a process as simple as writing one line of code. The Facebook integration doesn’t stop at deployment though, as it continues to be active while the game is running, even in fullscreen mode. Dialogs for inviting friends, requests, and features such as posting achievements to your timeline can be set up and executed from within the game. This integration also extends to any mobile devices you play the game on.
Facebook is committed to easing the access of the Unity plugin by including a new window in which players are guided through the download process. The Facebook SDK is now available from Facebook’s Developer site, or if you’re already developing games in Unity, the Unity Asset Store.
What do you think? Is Facebook gaming likely to ascend to the next level now that sophisticated 3D games can be played there? Or is it likely to be ignored? Let us know your opinion in the comments below.