GDC 2024: Trends, the Unity 6 roadmap, multiplayer, AI, and more

At this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC), we went deeper into the tech and tools. Read up on industry trends, get a look at the roadmap featuring Unity 6, download a new multiplayer sample, experiment with Unity Muse’s latest AI capabilities, and join in celebration of games that are made with Unity.

Starting off the week, we released the 2024 Unity Gaming Report, which can help you understand the forces that are shaping today’s industry. The report draws insight from approximately five million Unity Engine developers, an astonishing 342 billion ad views, and this data is complemented by commentary from 19 studios from across the globe, who share their own insight and experiences. The stories, data, and five trends are compiled to help inform your own game development journey and better understand where the year is going, now and in the years ahead. Check it out.

Looking toward the future, we dedicated a session to the roadmap for not only Unity 6, but all of the complementary products and services to help you create and run your game. The roadmap covers topics including all-new graphics features for creating immersive worlds, innovation in XR (also tackled in our in-demand Apple Vision Pro deep dive session that’ll be uploaded soon), and how Unity Cloud and Unity Muse can help you leverage to boost efficiency. We also address what’s new in multiplayer, both in-Editor and for operation using Game Server Hosting and Vivox Voice and Text Chat. Watch the session below to see what’s new and how Unity is taking your feedback to invest in the future.

We just released Megacity Metro, a new sample that showcases multiplayer game development across platforms and supports over 100 players. Built using DOTS and the Universal Render Pipeline (URP) for cross-platform compatibility, it comes pre-integrated with Unity Cloud services like Authentication, Multiplay Hosting, Matchmaker, and Vivox Voice Chat. Think of the sample as a blueprint if you want to better understand multiplayer game mechanics or incorporate the latest technologies into your game.

You can download the Megacity Metro sample today, then join us on Wednesday, March 27 for a webinar where we’ll go behind-the-scenes  into the tech, discuss how the sample was set up, and give you a look at the breadth of our multiplayer solutions.

By adding Unity Cloud to all Unity subscription plans, we’re helping to make working as a team more efficient. Unity Cloud centralizes content and streamlines team workflows with vital connections between Unity Asset Manager, Unity Version Control, and the Editor. You can get started for free, and Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise plans get increased cloud storage and team administration capabilities.

Muse helps you ideate and iterate faster by harnessing the power of AI to complement your creativity. This week, we revealed that we’ll soon be incorporating all of Muse’s capabilities into the Editor, bringing AI closer to where you create to streamline your workflows. 

We also previewed an improvement to Muse texture generation, Texture 3D. This new model leverages new original research and proprietary models to generate true PBR materials for 3D objects. This means that you’ll be able to produce a multi-material UV texture that can wrap onto an object directly and will react more accurately to lighting.

You can get started with a free trial of Muse to begin experimenting and see how AI can help you create more efficiently.

For mobile game studios, Tapjoy recently introduced Daily Rewards, a unique new campaign type on Offerwall that can help advertisers to drive higher ROAS. Daily Rewards offers players daily incentives by inviting them to come back to unlock in-game rewards every day. 

In the ads space, the Unity Ads Network and ironSource Ads will soon be available in beta on the Google AdMob mediation platform as real-time bidders. Stay tuned for more on the release.

GDC wouldn’t be complete without the latest games, and we celebrated alongside a few studios at our Creator Lounge. Tomas Sala’s Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles is an open-world combat builder that showcases the flexibility of Unity’s extensibility. Southfield, by Radical Forge, combines farming with ridiculous physics in an online multiplayer experience across platforms, leveraging everything from netcode to matchmaker to Multiplay game server hosting. Super Gear Games soft-launched Racing Kingdom to both iOS and Android, powered by URP to ensure peak performance across devices.

VR is having a resurgence this year, and we featured Nosebleed Interactive’s Arcade Paradise VR, an immersive arcade experience built with URP along with the 2D toolset used to make the arcade games. Demeo Battles, by Resolution Games, brings its turn-based strategy game to VR with help from the Input System to allow for cross-play with PC. Resolution Games also announced a brand-new mixed reality mode for Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs.

Finally, awards were handed out at the Game Developers Choice Awards – a special shout out to Visai Games’s Venba for taking home the Best Debut and Social Impact awards. Congratulations!

As we close out GDC, we want to thank everyone who took time to connect with us live and in person. You chatted with us and played games at the Creator Lounge, provided insightful feedback at our product roundtables, and inspired us with your games and technology curiosity. We hope you enjoyed reconnecting as much as we did, and we can’t wait to see you at the next GDC. In the meantime, keep creating amazing games.

Stay tuned as we share all of our GDC Dev Summit content online and on-demand, and feel free to explore how Unity can help you create, run, and grow your games.