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Unity is more than an engine for Team17

June 30, 2021 in Games | 5 min. read
Big landscape of Overcooked characters
Big landscape of Overcooked characters
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Team17, the UK based developer responsible for the ever-present multiplayer classic Worms and the manic multiplayer series Overcooked!, employs a wealth of Unity tools to make their games. The creativity, imagination, and sense of whacky, joyful adventure they pack into their titles inspired us to sit down to talk to them about how they built their latest hits.

An engine for any occasion

Unity is best known for the platform that millions of creators across the world use to build their digital visions, and Team17 has a lot of experience with our eponymous product – not least of all on Overcooked! All You Can Eat.

Team17 doesn’t just develop their own games, they’re a publisher who helps all kinds of great indie games launch into the world – and many of these indies build in Unity. 

Working on so many great projects internally and with their indie partners, Team17 loves the flexibility that Unity affords them. “[With Unity], we can focus on developing tools specific to the needs we have for a project, because we already have a general setup that works straight out of the box.” Says Niklas Hansson, Lead Programmer at Team17.

But we know lots of great developers like to use our engine, so what else did Team17 pick out from the Unity offering to help make great games like Overcooked! All You Can Eat and Worms Rumble possible?

screenshot of Overcooked DLC level in Unity editor

Taking to the road

If Unity is the engine driving a great title, then Multiplayer Services are the wheels that take it to the online world. 

Both Overcooked! All You Can Eat and Worms Rumble are best enjoyed with friends, so the online offering had to be rock-solid for both games. 

Team17 were looking for something flexible, powerful, and out-of-the-box to ensure that they wouldn’t have to waste months of their own time building a server solution from scratch. 

Niklas found the scalable, worldwide hosting solution to be the right choice. “I think it’s hard to put into words how much time the flexibility and support from Multiplay saved us.” 

But having the ability to connect the players isn’t all – finding good matches without having to wait too long is another key to making a multiplayer game fun. Thats why Team17 was keen to find a way to integrate a great matchmaking solution – without developing their own solution from scratch.

They decided the Matchmaker beta presented the perfect opportunity to benefit from the latest tech and pair their players up for optimal fun. Niklas found the configurable nature of the solution helped stay focused on making decisions that were best for the game “knowing we had full programmatic control reassured us that whatever we needed, it would be up to the challenge.”

Various woodland animals animated with guns

Full service option

When you’re making games that push boundaries, even the most seasoned developers need a helping hand sometimes. 

Enrolling in Integrated Success added a new team member to Team17’s roster, as they were assigned a Development Relations Manager (DRM) – someone who can help you find the right solution to any Unity problem. 

Team17 told us how they found this service invaluable ever since they used the included Project Reviews to create strong foundations early in development for The Survivalists, helping them to create a better game that shipped faster. 

Without the right help, Team17 aren’t convinced their latest hits would have been possible at all. “To be frank, I don’t think we could have [launched these games] without Integrated Success.” Niklas Hansson, Lead Programmer at Team17, told us during our chat. 

 

The results:

  • Years of resources saved on developing a custom, in-house engine for each project
  • A next-gen console launch title - one of the first Made-With-Unity games on new consoles
  • Simplified cross-platform launches across two titles
  • Incredibly reliable and efficient technical support for even the most obscure game development problems
  • Informative Project Reviews which provided the team guidance on optimizing performance of several titles, allowing them to push the creativity of their games further
  • Scalable multiplayer infrastructure with Multiplay, delivering worldwide scaling with ease
  • Flexible, robust hosting and matchmaker solutions without having to divert time and resources

Download the full case study to find out how Team17 got more than an engine from Unity – stuffed with insights on multiplayer development, creating games in Unity, cross-platform development and more. 

June 30, 2021 in Games | 5 min. read

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