It's been no secret that, since last year, Unity has expanded its focus. While the tool was not originally created with mobile gaming in mind, that's what defined Unity as the iPhone and iPad came of age. However, its engineers have been putting a lot of work into expanding the engine's feature set such that high definition games can be made using the technology -- something they have already discussed with Gamasutra at length. These features have surfaced in version 4 of Unity, which was recently announced and which will start appearing in public sometime this year. So, is Unity turning triple-A? "I think we can say we have this insanely ambitious plan to be the easiest, the most accessible in business model -- and also just in the fact you can just get it -- and most advanced," says CEO David Helgason. Some indies have worried that Unity will abandon them as it chases dreams of competing for major studio licenses -- like this deal with Nexon. Will Unity leave its core audience behind as its chases triple-A console development deals -- ones that may never materialize? "The vision remains the same: democratization of game development, in a very broad and massive sense," says Helgason. "We always had the philosophy that we had to be maybe not the tool for absolutely everybody -- maybe that's impossible, but as many people as possible." In other words, "everybody" now encompasses, well... everybody. Not just the small teams. In fact, "the democratization of game development" seems to be Unity's motto, judging from many conversations Gamasutra has had with its staff. Helgason told Gamasutra that the fact that Unity empowers unfettered creativity is "very dear to [his] heart."

Satisfying everyone

But can the company really expand the tool to encompass game developers at both ends of the spectrum? "It's a crazy plan but it's just what we're pushing for really, really hard," says Helgason. This expanded functionality is also a long-term goal for the company, not a momentary flight of fancy, which lends some weight to his claims: "That's the plan and that's what we're executing against. After 10 years or more of that, we'll be in a good place." All the same, Helgason admits that "it's going to be a while before you see results" of this drive towards triple-A capabilities reflected in a major high-budget release. "It's a slow production cycle. But... people are putting larger and larger budgets down, and we're delivering. We're so committed that we're embedding engineers and doing whatever it takes to really bring out the quality," says Helgason. He also strongly believes that doing this will help all of the tool's constituencies. "The big projects, the big companies, they want all of it, right? Because they have a big team and they'll be using most of our advanced features. But even the small teams, they might use one of our high-end features." And he still loves the fact that different types of teams can use Unity and achieve very different results. "If you look at two different games on opposite ends of the spectrum you would never guess they were built with the same tool," says Helgason. Helgason acknowledges that expanding the scope of the product has significant implications for the company when it comes to allotting resources. "Because of the complex interplay between features, that ends up tripling the amount of work, that's okay. We can afford that. We have the manpower for it, and it's worth it in the long run," he says. He is also quick to point out that this expansion in capabilities has not hurt the tool's core usability -- a particular concern for the company. "Otherwise we would already have a product that was a huge bloated mess and it's not. It's still this lean, precise product where you can find the things you need and the stuff you're not using is kind of out of the way," he says. "These are, to some degree, conflicting goals. Because usually the more advanced, it usually gets more complicated. So that's where we have to work extra hard. If it's more than twice as hard to make it both more powerful or easy, it's probably just five times harder than just doing one or the other," says Helgason. That said, the company is trying to grow in a controlled manner, he says. "We don't have growth planned for the company, really... overall the company grows just to support the product and the community. That's been growing really fast so the company has had to grow very fast. We hope that continues, because it will be a reflection of people building more advanced stuff and more beautiful stuff in Unity. But, no, there isn't a growth plan as such." Hiring engineers, then, is "only about talent," for Unity, not about putting butts in seats.