In Case You Missed It - August 2025

Guys at Unity Technologies were pretty active the last month. A lot of how-to pages were added. I haven't found any new advice there, but it's convenient to have them all compiled in one place.

The how-to on the project setup mentions:

Switch to IL2CPP
Switching the noscripting backend from Mono to IL2CPP (Intermediate Language to C++) can provide overall better runtime performance. However, it can also increase build times. Some developers prefer to use Mono locally for faster iteration, then switch to IL2CPP for build machines and/or release candidates. Refer to the Optimizing IL2CPP build times documentation for more on reducing your build times.

I haven't compared mono to il2cpp performance in my games, but I have seen forum posts where devs shared that mono is faster for them. Have you measured your games? Was it true for you?

https://discussions.unity.com/t/in-case-you-missed-it-august-2025/1681933

Hey! One participant had to cancel today, so there’s a free spot at 19:00 CET (in ~80 minutes).
I know it’s super short notice, but I’m sure we can still have a great chat and find ways for you to grow.
Feel free to grab it through the same link.

I’m opening another round of free 1-on-1 mentoring sessions for anyone interested in game development, software engineering, or navigating a tech career.

This is a chance to get direct, practical advice tailored to your situation, whether you’re:
✔️ Building your first game and don’t know where to start
✔️ Already in the industry and looking to grow into leadership
✔️ Exploring how to make your codebase scalable and production-ready

I’ve led teams, shipped large-scale games with millions of players, and worked across mobile and PC. My goal is to share what I’ve learned, answer your questions, and help you avoid common pitfalls.

A few things we could cover:
🔹 Game architecture design
🔹 Performance troubleshooting
🔹 Career growth strategies
🔹 Or any other topic you bring

To make the most of our time, it’s in your best interest to provide an agenda or list of questions when booking, that way we can dive straight into what matters most to you.

Sessions are available in English or Russian, with limited slots again this round.
If the calendar looks full, save this post and drop a comment, I’ll release more times later.

This time, all slots are scheduled earlier in the day, based on some of your comments.

📌 Book your spot here: https://calendly.com/alex-gamedev/50min

UI Shine

Nice find: a clean approach to making sweeping shine effects on Unity UI without the usual performance pitfalls.

https://medium.com/@galbartouv/ui-shine-creating-sweeping-shine-effects-for-unity-ui-0ebca5259174

#ui #shine #vfx

Haven’t posted here for a while. Many of my connections already know that I left the company where I had worked for the last six years and started a new job. It’s been intense and definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone. We still have a long road ahead, and focusing on short-term goals in my new project has kept me away from posting.

I have a good reason to make a post now:
I’ll be attending Unite 2025 in Barcelona on 18–20 November.
It’s a great chance to learn from the community, see how others approach their projects, and get a better sense of where the industry is heading.

If you’re also planning to be there, feel free to reach out. Always happy to catch up, exchange experiences, or grab a coffee during the event.

Unity now supports Game Share on Switch 2

Local multiplayer with 2 friends with only one copy of a game

2D workflows in 6.3

- 3D to 2D conversion is now built-in. Supports all 2D renderers, works with shader graph, VFX graph, and sprite masks.
- New low level API 2D Physics

IAP

Stripe and coda partnerships for managing payments on all platforms, including web stores.

Basically D2C improvements built-in into Unity, which is huge for games revenue.

It abstracts away your IAP pipeline tho. Is it good?

Unity vector

Better optimized UA tools

Some games claimed to have lower CPI, higher quality users, 2x users buying, 2x purchases from these users. The scaled quality is staying for months now.