5 Unity Extensions That You Will Actually Use

As a busy game developer, your time is precious, and traipsing through Unity's asset store for quality extensions can be a daunting task. Let's face it, a significant portion of the content available in the Asset Store is absolute belly-button lint (only interesting to whoever made it).

However, fear not! I'm here to offer you a curated list of exceptional extensions that will definitely help you in your game development.

Trust me? Well, let's put it this way. If experience is just another name for making a lot of mistakes, then I've been making massive mistakes for 15+ years as a software engineer and in the game industry for 7+ of those years.

So, without further ado, allow me to present you with a selection of remarkable extensions that deserve your attention and, dare I say, a cheeky bookmark:

Easy Transitions

Easy Transitions provides a visually captivating solution to facilitate scene transitions. It comes with a range of default transitions, instructions to make your own, and comprehensive customization options.

Modular First-Person Controller

Save yourself the headache of developing a first-person controller from scratch. The Modular First Person Controller is a feature-rich extension that offers the essential functionalities you need like zoom, crouch, and jump. It also comes with plenty of docs and is quite customizable.

DOTween (HOTween v2)

DOTween is the first thing I install in every single new project. Do I need it? Don't know. Probably will, doesn't matter, DOTween gets installed.

It’s an incredibly powerful and easy-to-use tweening(animation through programming) library.

Huge FBX Mocap Library

This remarkable collection, spanning three parts, comprises over 2,500 meticulously crafted mocap animations sourced from the prestigious Carnegie-Mellon University mocap library. Ideal for projects utilizing avatars in Mecanim.

Free emojis pixel art

Time to get serious.

Every day millions of developers include emojis in their games that they ripped straight from their iPhones. Not knowing that the dark agents of Apple might swoop down any day to kill them, their family, their dog, and their dog's siblings for daring to violate the sacred trademark of Tim Cookius Maximus Vicar of Jobs on Earth.

Save yourself a fortune in flowers, and just use this free emoji pack.

Naninovel

What is this you ask? A bonus package? Yes! Because I never let a customer leave unsatisfied and alive. Naninovel is a paid extension, but worth every cent. It includes everything you need to make a Visual Novel type game.

There is also RenPy, the incredibly popular VN maker. RenPy, however, is limited to just Visual Novels. In Unity you have much more control over what's happening, so you'll be able to create a more complex experience way easier than in RenPy.

Before You Go

I must emphasize that I have personally utilized these extensions in my own professional and personal projects. As of June 2023, I can confidently attest to their functionality and the value they bring to game development endeavors.

I sincerely hope that these recommended packages prove to be as invaluable to you as they have been to me.

Additionally, I encourage you to explore other offerings by the talented creators behind these extensions, as they may have further gems waiting to be discovered.

I will be publishing more articles during the Unity Writing Contest; you can follow me here, or you can follow me on Twitter or Mastodon.