Co-founder, Unity Software
Search every verified Nicholas Francis interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Nicholas Francis, co-founder of Unity and later of the indie game studio framebunker, spoke at Unite 2013 about his return to hands-on game development. He described the experience of using Unity as a developer rather than a creator, stating that working with the tool gave him a new appreciation for it. Francis noted that he could "mix and match" between using Unity's built-in components, assets from the Asset Store, and custom code, allowing him to focus on graphics programming, which he described as his primary interest. Francis also shared advice on game development and company building. He argued that "if the game isn't actually fun, then it's not going to sell," and recommended that developers focus on both their greatest strengths and their greatest weaknesses, saying that one should "focus on what you do best because that's what drives you forward" while also "fixing what you're worst at because that's the thing that's crippling you."
“Developing with Unity is this really sort of smooth feeling, and it's very interesting because you can sort of mix a match between saying okay this is where we'll use all like the out-of-the-box components and you have like this incredibly smooth workflow there.”
“The last thing is something just from like building companies and teams: I always found that there are two areas where you really need to focus. The first is you need to focus on what you do best because that's what drives you forward, and the other is fixing what you're worst at because that's the thing that's crippli...”
“If you're a graphics programmer, you should not start trying to build a huge house; start with like building a small wooden thingy. Plan for multiple games and then say okay this game I want to explore this dynamic and then dive into that and take that all the way.”
“There's nothing that will sell like a fun game. You can have great graphics, great story, great sound, but if the game isn't actually fun, then it's not going to sell.”
“Developing with Unity is this really sort of smooth feeling, and it's very interesting because you can sort of mix a match between saying okay this is where we'll use all like the out-of-the-box components and you have like this incredibly smooth workflow there.”
“You actually have to have the game be fun. If the game is not fun, it's not going to succeed. That's the core of what makes a game successful.”
“Focus on what you do forward and you focus on not getting too crippled by your greatest weakness, and then the rest will sort of take care of itself.”
Nicholas Francis co-founded Unity and was CCO at the company for many years. He left Unity in 2012 to start up his own games studio, framebunker. With characteristic enthusiasm, he talks about getting back to his passion for graphics programming and the refreshing experience of using Unity to make a game. Help us caption & translate this video! http://amara.org/v/V69V/
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