Reboot and reflect: The year in games

Barbenheimer and the Roman Empire weren’t the only cultural phenomenons that made waves in 2023. The year also gave us the Unity-made ratings hit Lethal Company from Zeekerss, the fruitful magic of Scopely’s Monopoly Go , and instant classics like Second Dinner’s DevOps-powered MARVEL SNAP (winner of The Golden Cube in the 15th Unity Awards) and the projection-busting Sea of Stars from Sabotage Studio.

In addition to our own community-voted award winners , we’ve spotted more made with Unity standouts on noteworthy best-of lists, including those from NPR and IGN . Geometric Interactive’s puzzle adventure Cocoon, which won Best Debut Indie Game at last year’s Game Awards, was even named Eurogamer’s 2023 “Game of the year.” Furthermore, three games, including VR co-op horror Labyrinthine, captured prizes at the 2023 Steam Awards .

Read on for our own roundup of the year’s most notable projects. Then, discover the collaborative fuel behind 10 Chambers Collective’s recent announcement, and learn one way Unity creators are paving a path for four-year degree alternatives.

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2023 in games

Keeping up with everything devs in the community are creating can be overwhelming, so sit back, relax, and enjoy our roundup of some of the amazing games that were made with Unity in 2023.?

Browse the year’s projects.

Den of Wolves and Unity at The Game Awards

With a new year comes exciting new game launches. One of these launches comes from 10 Chambers Collective. The studio has worked closely with us since the reveal of exclusive gameplay footage from cooperative horror shooter GTFO at Unite Berlin in 2018.?

Read more about our collaboration with 10 Chambers Collective and check out the cinematic for the studio’s next blockbuster, Den of Wolves.?

Bonus: Enjoy this WIRED interview with the game’s narrative director Simon Viklund.

Trial, error, and Unity: The story behind 5 Force Fighters

Learning and earning simultaneously is becoming a best practice to prepare future graduates for 21st-century careers. This approach isn’t just limited to students in Unity programs at universities; it can also be part of alternatives to four-year degree programs.

Egodi Beloved Ulinwa, of Kaizan Creed, represents one such story. Find out how he’s forging a path outside of school and funding the studio’s first project –?5 Force Fighters.

More of the best of 2023…?

• Making MARVEL SNAP’s Battle Mode – In this guest post, Kent-Erik Hagman goes behind the scenes of the making of MARVEL SNAP’s Battle Mode. (Then check out more guest blog posts from other Unity creators.)
• How animation teams at Riot Games halved review times – “Pop it into SyncSketch, and I’ll give you some notes.” That’s how easy the review process is with an uninterrupted flow of communication, keeping Riot Games artists on target.?
• Inside Dave the Diver’s creative deep dive – With limited resources and a desire to serve up something great, the Dave the Diver team offers a peek into how they assemble the optimal ingredients for their genre-bending hit.

• Go behind the scenes with the SPACE INVADERS: World Defense team – In this Unite 2023 session, Google’s Dereck Bridié and UNIT9’s Jakub Jakubowski explain how Google, TAITO, and UNIT9 reimagined the iconic arcade game SPACE INVADERS for its 45th anniversary.