Unity is one of the most popular game engines used by developers around the world. It was created in 2004 by a group of students at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The Founders: Hartosh Balakrishnan and Johannes Jacob Jørgensen
Hartosh Balakrishnan and Johannes Jacob Jørgensen were two of the co-founders of Unity Technologies, the company behind the Unity engine. They were both students at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen when they first started working on Unity.
Balakrishnan was a computer science student who had previously worked on a game called "Ghostbusters: The Video Game" using the Unreal Engine. He wanted to create a new engine that would be more accessible and user-friendly than Unreal, which he found difficult to work with. Jørgensen, on the other hand, was an art student who wanted to use the engine to create interactive art installations.
Together, they worked on a prototype of what would eventually become the Unity engine, which they released in 2005.
The Development Team: Denmark vs. USA
Unity Technologies was originally based in Copenhagen, where Balakrishnan and Jørgensen continued to work on the engine. However, in 2007, the company moved its headquarters to San Diego, California, in the United States. This marked a significant shift in the development of the Unity engine.
Under the leadership of CEO John Carmack, the Unity team grew rapidly, and many of the key developers who worked on the engine were based in the USA. However, Balakrishnan and Jørgensen remained involved in the project and continued to work on new features and improvements.
Today, Unity is used by developers all over the world, from small indie studios to large AAA game development companies. It has become one of the most powerful and versatile game engines available, thanks in part to the hard work and dedication of its founders and the talented team behind it.