Dear friends,

I’ve spent 10 years of my life on Unity – from writing the first version of ShaderLab (our shader compiler – yeah, you can blame the convoluted syntax on me), to my main focus of designing the Unity Editor (yup, every missing button is probably my fault as well), to working with our wonderful team on the Asset Store (where I don’t think I did too much damage).

It has been an awesome ride.

Over the years it has been amazing to watch Unity getting better and better at such a crazy speed. Lately I have been incredibly inspired by what you guys have been creating and have been experimenting more and more with my own ideas. It’s made me realize that I have games I want, no need, to make!

As great as it has been building Unity, I have come to feel that actually using it is what really scratches my itch. On days where I can just get into the zone and fidget around with some shaders, gamecode, a custom editor tool or whatnot, I feel really fulfilled. And at the end of the day, that’s what it boils down to (for me, at least)

So I will be leaving Unity in order to join your ranks and dedicate myself to creating games. This has not been an easy choice – in fact, it has been one of the hardest ones in my life. I am infinitely proud of everything I’ve been part of building, proud of the team, and proud of having a tiny part of me in all your games. So proud that I can’t wait to experience Unity from the other side of the fence.

I’ve given to Unity all I had to give, and now I gotta go do what I gotta go do.

Wish me luck!

Nicholas Francis

Unity co-founder