Like many middleware companies, German artificial intelligence outfit xaitment has built its reputation in the PC and console world.
It's worked with companies such as Gas Powered Games, Gameforge and Bohemia Interactive.
Now, however, it's looking to target the fast-growing sector, mobile gaming.
Smaller, faster
"We decided to shift to mobile in December 2011 and looked around to see which was the best way to approach the market," says CEO Mike Walsh.
"It was clear Unity is the dominant player."
On that basis xaitment went to work, releasing versions of its pathfinding and character behaviour tools - xaitMap and xaitControl, respectively - as plug-ins for Unity in early March.
The former has also just been released for iOS, Android and Unity Web Player, while the former is expected in short notice.
Guidance
"Pathfinding is the immediate need for developers," Walsh explains.
"It's a necessity but it's a pain in the ass to set up. Our solution is robust, scalable and modular. You can get something up a running in your game within the day."
XaitMap supports the setting up of navigation meshes and waypoints to direct character movement, pathfinding and dynamic obstacle avoidance.
The choice of Unity as distribution system is interesting, though, as Unity's working on its own solution.
Head-to-head
But the combination of an aggressive pricing model, and its eight year specialisation in the field means Walsh is confident xaitMap will find an audience.
"We're selling the first 250 mobile licences of xaitMap for Unity at $249, compared to $499 for the PC/console version," he says.
The company will likely take a similar approach with xaitControl when that's released in a couple of weeks.
A more complex package, it enables you to set up game logic and character behaviours using finite state machines; probably not something newbie developers will be getting involved with.
Both releases come with 45 day evaluations, community support, full documentation and a number of video tutorials, and, in due course, be available through the Unity Asset Store.
You can find out more from the xaitment website.
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A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.
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