Collaboration is the lifeblood of great game design, and today's tools make it easier than ever to collaborate with your team no matter where everyone is working. 

Not only are companies like Unity beefing up their built-in collaboration software, but a ton of new software players are entering the game to make remote collaboration easier than ever before. 

If your team works in Unity, then you have multiple software tools that can make remote collaboration a cinch when you can’t sit side by side in the studio. We’ll break down the pros and cons of each option so you can figure out which tools are perfect for your team’s workflow. 

‍

Does Unity offer a native collaboration feature?

Unity has introduced their native collaboration feature called Unity Teams. Unity Teams is a cloud-based collaboration tool that allows multiple team members to work on the same project files. Unity’s developers have presented this feature as a much simpler alternative to complex (and expensive) source control programs. 

Pros and cons of Unity’s native collaboration tool

Pros: 

• No additional software is required to collaborate (as long as everyone is working in Unity)
• Simple and intuitive UI 
• Affordable
• Allows users to write comments to accompany each change to add context
  

Cons:

• You need to apply changes before your teammates can see what you’ve changed
• There’s no “live chat” feature to communicate with your team, only comments you can view after they apply changes
  

This integrated cloud collaboration feature is a huge step forward for remote game development teams and makes it easy and affordable for even small indie teams to integrate source control into their workflow. 
Now, if you want to take your collaboration to the next level, there are some additional collaboration platforms that provide even more features that allow your team to work together seamlessly within Unity. 

‍

Tools that can help your team collaborate in Unity

Tool #1: Evercast

Evercast is a video streaming and communication platform specifically built for creative teams that need to stream professional creation workspaces while chatting with their team. 

With Evercast, you and your team can be working inside of Unity Teams while your team lead streams their workspace to the whole team. Not only that, you can talk face-to-face while you edit, creating a virtual editing suite that anyone you choose can dial into.   

Pros:

• Ultra-low latency (less than 150ms on average) means that you’ll be able to chat in as close to real-time as possible
• Dashboard includes on-screen annotation and timestamped notes help you keep project notes organized and frame accurate
• The platform allows for simultaneous video chatting, text chat/note-taking, and workstation streaming, all under one clean interface
• No additional software is required for participants just joining a meeting; they simply need to follow a link to join. Easy to invite others
• It not only works with Unity but any and all creative software
  

Cons:

• Requires some setup time and configuration for editors who want to stream their workstations (this is just a one-time setup)
• A bit more expensive than other tools