The engine, the tool, and the all-weather tires

You may have heard people call Unity and other tools "game engines". That's almost correct. The confusion here comes from the fact that we have three distinct things, and we call them all "Unity".

When you download Unity, as you'll do in a moment, you're downloading the Unity 3D game authoring tool. To use a car analogy, the authoring tool works like your auto body shop. You use it to design and build the car's chassis, its handling, and its sweet, sweet leather interior and boss rims.

The engine, the tool, and the all-weather tires

Under the hood, the authoring tool uses the Unity game engine, which is like the driving force behind your game. Unless ...

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