Don't Ditch Coroutines for Async/Await in Unity Until You Read This

If you've only ever worked with coroutines, switching to async/await can feel almost magical. The code is cleaner, easier to read, and behaves much like synchronous code.

However, there's an important difference: Tasks are a .NET feature. Coroutines are a Unity feature.

That distinction affects how they interact with Unity's object lifecycle, scene management, and exception handling.

These differences are responsible for many of the mysterious NullReferenceExceptions and "WTF it worked yesterday!!" bugs that developers encounter when first adopting async.

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Tasks don't adhere to Unity object lifetimes

This is arguably the biggest gotcha.

Imagine you write a simple async method to open a door:

public async Task OpenDoor()
{
    await Task.Delay(3000);

    animator.SetTrigger("Open");
}
  

Everything works perfectly until the player changes scenes, or destroys the object...or exits play mode. Three seconds later, the task resumes anyway. Now animator no longer exists.

NullReferenceException

You may wonder:

"The GameObject was destroyed. Why is this code still running?"

Because Tasks have no clue what a GameObject is. They're managed entirely by the .NET runtime.

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Coroutines vs Async/Await vs Awaitable in Unity: Making Sense To Modern Asynchronous Programming

Coroutines have been pretty much the backbone of asynchronous programming in Unity for a long time. When you need to spawn enemies, fade a UI, load a level, or create cinematic sequences, chances are you wrote countless methods returning IEnumerator.

However, Unity has other options regarding this that may be better for your project.

Modern versions of Unity embrace C#'s async/await programming model and, more recently, introduced Awaitable, a Unity-specific asynchronous API that integrates directly with the engine. These additions don't replace coroutines outright but they complement them and, in many situations, offer cleaner, safer, and more powerful alternative.

Perhaps the challenge for many Unity game developers isn't learning the syntax, it's knowing which tool is better for the task at hand.

Let's take a deep-dive into Coroutines, async/await, and Awaitable, including threading, Task.Run(), CancellationToken, AwaitableCompletionSource, performance considerations, and strategies for migrating existing coroutine-based projects.

Singleton Game Design Patterns Done Right in Unity (With Code Examples)

Ahh, Singletons... probably one of the most debated game design patterns in Unity development. A quick Google search often reveals two camps. Those who swear by it, and those who avoid it like the plague. 

Not that long ago, I was in the latter camp. But ever since I ran into some issues, I'm switching back to the other side. Now, how do you use persistent and non-persistent Singletons effectively in Unity?

 

 

Let’s first briefly go over what a Singleton is for those unfamiliar with the concept.

 

Overengineering Code in Unity: When Good Game Architecture Can Become a Problem

Back in September of this year, I wrote an article about decoupling game systems in Unity with an EventBus. This is a crucial part of  game architectural design, and should be implemented in those areas of your project that make sense. Once you understand it, you're probably eager to implement it everywhere! But be aware that this can also lead to some unwanted results in your project.

Anomaly Hours: Forest Cabin Has Officially Launched Its Steam Page!

 

It’s official! Anomaly Hours: Forest Cabin has been approved for Steam and now has a page on the store!

This first chapter in the Kinley family’s haunting story invites you to uncover the strange events surrounding a remote forest cabin after a mysterious death.

You’ll monitor rooms through security cameras, spot eerie anomalies, and piece together a chilling mystery that can change with every replay. Each hour holds something new, and no two playthroughs are ever the same!

The anomaly game Anomaly Hours: Forest Cabin is planned to be in early-access so we can fine-tune the overall player experience. Become part of the community!

I'm aiming on a few live streams on our Twitch channel in the near future about this upcoming anomaly game. If you can't make it to the live stream session, I always upload to our YouTube channel as well.

You can now visit the Steam page to learn more, add the game to your wishlist, follow game development updates, as well as its official release date.