When I first opened an early version of Visual Studio Code I immediately saw the potential for this small streamlined IDE to change how many developers go about their day to day craft. I quickly scoured the web in search of some way to get it to work with Unity (at the time it did not support C++, so Unreal was out of the question). There were some possible solutions, but nothing that felt right.
It started as a late-night Friday project that found its legs over the weekend, and from there it took flight. With the Visual Studio Code team at Microsoft recognizing the hole that the plugin filled in the editor it was quickly promoted in their ecosystems. Popularity grew so much so, that deep within the Unity codebase (apparently) are some special cases that remain to accommodate how the plugin worked, even after the bug it exploited was fixed.
Development stopped when Unity included native support for Visual Studio Code, yet the extension still sees upwards of 800 new downloads a month. Over its lifetime, the plugin has been downloaded over 2.28 million times across different platforms. This is one of my most cherished open-source projects, as it has touched so many in the community.
Highlights
- Over 2.28 million downloads.
- 5-star rating on Unity Asset Store.
- Visual Studio Code documentation outlined the use of the plugin for Unity compatibility.
- Streamlined development workflow for Unity developers.
- Smart updating mechanism powered by GitHub.
- The community still maintains the plugin with occasional pull requests to fix encroaching issues.
The Forgotten Soul 