BlackShipsFillt
13-01-2010, 11:17 AM
Hi Guys, A couple of you suggested that I do an article/tutorial on beginning 2D game development in Unity3D.
I'm happy to do this, though it may have to wait a week or two, but what I want to know from you guys is what you want in such an article.
The trouble with Unity, and probably my biggest gripe about the tool, is that it doesn't come with any native sprite class. It does come with particle system classes, which work for sprites in most circumstances, but proper sprites would be more elegant and run faster (because of the way the particles have to be handled)...
There is however, what has become, a standard sprite system in Unity, the SpriteManager class (this is what I have been using for my 2D game development in Unity). But implementing it requires a little bit of Unity knowledge (which is where an introduction, and an example project, into sprites in Unity would be helpful)
Okay. So if a couple of you are keen on me doing this I have a few questions :
Why do you want to do this in Unity? There are other 2D tools out there: Torque 2D, GameMaker, MediaFusion to name a few. Because sprites aren't native to Unity they'll be longer to set up and poorly integrated into the editor (though the Editor classes can be programmed if for example you want to create a decent level editor). Unity may have some advantages over some of these, C# is a pretty sweet language, being able to hit "Play" at anytime is awesome and Unity does handle all kinds of file management things and has fantastic debugging options (because the game is running in the editor) as well as Unity being portable to multiple platforms. Unity may also have performance advantages over some of these.
What kind of games do you want to make? I imagine most of you will be using Unity Indie which means Crimsonland clones are out of the question (because without the RenderToTexture, and hence no persistent blood, Crimsonland is pretty meh)... Platformers require level design which means building some editor tools (which really does require a good grasp of Unity)... Shootemups are pretty straight forward, though they really benefit from full screen post render effects (once again Unity Pro)... With Strategy, Defence, Starcontrol clones, Puzzlers etc. I'd probably just give you sprites because the rest is custom game logic.
What flavour would you like your sprites? I've done my last couple games in a pixelised style, but it is possible to use sprites that are properly filtered with millions of colours. Also in my last couple games I've animated my sprites... This requires building a sprite sheet which is a little bit of photoshop work and management. I imagine you'd want to use Unity because it can handle a large quantity of sprites, once again requiring a spritesheet (therefore making 1000 sprites just the one draw call).
What level of experience with Unity or other game engines do you have? I'd probably request that you guys first do the very beginner Unity tutorials found on the Unity site (http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/Manual/Unity%20Basics.html) just so that I don't have to explain the interface.
How much of an introduction do you want? I could probably just upload a nearly empty project with the classes I use for sprites right now... But then you really are going to getting a glimpse into the mind of what may very well seem a deranged madman, and you may not be that much better off than you are right now.
Anyway... let me know.
I'm happy to do this, though it may have to wait a week or two, but what I want to know from you guys is what you want in such an article.
The trouble with Unity, and probably my biggest gripe about the tool, is that it doesn't come with any native sprite class. It does come with particle system classes, which work for sprites in most circumstances, but proper sprites would be more elegant and run faster (because of the way the particles have to be handled)...
There is however, what has become, a standard sprite system in Unity, the SpriteManager class (this is what I have been using for my 2D game development in Unity). But implementing it requires a little bit of Unity knowledge (which is where an introduction, and an example project, into sprites in Unity would be helpful)
Okay. So if a couple of you are keen on me doing this I have a few questions :
Why do you want to do this in Unity? There are other 2D tools out there: Torque 2D, GameMaker, MediaFusion to name a few. Because sprites aren't native to Unity they'll be longer to set up and poorly integrated into the editor (though the Editor classes can be programmed if for example you want to create a decent level editor). Unity may have some advantages over some of these, C# is a pretty sweet language, being able to hit "Play" at anytime is awesome and Unity does handle all kinds of file management things and has fantastic debugging options (because the game is running in the editor) as well as Unity being portable to multiple platforms. Unity may also have performance advantages over some of these.
What kind of games do you want to make? I imagine most of you will be using Unity Indie which means Crimsonland clones are out of the question (because without the RenderToTexture, and hence no persistent blood, Crimsonland is pretty meh)... Platformers require level design which means building some editor tools (which really does require a good grasp of Unity)... Shootemups are pretty straight forward, though they really benefit from full screen post render effects (once again Unity Pro)... With Strategy, Defence, Starcontrol clones, Puzzlers etc. I'd probably just give you sprites because the rest is custom game logic.
What flavour would you like your sprites? I've done my last couple games in a pixelised style, but it is possible to use sprites that are properly filtered with millions of colours. Also in my last couple games I've animated my sprites... This requires building a sprite sheet which is a little bit of photoshop work and management. I imagine you'd want to use Unity because it can handle a large quantity of sprites, once again requiring a spritesheet (therefore making 1000 sprites just the one draw call).
What level of experience with Unity or other game engines do you have? I'd probably request that you guys first do the very beginner Unity tutorials found on the Unity site (http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/Manual/Unity%20Basics.html) just so that I don't have to explain the interface.
How much of an introduction do you want? I could probably just upload a nearly empty project with the classes I use for sprites right now... But then you really are going to getting a glimpse into the mind of what may very well seem a deranged madman, and you may not be that much better off than you are right now.
Anyway... let me know.