Journal 16 — Starting to Look Like a Game!

It’s been just a couple weeks since I started studying on my own (while working full time) to add new skills as a Unity developer, and about a week of that has been on starting to build a 2D space shooter. As you can see from the animation below, everything started with primitives and basic movement, and after a week, I’ve changed out the primitives and added in some great space-themed assets to give it more of a real game look.

Unity Playmode — differences between first start and progress to date

Prior to this I had tried another tutorial and created a game based on a Flappy Bird style. That tutorial, which is from 2017, I think is very concise and overall a good learning experience, and capable of being completed in one sitting. This project was pretty comprehensive, as you didn’t use any provided assets, but you had to make all your art and sounds from scratch with free resources.

Tutorial on Flappy Bird style game, finished after about 3 hours from scratch

Another project which I recently started is an isometric view, Diablo-style RPG that uses mouse clicks for movement and attacks. This is a mix of a few assets provided and some that you create yourself. I have only got through a few parts of the tutorial but it has been a great learning experience to see the different possibilities on how to go from a very basic layout and simple C# scripts to more complex improvements.

RPG style game, early progress, basic player and enemy movement, basic attack animations

All these examples develop from what I’m learning is a time-tested formula: start with basic primitive shapes and add basic gameplay. You can work out the bugs, and then when the gameplay is solid, you can add additional features to the behaviors, artwork, UI, sound, and special effects.

I’ve been enjoying the activities, and I keep thinking about new ideas that I want to develop for my own projects.

Thanks for stopping by!