I know I already posted this, and this version has been out for a couple of months already, but I want to be consistent here. This is the software I’m currently using for my own personal projects, and I’ll be documenting it further in this blog. Also, although this version is marked as ‘unstable’, it is still very usable.
Game Salad 2D game creator - (almost) makes me wish I had a Mac
This changes everything.
So, now I have another tool to add to the long list of game creation software that I’ve had my grubby mitts on, but this one seems quite special. I’ve been aware of Unity for a while, at least since the Windows version was announced, but I’ve always been too busy to try it. I didn’t want to waste my 30-day trial, knowing that I wouldn’t get a chance to really use it properly.
However, since they announced the free version a couple of days ago, I’ve been digging up every scrap of info I can, in terms of tutorials, tips, examples and anything else that might help me learn to use it.
Here are some of the things that are absolutely awesome about Unity3D:
The result of my first day using Unity.
I have a simple scene, with a camera, a couple of lights, a floor and a prop (the cube). Behind the scenes there is a prefab that gets instantiated when a key is pressed, scripts for moving the camera and making the spotlight follow the camera, and a few other things as well.
To put this together I followed the scripting essentials tutorial in the Unity support section. Not bad for my first day.
I’ve been struggling a little with the scene view in #Unity3D. The methods for navigating 3D space are a little unfamiliar to me - new button and mouse combinations to be learnt and all that. What’s really been bugging me is the way the view rotations work. I just couldn’t make it do what I wanted, the way I’m used to from my previous experiences with Blender and Wings3D.
However, I’ve just found a great little hot-key that’s solved all my problems. When your are in one of the transform modes, select an object and then press ‘f’. The view will snap to that object, panning and rotating to put it in the centre. Now you can hold the ‘Alt’ key to orbit around the object with the left mouse button or zoom in and out with the right.
I know this is a silly little non-discovery, but after fiddling for four days and feeling a little underwhelmed by the scene view controls, it feels great to learn a little something to make things easier. It feels like progress, no matter how small.
Now that it’s the weekend again I can put my day job behind me and have another go at Unity3D. I’ve been thinking all week about systems for 2D / 2.5D games using Unity, since I’m coming from a 2D background and I haven’t quite got the bottle for 3D rotations and whatnot. The first thing I’ve managed to build is a very simple top down camera. Read on to find out how.
Just found this tutorial and I felt it really explained coroutines nicely. It’s a couple of months old, so I’m surprised I didn’t see it earlier. I’m discovering quite a few little Unity blogs hidden around the internet.
On a side note- I’m going to have busy time at work for the next few weeks, so I can’t spend as much time with Unity as I’d like. The ideas will keep ticking over though, so I should have plenty to write about when I have the time.
Adam “ATOMIC” Saltsman has been on an epic coding frenzy this week, with constant twitter updates about all of the new features and bug fixes being added. Flixel really is a great little package - quick and easy to learn, producing amazingly retro results.
I took a little time to play with it a few months ago, putting together a pretty nifty little pong game in a matter of a couple of hours, all whilst learning about OOP and AS3 by taking apart the demo game (Mode). Flixel has change a lot since then, especially in the past couple of weeks.
You can download the latest version from Adam’s Github, as well as some example games that you can learn from. Some of the recent changes are designed to make it easier to port to other platforms, so in future you may find yourself developing a game in ‘vanilla’ flixel and then being able to quickly port it to iPhone, XNA, etc.
Definitely something to keep an eye on.
Ladders are a Pain in the Arse
Trying to work out how ladders will work in a platform engine. Surprising how many different variables and cases there are to consider.
