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.
The first official release of the update to the fantastic 3D package, Blender, was announced this week. As well as a complete makeover for the often criticised GUI, there have been massive changes to the data structures under the hood. A new ‘DNA’ system means that every element of the software can be controlled, edited, animated, whatever you want.
I’ve been a bit busy these past few months, so I haven’t had much of an opportunity to keep this blog going. The Easter holiday has given me a bit of respite, so I’m able to catch up on the state of the game making tools field. There have been quite a few developments since my last post on the subject.
Finally installed the Android SDK and got my Hello World on. It’s quite a convoluted process, what with installing Eclipse, SDK, Platforms, APIs, and ADT, before you can build even the simplest of applications. Hoping to get something more useful out of it over the next few weeks.
