In today’s tutorial, I talk about how to do basic collision detection in Unity3D. I also talk about messaging, getting more into code organization. Flashbang Studios have written a great messaging library that extends Unity’s core messaging functionality – making life easier for everyone.
If you have trouble following any part of the tutorial, or if you’d wish I’d elaborate on certain subjects; let me know in the comments. If there are enough requests for certain topics, I’ll spin them off into separate tutorials.
IA’s Unity Tutorial Series continues with a game called “Schpooter!” This is a simple side-scrolling space shooter example, but it has been built to demonstrate a few different ways of using Unity.
Part 1 is an introduction to how the project file is set up.
In part 2 we’ll dive into how the scripts work! If you have any questions or comments, please leave them here or on YouTube.
If you find these tutorials useful, send the link to others that you think would be interested. Thanks!
So I just sat down and recorded an impromptu Unity3D introduction tutorial. Its a bit all over the place (I didn’t plan it out), but hopefully some of you will find it useful.
Unity3D is a game engine that you can try out for free, for both PC and Mac. Download it at unity3d.com.
It was used to create Paper Moon, Heroes + Villains and we’re also using it for Marian.
If you’ve been following us for some time, you’ll know that we use the amazing Unity engine for all our current projects. Unity combines an editor, Mono scripting and the ability to deploy to a lot of different platforms: PC, Mac, the Web, Wii, and iPhone. (and I hear they’re working on adding support for more consoles soon) Up until now, the Unity editor was only available for OSX. This suited Chris and I just fine, because we prefer working on Macs. But now Unity has been released for PC and this is great news for all indie developers.
The development environment for Unity features a very clever design that adheres to two crucial principles: simplicity and flexibility. Its ridiculously easy to import resources, write and prototype gameplay and put together a great experience without having to worry about niggling technical details. For an example: we put together Paper Moon in 9 days!
This is coming from someone who built his own engine from the ground up (for Aquaria) who has deep fears and suspicions towards game making tools. Many of them are severely limited and force you to do things in a retarded way. It turns out Unity is actually very flexible and easy to understand. While it might not be the best choice for every game, it has a lot of freedom.
One of my worst experiences was buying the Torque3D engine a few years ago. You were basically stuck making an FPS-style game unless you tore everything apart and put it back together. Unity starts you off with a blank canvas and lets you build whatever you want, which is a very positive experience.
Another significant indie team that uses Unity for all their projects is Flash Bang. They’ve even created a website exclusively for Unity web games called Blurst. (pssst… we’re going to make a blurst game sometime in the future!)
If you haven’t taken the time to check out Unity yet, now is definitely the time.
