published match 3 game

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nodjsoftware.match3

getting it all working in android was fun, definitely going to do that again

I'm currently collaborating with a game designer I met at a meetup on a "test" android project.  His designs seem to work really well which is something I'm definitely lacking.

If we can get this small game working then we can move on to bigger stuff.

I think my next step is to do the Unity roguelike tutorial and keep educating myself.  Hopefully this one isn't as out of date as the stealth tutorial in v5.

I suck at blogging

Actually I suck at anything that requires me to do something on a regular schedule.  I'm pretty sure the only reason my cats are still alive is because they yowl in the morning to be fed.

Anyway game dev news.  I started on a match 3 project in Unity mirroring the match 3 project in Stencyl.  Developing in Unity is much easier because of arbitrary data structures.  I'm sure Stencyl has that if I got into the coding but if I'm writing syntax anyway might as well use Unity.

The match 3 project is is playable here in its test state:  https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/221516245/match3/match3/match3.html

I'm now building it for android so that is fun.  Unfortunately android building has a delay between build and test which building for web doesn't but I guess thats just something I have to live with.

The step I'm currently on is fixing the UI so that it scales properly for arbitrary resolutions/screen sizes which is a must have for android deployment.

After the base game is finished I'll try to add different game types such as candy crush and puzzle quest style games.

Published a game

Welp I grew some balls and published a game (about bouncing balls...heh)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.NODJSoftware.BounceThingy&hl=en

Its a toy not a game in that there are no objectives.  I made it in about 2 hours, mostly getting the wrapping working and tweaking the speed and sizes of the objects. The sprites are the default Unity 5 GUI sprites that came with the engine.  There is less to it than most jam games but my objective was publishing SOMETHING and really I would have done hello world.

Thanks to the members of the penny arcade board, the stencyl board, and Unity Answers for all of the support and encouragement over last couple of years

I now claim the title of Game Developer

5 weapons was too many

but instead I made one good one

the laser "heats" the rocks making them more red until after 2 seconds they explode

it took a bit too long to figure out how everything works  but eventually I got it looking how I want

I'm still figuring out what mechanics I want for the game but its getting closer, maybe I'll actually finish that one

In any case I'm moving on to the next video tutorial, 3rd person stealth game and seeing if that has any insights for me

Working through 3rd video tutorial: survial shooter

One tip for learning this stuff I just figured out (after years)

Watch youtube videos at higher speed.  At 1.5 I can understand everyone perfectly, at 2x I miss stuff so I'll stick to 1.5 for now

website says how to do it

http://dottech.org/157904/how-to-play-youtube-videos-in-slow-or-fast-motion-tip/

Currently watching https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/projects/survival-shooter

Its really long but has a good intro to the 4.6 GUI system (which is awesome) and more about the animation system which I still only half get.

finished space shooter tutorial on unity tutorials beginner page

These are so much better than when I started a couple of years ago. I can see recommending this to a total beginner rather than starting with a training wheels engine like Stencyl. This one doesn't use the 2d engine features, instead it uses an orthographic cam and 3d objects constrained in a plane so it is very simple. Also uses the old gui instead of the new one but the tutorial has some text instructions for the changes between the old version and the 4.6 gui.

I could do all of this stuff already without the instructions but I did learn some neat stuff like how to open the online documentation from monodevelop by select a keyword and typing cmd+singlequote

also learned a bit about 3d lighting which I know nothing about

the project comes with some nice assets which have a permissive license as long as they are used in Unity engine projects

final project here

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/221516245/Unity Tutorials Final/Space Shooter/space-shooter-final/space-shooter-final.html

arrows/wasd moves, control shoots - no real gameplay but it shows potential and is a really good learning tool

next step is I think I'm going to write my own space shooter prototype with an infinite field

Taking a break from reading manual, doing tutorials

Did the first tutorial on the Unity page

http://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/projects/roll-a-ball

Result is here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/221516245/unity%20test/balls/balls/balls.html

The tutorial used the old GUI but I used the new GUI components because I wanted to learn them...boy are there a lot to learn

I knew everything the tutorial was talking about but it was good to "get back on the horse" as it were.  I'm actually looking forward to doing the other tuts.

Already have ideas about how to expand the tutorial to add different gameplay elements.

finished "camera overview" in unity manual

http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/Cameras.html Accidentally started reading the reference section before I finished reading the overview section, shows how much I'm going to recall all of this stuff. Also still haven't finished a single chapter in the Unity 2d book but maybe I'll be able to do that today. 25 minutes which includes the time spent reading the wrong section, almost no breaks or distractions

read graphics section of manual on lighting and game elevtor pitch

http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/LightingOverview.html took 35 minutes with some breaks and interruptions

3d space looks like it is REALLY complicated and I don't think I'll ever learn enough to make stuff look good on my own. My only hope is to make a fun playing but crappy looking game and hope someone with 3d experience takes pity on me to show me how to make it not suck.

I'm still deciding on sprite-based 2d or orthogonal 3d/2.5d for my first project.

The graphics section of the manual is fairly huge.

--------------

Current elevator pitch: Top down space-shooter roguelike. 4 escalating difficulty stages(sectors) then boos fight.

Sectors are ~10x10 screen sizes with wrapping edges to give the feel of infinite flight

Each sector has a gate that requires specific keys to unlock.

Keys are dropped off of mobs in the zone but have are fixed drops progress will never be stopped by randomness.

Carrying keys gives the player a debuff and the keys have to be picked up in a specific order and can't be dropped.

Enemies are Gauntlet-style spawners that continuously generate a "cloud" of enemies up to a configured population, so the player has to fight through the cloud and eventually defeat the spawner which will drop the keys.

In addition to standard RPG drops (equipment, resources, consumables) enemies will drop intelligence which will aid in exploration of the sector.

Reading manual isn't enough I don't think

I'm going to start working through this book to learn unity 2d game dev which didn't exist when I worked with it in version 3.


Its this one if you have adblocker and cant see my amazon associate link: http://www.amazon.com/Unity-Game-Development-Dave-Calabrese/dp/1849692564/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1425848239&sr=8-6&keywords=unity+2d

Read editor reference portion of the Unity Manual

Didn't time this one

http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/EditorReference.html

Reading the manual is getting tedious but I know doing it will help me later.  The information will be stored in my brain to hopefully access when I need it.

Read the Editor Overview manual section

Read http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/EditorOverview.html

Took maybe 30 minutes with interruptions.

Why am I doing this?

I ask myself that a lot.  And I don't really have an adequate answer.  I've accomplished my "goal" of learning how games are made.  But I haven't taken the next step of trying to actually sell a game.  I've never made anything that I wouldn't feel bad taking someone's money for.

I used to think I had good ideas for games but trying my hand at game dev has shown me that I don't have any good ideas.  I have vague "wishes" that crumble if even the slightest attempt is made to make them a reality.

If I wasn't working on learning game development I would be watching twitch streams, or tv shows/movies or playing hearthstone/other games or generally wasting my time some other way.  I certainly wouldn't be doing anything "productive".

Finished reading the Creating Gameplay section of the Unity Overview.  http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/CreatingGameplay.html

This time it only took 20 minutes because there were no breaks or distractions.

Another manual section, Building Scenes

Read another section of the manual

http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/BuildingScenes.html

This one took 80 minutes but at least half of that time was breaks and interruptions.

Re-starting Unity adventure

About two and a half years ago I sat down at my desk and determined to learn how to make video games.  I've been a gamer my whole life and been a "computer guy" for about that long.

I would say I succeeded in my goal of learning how games are made and how to make things myself.  I now have an decent sized library of mostly unfinished proofs of concept in various game engines, languages, and genres.

I even successfully participated in a game jam and my entry was fairly well received.

I was working with an engine called Stencyl which allows you create game logic from building blocks without having to type any code.  However I was running into engine bugs and limitations and found myself fighting the engine more than making my ideas a reality.


Very recently there was news that Unreal Engine 4 was going to be totally free (previously a subscription).  And now Unity 5 is going to include all of the "pro" features.  I wanted to learn a new engine (Unreal) but from the looks of it the Mac version is too bleeding edge and has stability issues.

So I'm going there and back again and going back to Unity.  The new Unity 2d tools seem to really make it possible to use it for every kind of game.  I'm comfortable enough with the C# language.

But this time I'm going to try to do it right.  Going through all of the available tutorials and documentation before jumping in with my own project.  Then I'm planning to make at least 10 classic games before creating anything original.

Here is my tentative list

1. pong
2. asteroids
3. space invaders
4. combat (tanks)
5. breakout
6. centipede
7. pac man
8. warlords
9. missile command
10. ??elevator action, frogger?

I'll see how long I can keep up writing about this based on my track record not very.

edit: read unity basics portion of unity manual http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/UnityBasics.html and experimented with interface, much improvement since Unity 3, reading time took ~1 hour with breaks and messing with the application