Every Semicolon: A video capture of a game made from start to finish

Before starting our new game project I had a thought: that I could record the entire process from start to finish and put it online as both a learning tool for others, and a way of receiving feedback on what I do so I too might learn some new things and improve the game before it’s released. This will be a fairly long series as while the game is not massive, it’s certainly not a small weekend game-jam sort of production.

So far I’ve recorded 2 videos, one 2 hours and the other 4 hours long. Trying to talk to yourself while working for 4 hours straight and not devolve into inane rambling is difficult (so far impossible), but this is something I want to improve on as I continue with this series. I’d really appreciate feedback on any aspect of the videos, be it the game itself, the video production, what I talk about or my programming and development techniques.

Link to Playlist on Youtube that will update as new videos are added.

Here is Part 1:

(I recommend watching in 1080P fullscreen. Watch on YouTube)

Some of the events in this video:

• I start a new Unity project and begin setting up the folder structure
• I discuss some general concepts of the Unity engine
• I write some basic scripts and show how to apply and use them
• I show how to setup and use prefabs
• I show some shader development and get fooled by Unity 3.5's new Linear lighting solution which sends me on a shader debugging session
• I write a new custom editor window for measuring distance between objects

Here is Part 2:

(I recommend watching in 1080P fullscreen. Watch on YouTube)


Some of the events in this video:

• I develop the initial elements of a camera manager to handle smoothly repositioning the camera
• I create the first basic siege weapon in the game, the catapult with placeholder graphics
• I create the top and side aiming modes with placeholder controls and graphics
• I create the first "bullet" and set it up to be shot into the fortress

A little about me: I work full time as the lead programmer of a team working on large “serious game” projects in Unity and work on my own stuff (like the game in this series) on the side in my spare time. I’ve been working with Unity for around 3 years almost every day.

I really want to evolve and improve these videos so any feedback is appreciated. Especially important is if you really hate anything I’m doing, please let me know and I’ll try to change that.

 

Errr, it is interesting... but not enough to watch sorry please make a time laps version that has each video around 10mins each i think alot more people could view it then.

 

Hi Matt!

Good idea.

However, I HIGHLY suggest you shoot glimpses of your progress while making a game. If you release 15-20min videos made from a condensed of what you've done during the last 2 hours (obstacles, solutions to problems, ideas, tips and tricks), I'm sure you'd get many more views. (it would also be easier on your capture card and your jaw... hehe)

When videos are that long, people skip and that means they potentially skip important/interesting parts.

Otherwise, keep it up!

MQ

 

Thanks for the comments. I understand where you're coming from, but there's countless short Unity tutorial/tips videos out there. I'm not interested in making more of that. This is something I've not seen done before and while there's many great reasons why that is, I think there's also value in this approach.

It's not going to be for everyone obviously and may only appeal to a few, but I feel there's value in this capture of every moment, warts-and-all.

 

Parts 3 4 are now online. I've created a playlist that I'll update as new videos are added.

Part 3:

(I Recommend watching in fullscreen 1080P. Youtube).

Some of the events in this video:

• I develop the initial elements of a camera manager to handle smoothly repositioning the camera
• Made blocks have different damage states and be damaged based on collision velocity
• Write an editor window to revert multiple selected prefabs

Part 4:

(I Recommend watching in fullscreen 1080P. Youtube).

Some of the events in this video:

• I spend some time on the 'blocks', making them something other than cubes and adding a stone block
• I make blocks destroy themselves when their health hits zero
• I create a couple of custom inspectors to manipulate and find scene objects
• I add object following and look at functionality to the CameraManager and track fired shots in towards the target
• I setup a system to determine when blocks are in an idle state to return the camera back to gameplay

 

Part 5 is now online. I wanted to spend a bit of time on something other than the core gameplay mechanics so in this relatively short (1 hour) video I create a waving grass shader and an editor window to support mass placement of said grass (or any other prefab).

Part 5:

(I Recommend watching in fullscreen 1080P. Youtube).

Some of the events in this video:

• I create some grass and write a shader to make it wave in the wind
• I write an editor window to mass instantiate objects within a certain region for mass placing the grass and future detail objects

It's still early days so I'd love suggestions on how to improve the videos so that I can evolve this video series as it goes on. I'm definitely going to continue doing it for the foreseeable future as it's a great cure for procrastination and a way of keeping track of exactly how long I spend working on the game.

 

I decided to hold off on posting about episodes 6 and 7 (which have been online for around a month) until I'd done episode 8 and was ready to continue rolling along with this game. After episode 7 I knew it would be a while before I had the time to do so since the project at my day job was entering the final ultra-crunch stage. Now that's over with (WHOO!) I'm more keen than ever to keep moving forward with this game's development and the video series.

Part 6:

(I recommend watching in fullscreen 1080P. Youtube).

Some of the events in this video:

• I re-setup the scale of my assets and level
• I create a treasure chest block with code to spawn particles when it's destroyed

Part 7:

(I recommend watching in fullscreen 1080P. Youtube).

Some of the events in this video:

• I setup the first version of the Ballista model
• I create a number of shortcut functions for object manipulation including duplicating objects with various offsets, translating objects around, creating new child objects and deleting children of selected objects

Part 8:

(I recommend watching in fullscreen 1080P. Youtube).

Some of the events in this video:

• I create a projectile motion trajectory class to determine what the trajectory of a fired projectile will be
• I setup a 3D visualisation to show the trajectory while playing

I'm actually planning on doing a whole lot of work on this over the next few days, possibly doubling my current number of hours (14 hours 36 mins).

 

Cool! I'm a unity programmer, I have been a programmer for some time now. But today I dedicate my time to watching these video's instead of doing some client work

You can always learn something new.

Thanks man!

 

Heh, that's very true. With each video I get more comfortable doing the talking while coding stuff so if at first you're not into it, know that I'm pretty sure they get better .

I also try to change up what I'm doing from episode to episode. So so far I'm covered general stuff like bringing in artwork and setting up prefabs, but I've also developed stuff like the a waving grass shader, various editor windows and shortcut functions, a camera system and trajectory pre-visualisation.

I'm not claiming to be the world's foremost expert on Unity, but I have been using it almost every day for 3 years or so and I knew from working with a bunch of other programmers with Unity at my day job that there's lots of stuff I take for granted that isn't actually common knowledge. So chances are there'll be the odd thing or two throughout the videos that might be something new to someone. There's also a good chance people will see me doing something that can be done in a better way and then I can pick something new up too .

 

, there are a few things in the video's that I look forward to learning, The grass shader you just mentioned gets me excited :O I never coded a shader before, so that should be interesting.

Also I'm more comfortable with JavaScript(Don't judge me ),so watching you code in C# should be very interesting and informative, I might convert from JS to C#. Although I think you might make that harder then I think it'll be; I'm 12 mins into part 1, your writing a parenting class and your not really explaining what your code means

 

Very nice, this is a precious resource, thank you!

 

I'm actually really enjoying these! When I saw they were that long I was a bit reluctant. But I sat down and started watching and getting into them now!

Great work, keep it up!

 

Thanks guys. I think the first couple of videos are by far the poorest and probably that's where most people stop, so it's great to see people going deeper and getting something out of what I'm doing with this series.

Keen to get some of the new artwork in and working, I've done another couple of episodes of Every Semicolon. One of these days we're going to need to name this game...

Part 9:

(I recommend watching in fullscreen 1080P. Youtube).

Some of the events in this video:

• I integrate some new block artwork, creating functional prefabs for each
• I modify the duplicate offset objects shortcuts to make the next prefab object in a series
• I setup a new test fortress with the new blocks

Part 10:

(I recommend watching in fullscreen 1080P. Youtube).

Some of the events in this video:

• I setup the ballista bolt projectile with proper collision and custom center of mass
• I setup the ability to change the firing angle for the ballista (and other future weapons)

 

I think this is really awesome - thanks for taking the time to make and upload the videos

 

Nice videos Matt. Watched the first one this morning while I've been trying (and failing) to do some pixel art.

Just got two questions for you though.
1] What settings are you using for Visual Studio? Colour Scheme looks really nice, much better than my horrible custom one.
2] How did you get the darker theme going on with Visual Studio? I'm much more of a fan of darker colour schemes like that but unless I'm missing something I don't see a way to set that up.

Keep up the videos man. I'll continue watching the rest of them while trying to make some artwork,

 

I don't remember the name of the colour scheme I'm using, I think I modified it anyway. I've attached a vssettings file containing the colour settings. You can go to Tools > Import and Export Settings in VIsual Studio and then import the attached settings. It only contains colour settings so that's all it will change in your environment. I haven't checked that this is everything to make up my theme, so let me know how it goes.

Thanks for watching. Good luck with the pixel art, I hope having me drone on in the background helps .

 

Thanks for that Matt wasn't expecting you to export the settings.

I was meaning the dark skin around the editor and such in VS but I managed to fix that last night by installing VS11 Beta. Not sure if the dark skin in VS is an ultimate feature like the dark skin being only for pro in unity.

Ha thanks. Don't see myself ever being that good at pixel art just trying to make it look like someone didn't just open GIMP and mash their face off the keyboard and mouse.

Anyhoo keep up the good work on the vids man, really rather enjoying them.

 

Yeah, I didn't have a chance to check what I'd exported and if it would contain all that. I believe I got the dark theme stuff I'm using from here: http://www.nerdpad.com/visual-studio/visual-studio-2010-dark-expression-blend-color-theme.

I've done another couple of episodes focusing first on getting the first iteration of the Dwarf model into the game and then creating a component copying editor window using reflection.

Part 11:

(I recommend watching in fullscreen 1080P. Youtube).

Some of the events in this video:

• I add the first iteration of the Dwarf model
• I write a script to reassign bones for skinned meshes to another skeleton
• I write the first step of an Actor script that randomly changes the playing idle animation

Part 12:

(I recommend watching in fullscreen 1080P. Youtube).

Some of the events in this video:

• I write an editor window for copying entire components or component values to another object
• I fix up the initial orientation of the fired projectiles
• I setup the platforms to be able to move up and down on a sine curve

 

It's been a while since I've posted. I didn't want to do a post per episode, but since there's been 6 episodes since my last post I thought I should do the update.

Part 13:

(I recommend watching in fullscreen 1080P. Youtube).

Some of the events in this video:

• I setup the ballista so that it will interpolate it's animation based on the adjustable power and tilt
• I make the ballista play a shoot animation adjusted depending on the selected power and tilt

Part 14:

(I recommend watching in fullscreen 1080P. Youtube).

Some of the events in this video:

• I setup more intuitive controls for the ballista (and other weapons) for adusting tilt and power

Part 15:

(I recommend watching in fullscreen 1080P. Youtube).

Some of the events in this video:

• I identy the cause of editor freeze that occurred in the last couple of videos through a process of elimination and fix the issue
• Some small tweaks and fixes

Part 16:

(I recommend watching in fullscreen 1080P. Youtube).

Some of the events in this video:

• I introduce the Developer Console system
• I create an exploding barrel block
• I make the trajectory indicator remain full when changing size
• I ensure the ballista bolt ejects from the ballista at the correct angle

Part 17:

(I recommend watching in fullscreen 1080P. Youtube).

Some of the events in this video:

• I discuss my scene view camera technique
• I add and setup the new clouds model and skybox
• I add the WIP cannon model and setup the cannon mechanics
• I update some of the textures to higher resolution versions
• I add a custom inspector for the standard Transfom component allowing copy and paste and world space changes

Part 18:

(I recommend watching in fullscreen 1080P. Youtube).

Some of the events in this video:

• I create a Quick Selection tool to allow for fast selection of multiple nearby objects

 

Dude these look awesome can you perhaps make them as a download because watching these would eat at my bandwidth and I only have a limited amount per month

 

Sure, that sounds like a good idea. When I have time to make a dedicated website for Every Semicolon I'll provide downloads at different resolutions.

For now you could probably use a tool or site (e.g. KeepVid) that allows you to download YouTube videos to grab them.

I hope you enjoy them. I've had a lot of great feedback from people that have the right circumstances in which to watch this much content. I really enjoy doing them as well because it's the one project I'm doing where I focus my attention 100% on development without distraction.

 

@KingCharizard Download RealPlayer if you want to download videos from YouTube, free and easy - www.real.com

Great series Matt, lots of great detail.

 

really cool idea, and yes this does appeal to only a few but the few it does appeal too, its awesome!

Keep Up the Good Work.

 

These videos are great for people who are starting to use unity having a video showing from step 1 how to use unity and make a game is a great starting point. No matter how tutorials or guides you read nothing is better than just watching someone make a game and if they enplane what they are doing while they do it the better.

This is how a beginners tutorial should be made.

 

Thanks guys, I appreciate it. The one thing I still would like to change with the series is to somehow prevent the random divergent rambling I'll sometimes do due often to me continue to speak while thinking about something else .

Otherwise I'm pretty happy with how it's going. Episodes are still too infrequent for my liking, but that'll improve. The progress for 29.5 hours (as of episode 19) is pretty good considering how much time is spent talking about things instead of just working. I think every 40 hours I'll do a short video showing highlights of the previous episodes. Hopefully there won't be too many of those 40 hour recap videos by the end, I'd like to finish this game at some point this year .

New episode below in which I add the catapult model and get it working.

Part 19:

(I recommend watching in 1080P fullscreen. Watch on YouTube)

Some of the events in this video:

• I add the first version of the catapult graphics and discuss its design
• I setup the catapult weapon and an initial version of its cluster shot

 

Wow, can't believe I'm just now finding these. Thanks for making them! It's really hard for people to get a real look at what game developers do, so this is really helpful for everyone, I think.

 

Enjoyable series! i enjoy being privy to the thought process of a senior developer at a games company. And doing a complete game from blank screen to release is something ive not gotten to witness before. Please dont change a thing. Thank you!

 

@wccrawford and @MadRobot: Thanks guys.

Episode 20 is now available. Wanting to do something a little different for episode 20 to what I'd touched on previously, I added a sound effect, muzzle flare and particles to the cannon when it fires. The sound and effects will probably change and be added to later, but for now just getting something half decent in was worth doing.

Part 20:

(I recommend watching in 1080P fullscreen. Watch on YouTube)

Some of the events in this video:

• I update some of the art assets to the latest version
• I add a cannon firing sound
• I add smoke particles and a muzzle flare effect to the cannon