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What are the best ways to improve skills in the terms of Level Design & Unity's Graphical Features ?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by lineupthesky, Mar 2, 2015.

  1. lineupthesky

    lineupthesky

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    Jan 31, 2015
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    Well hi everyone, i'd like to ask you and have ideas about the things that I sometimes face problems with. First let me tell me what I do know and what my skills are, then I have couple of questions about the topics that I definetely need to know some generals ways of thinking about.

    I've been using Unity for 4-5 years, since the version 2.6.1 was released. I am 21 years old now, and guess what I wasn't actually expertise on developing games when I was 15-16 :p. ( Eventhough, I had 2.5 years of experience on developing 2D Point & Click Adventure games with stick-man figures at that time. // Wow such experience ) Anyways, so my improvement on generally game development and Unity was proceeding really slow, but accurate at least. Since that I was working all alone ( I never tried to gather up a "team" and MAKE THE BEST ONLINE FPS ON THE EARTH **1- Check reference at the bottom ), I was developing myself not only on the way of becoming a programmer but also becoming a "game developer". I came up with some projects, some were good stuff, some were messy, some never got released, but the point was to enhance myself, so I really never intended to create a complete and a perfect game like the most of the "kids" around me were trying to do and never succeeded.

    2 years ago I started to make some money and things got serious. Now I have more than enough / average knowledge on Unity & C, C#, UnityScript, but I do know that I still lack some skills on the actual design process of a game, graphically. Now I am working with 2 friends of mine, who are both 3D artists, we came up with really good results in 3 game development competitions around my town and also we did well on Global Game Jam. So, my belief on this team is complete and now for the first time I actually ended up developing a project which is totaly our product ( Not the silly documentations of the out-source employers who always yells at me and delay my payments :( ) , and I really want to achieve something perfect. Thus, I am trying to change my style of working.

    Since we are using Unity Free, and aiming to get the licence money on Kickstarter with a really low target only enough for licence, we ofcourse lack some graphical convenience, therefore we need to think outside of the box to achieve what we want in our game, since the one who puts all the meshes into a game level and tweaks the scene is me, I need to think outside the box. This is where my question comes from, this will be very dull wait for it I'll lighten it up with examples but question is: " How can I improve and force myself on thinking and finding the little "tricks" in order to achieve things that I do want. Here are some examples that I was able to think outside the box about, which will make you understand what I'm talking about ;

    ** Consider that this project includes a lot of indoor scenes, well, hardly 1 outdoor scene actually.**

    - Volumetric Light

    I thought about it for a while, and then after a little research I came up with the idea of creating a plane and putting some good shader & gradient texture on it to achieve the fake volumetric effect. Another way is, creating a particle system for it to do the work.

    - Filling the Scene That Lacks Enough Prop Models

    Here are some of the things that came to my mind ; dust particles, grounge & dirts effects on textures, having a fake Ambient Occlusion with transparent textures around the edges, creating dust effects around the lights, lens flares with really low brightness.

    - Achieveing some camera effects

    Mostly using textures in front of the camera, and some scripting too. Like to create a noise effect, create 6-7 different noise textures and randomly change them from array when needed. For water splash on screen, create some splash textures, use a canvas system and rotate it on the X axis from like -30 or 30, to 0. ( to give the effect like its coming from forward, the depth.) and then change the offset of the texture to achieve the effect of them dropping down. For blur effect, not sure yet, but maybe switch between 2 cameras really fast which is following the other one only with a little distance and a texture on it ? ( Something like delay )

    So these are the ideas that I was able to think about, what are the other tricks to achieve some effects, I am asking this, because our game will include a lot of user interference and we really need to fill up the "screen". I'd like to know what you guys thought about to have graphical effects, and if there is someone who really developed himself/herself on this subject, can you tell me what was the way you followed ? Investigate a lot of games and watched how the other developers achieved things ? Spend too much time on the Unity's features like Particle System or other things ? What is the way guys ?

    **1 Reference :



    If you have, thanks for reading all of them, I know a lot of unnecessary details, but needed to tell the exact point.
    Sincerely,

    Inan.

    -​
     
    Last edited: Mar 2, 2015
  2. Kiwasi

    Kiwasi

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    16,860
    Free graphics design hint. For ease of use text should be left aligned or justified. Centre alignment should only be used for titles, or to draw attention to very short segments of text.
     
    AlanGreyjoy and lineupthesky like this.
  3. Kiwasi

    Kiwasi

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    Yeah, not going to happen. The best way to learn Unity tools is to keep making and deploying projects that are not perfect. Get feedback from your players. Repeat.
     
  4. lineupthesky

    lineupthesky

    Joined:
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    Actually "perfect" is something relative on this subject I am talking about. I am not aiming to achieve AAA, I am trying to achieve more than I already achieved with developing projects, that is "perfect" for me now. So actually I am asking how to get only one little step further from the current position that I am giving the examples of. Just trying to get some ideas around from the people who have been dealing with graphics design.

    The thing is sometimes I can not come up with an idea, I want to achieve something, like a transition effect, some creepy screen effect, some other effect, the things that I want to express feelings with through out the game. Sometimes I say " oh look I can do this this this.." and sometimes I have no idea. The thing is, I do want to have an idea. If someone improved his / her abilities on this, I'd like to know with what ? Maybe with learning & going deep in Photoshop in order to increase the knowledge behind the graphics design which may make me think more efficiently, for instance. I got couple of ways that I can use to get better, but the fact is I do not want to waste any of my time for "now", because I have limited extra time and need to use it well.
     
    Last edited: Mar 2, 2015
  5. elmar1028

    elmar1028

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    Nov 21, 2013
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    2,355
    Practice makes perfect!

    Make a new project. Download/buy free models, textures, audio and place them around a bit. Use Google Images as your source of inspiration. You can even try to replicate your own apartment!
    For exterior play around with terrain tools (once again use Google Images for inspiration). Or just go outside. Pay attention to small details like ground, where grass usually grows, where houses and roads being built etc.

    By the end of the first project (even if it's incomplete) you'll get tons of experience working with Unity. Trust me. Not only you'll develop new skills but you'll also make your own methods to increase productivity.

    This is from my own experience. Just by trying once would help you a lot :)
     
    Kiwasi, xxBarginsxx and lineupthesky like this.
  6. lineupthesky

    lineupthesky

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    That is a nice idea ! I've been developing for years but never thought of looking to google images or example interior designs as a reference ! I'll definetely try that one, referencing is good and I think it'll increase my inspiration.
     
  7. xxBarginsxx

    xxBarginsxx

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    I like your style bro, It's inspiring and helpful! :)
     
  8. xxBarginsxx

    xxBarginsxx

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    Dude... If you work hard, you can achieve a 'perfect' game! Don't just say 'No you can not make a perfect game on your first try'. That's not very cool If you ask me...
     
  9. Kiwasi

    Kiwasi

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    You'll learn more from five mediocre games released then one perfect game under development on your hard drive. I'm not concerned about being cool, I'm trying to give sound advice.

    Just about every developer gives the same advice to beginners. Getting your first project out there and finished is more important then it being perfect. Drop the expectation of perfect work, and you'll be able to progress much faster.
     
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  10. xxBarginsxx

    xxBarginsxx

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    I understand, I think that too. I think that if you complete at least 1 game, you'll gain enough experience to make a soandso2 cause you'll gain experience and knowlage about how game game design and developed work and you'll get better as time goes on :). I did not mean for it to sound like I was mad, sorry if it did dude, I was just stating my opinion is all :)!

    Peace
     
    Kiwasi likes this.
  11. lineupthesky

    lineupthesky

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    Thanks for your advices guys, but please can someone read what I've written. I'm not a beginner :D, all the point was to get more developed ideas about improving perfomance on a spesific topic, that's all. Thanks for your concerns & answers though !
     
    xxBarginsxx likes this.
  12. xxBarginsxx

    xxBarginsxx

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    Dunno about that, never seen it in any games I play.

    Um, I would say for a 'stale' scene, (If were talking about out doors.) I would suggest putting a bunch of trees and natural things around to make it more 'eye popping' idk really that's and idea.

    Now for like other stuff... Let's say a shed, or a big mansion or something. Place around would you would expect in such a location. tubs, tables, chairs, a kitchen if you wanna do that, and just things you would think would be there :)

    can say much there :( sorry, but I never used that stuff at all most of the time :)

    Alright hope it helps man! Bai
     
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  13. lineupthesky

    lineupthesky

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    Thanks for it dude ! I now think that's the thing, filling up the props according to the things that I'd expect, I think I just gotta inspect the world around me more than usual :).
     
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  14. xxBarginsxx

    xxBarginsxx

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    Sounds good :) Just try and fail, and you get back up and try again :) Just mess around and see if the scene looks the way it would resemble on earth!
     
    lineupthesky likes this.