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WHOLE GAME interactive tutorials: What type of game would you like to learn how to make? [POLL]

Discussion in 'Community Learning & Teaching' started by Rick Love, Jul 7, 2015.

?

What type of game would you like to learn how to make?

  1. Physics Destruction (like Angry Birds)

    12.5%
  2. Role Playing Game (like Final Fantasy 7)

    48.4%
  3. Fighting (like Super Smash Bros.)

    21.9%
  4. Tower Defense (like Kingdom Rush)

    15.6%
  5. 2D/2.5D Platformer (like Super Mario Bros.)

    15.6%
  6. First Person Shooter (like Call of Duty)

    12.5%
  7. Racing (like Mario Kart)

    15.6%
  8. Real Time Strategy (like Starcraft)

    18.8%
  9. Voxel World (like Minecraft)

    7.8%
  10. 3D Platformer (like Super Mario Galaxy)

    21.9%
Multiple votes are allowed.
  1. Rick Love

    Rick Love

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    Oct 23, 2014
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    I produce interactive tutorials for Unity. (See my signature below for links to Codey's Lab).

    We are about to create 3-4 tutorial series over the next few months and would like to know what tutorials would most interest the community here.

    If you are interested in seeing whole-game interactive tutorials for a specific genre, please vote in the poll.
     
  2. Rick Love

    Rick Love

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    Also, I hope this poll will be useful for all tutorial authors. If you are a video tutorial author consider some points to make your tutorials more effective:

    - Please create a script before you record your video and organize your thoughts.
    - Provide a transcription of your video.
    - Provide all code and other materials with your video.
    - Ask the viewer to pause the video and to try to figure things out themselves before seeing how you do it.
     
  3. Baldinoboy

    Baldinoboy

    Joined:
    Apr 14, 2012
    Posts:
    1,526
    Thanks for the poll. I voted First Person shooter but what I really would like is a combination of that and role-playing. Like Skyrim. I just hate third person;).
     
    neamerjell and naldal like this.
  4. Rick Love

    Rick Love

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    @Baldinoboy We intend to construct our scripts so that it would be easy to mix concepts and even the script components from different genres.

    All these tutorials will be intermediate level courses, so we will use a code organization that would be suitable even for large teams.

    In your case, it would be possible to use the common code organization and take the best parts from the FPS and RPG to create the desired result.
     
    Baldinoboy likes this.
  5. Baldinoboy

    Baldinoboy

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    Cool. Yeah, any lessons will help. Hopefully with some help I can get a general knowledge of programming to do a project I am thinking of. Already bought and started the space shooter lessons. Thank you for these lessons.
     
  6. CesarNascimento

    CesarNascimento

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    Mar 26, 2013
    Posts:
    15
    A fighting game tutorial, ESPECIALLY like Smash Bros, would be simply perfect.
    I mean, there's no tutorial dealing with something like that out there.
     
    BrandyStarbrite likes this.
  7. Rick Love

    Rick Love

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    @Baldinoboy Great! Any feedback is appreciated!

    We should have Chapter 3 submitted to the asset store soon and are working on a system for immediate updates, so there is no need to wait for the Unity Asset Store approval process to get updates and fixes.
     
    Baldinoboy likes this.
  8. Rick Love

    Rick Love

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    @CesarNascimento The biggest problem with a fighting tutorials is creating all the animations required.

    What if the tutorial had a limited number of simple attacks and it focused on the code required to make the game function?

    Would it be vital to include a large number of attacks to cover multiple types of interactions?
     
  9. CesarNascimento

    CesarNascimento

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    @Rick Love
    It would be fine even if the tutorial was really limited in scope. The problem with fighting games is to understand and learn some basic concepts, like hitboxes and hurtboxes.

    Just including a few attacks to cover some basic interactions is enough, at least that's what I think.
     
    BrandyStarbrite likes this.
  10. Abdul hakim

    Abdul hakim

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    Oct 17, 2013
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    Agree with you:)
     
  11. Rick Love

    Rick Love

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    @CesarNascimento Thinking about it, I believe it would be simple to create a fighting system that is based on the physics system:

    You would attach Attack spheres and Defense spheres on your character at appropriate spots.

    If an attack sphere collides with a Defense sphere it would cause damage based on the momentum of the collision. Also, blocking would work by having other colliders in the character that do not receive damage and can protect the defense spheres.

    Objects would damage the character in the same way, by colliding with the character's defense spheres.

    In this way, it would be easy to create an unlimited number of characters and animations without changing any code.

    Also, the attack spheres could have different variables to adjust how they damage or interact with the user: DamageFromContactRatio, DamageFromVelocityRatio, ForceAppliedFromDamageRatio

    This sounds interesting... I hope fighting wins as one of the top choices.
     
    Last edited: Jul 7, 2015
  12. BrandyStarbrite

    BrandyStarbrite

    Joined:
    Aug 4, 2013
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    Yep. He's right. Same here for me too.
    Fighting game tut it is.
    I would love to see a Unity tutorial, that delves in this genre. :D

    The sad yet funny thing is, that there are none out there, that deal with fighting games. :(
     
  13. topherbwell

    topherbwell

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    Jun 8, 2015
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    poll seems to indicate overwhelming desire to see some good rpg tutorials. There is a complete lack of anything current in this scope.
     
  14. Rick Love

    Rick Love

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    @topherbwell

    RPG is winning by far. Awesome! I would love to do an RPG course. (I think it would be possible to do this while continuing production of other courses.)

    However, this is BIG and I would need to get some good artwork (some Cinematic cut scenes ala FF7 would be good). This would be at least a 3 month project to complete an entire RPG course that would include everything needed:

    - Story State Machine (Game Story Progress)
    - Character Dialog System (Character profile image popup, ala Chaos Rings)
    - 2.5D Scene Interaction (HD parallax/layered images with 3D objects, ala FF7)
    - World Map (3D spherical world)
    - Battle Mode (Classic turn/time based 3D - FF7 style)
    - Battle Animations (Attacks, Magic, Items, Summon, Cloud's Final Limit Break, etc.)
    - RPG Battle Leveling system
    - Commerce System (Buy/Sell Weapons appropriate to level/context, etc.)
    - Skills System (The materia system from FF7 was always my favorite - it was a small resource management/optimization game itself)
    - Main Menu / Battle Menu UI
    - Code Architecture & Organization (Git Source Control, Team Tools, etc.)

    I would also need to extend the Codey's Lab system to support short videos because there would be some non-code tasks that would need supplemental explanation and would just be better demonstrated with video. In addition, I would want the web version of Codey's Lab to be available and the remote device game preview to be ready as well.

    Anyway, this is a massive undertaking and I would need funding to complete it.

    How does a Kickstarter sound?
     
    arumiat likes this.
  15. topherbwell

    topherbwell

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    For the record, I voted RPG, but would actually prefer a diablo/ top down style action rpg, but that was not an option in the poll. Resources are lacking out there as far as tutorials for mechanics such as exp/leveling, persistent data, multiple character selection, etc.

    At any rate, sounds like a big project, which would explain why there is so little in the way of tutorials out there. Good luck and I definitely look forward to seeing what you come up with!

    This guy on youtube actually has some decent tutorials, but he seems to have stopped uploading rather abruptly about three months ago, and his tutorials use outdated animation methods and a bit of depricated code. If you look at the comments you'll see people are feeling the pain from the lack of resources in these areas, especially for new devs like myself who have no formal education in coding/game dev.
     
  16. Rick Love

    Rick Love

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    You make a good point. I think the RPG should be made so that different systems can be swapped.

    For example, instead of 2.5D Scenes + Battle Mode, you could use a 3D world with random maps constructed from rooms and an active battle system.

    It would also be interesting to include multiplayer if doing an open rpg...

    However, there are so many different styles and options that it could be an unending series. This will most likely turn into a whole series of RPG courses that have different styles, but use common components:

    - Cinematic RPG (FF style)
    - Action/Dungeon Crawler RPG (Diablo style)
    - 2D Top Down (Pokemon style)

    Then, a person could choose the one of greatest interest.
     
    topherbwell likes this.
  17. topherbwell

    topherbwell

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    Indeed. And not to add to the already heavy load of potential features, but there is a pretty glaring lack of tutorials regarding smart AI companion NPCs out there. I wish I was further along in my learning so that I could offer more than just suggestions of things that are lacking currently, but hopefully it helps you find some good niches out there that help a lot of people and yield you a lot of views.
     
  18. sadsack

    sadsack

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  19. Rick Love

    Rick Love

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    Here is an interesting idea: Asset+Tutorial = Codey's Lab Module

    Each system would be a module that is developed as an open source asset plus the tutorial on how to make that asset.

    Then, many of these would be collected into a whole game tutorial to show how to use them together to make a game with specific art assets.

    Each module would easily plug in to provide a specific functionality for that game. They would be designed with a simple extension architecture so that they can easily fit into an existing game or work together with other modules.

    So, instead of trying to complete a huge game course, we focus on completing the individual modules of that game and build the game course over time.

    Does this sound appealing?
     
    neamerjell likes this.
  20. Ham08

    Ham08

    Joined:
    Dec 28, 2013
    Posts:
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    This is sounds awesome! Kickstarter is a great idea, actually. But, that would require someone who knows how to get the word out so that enough people are aware of the project (webmaster who understands how to obtain high search engine rankings and sufficient press or other website site coverage). Too many wonderful projects fail to get off the ground because the intended audience never even knows about them till it's too late.

    Personally, I would love to learn to create a first-person turn-based dungeon crawler with game-play and movement like "Eye of the Beholder" or "Might & Magic X: Legacy". But, the FF7 style will be pretty awesome to learn. Either way.

    Another way to fund the project might be like the Handmade Hero guy is doing on Youtube. He's got a pre-order button for the finished game on his website and that grants access to the code and assets immediately and ongoing. I can't speak for everyone, but I would pay for the access. Sometimes I end up with errors that I am unable to solve and end up moving on to a different tutorial. But, if I had access to the project files including the source code at each stage (lesson 1, lesson 2, etc.), I would never get into a situation where I am stuck and unable to continue with the tutorial.

    You could always use open-source assets. They usually aren't very pretty looking, but that's not really necessary because they are just placeholders We are here to learn how to create the game. The artwork/music is something each person will have to come up with on their own, anyway.
     
  21. Rick Love

    Rick Love

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    This is an interesting idea. Handmade Hero also has a Patreon page.

    What if I had a weekly Twitch where the community could vote on which specific component to make next and I would go through a design process for that component, code it, and then package it as an open source asset with accompanying Codey's Lab tutorial.

    It is an interesting idea...
     
  22. Abdul hakim

    Abdul hakim

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    when you are going to start,
    i am really excited to start ,
     
  23. SubZeroGaming

    SubZeroGaming

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    Codey's Lab is out. Check out my signature on interactive tutorials to find a link to the asset store. You can also search for Codey on the asset store and you'll find it.
     
  24. Rick Love

    Rick Love

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  25. Abdul hakim

    Abdul hakim

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    hmm. actually i am waiting for a video tutorial in C# , and i think Fighting (like Super Smash Bros.) would be great .