you can't spell unity without try (minus the R)

Well, hello again to all of you fellow Lads, Ladies, Chaps, ol sports and to everyone else in between to another edition in my long running series of blogs where I discuss the intricacies and analysis of Video game Development and design or I have rambled on about complete nonsense for 50 blogs now and this is number 51. So today we are putting our design goggles back on and take another deep dive into the world of Unity for another round and week of tutorials. So let's not dilly dally and let's get to chin waggling.

(Enter the Cube to see what we have to learn this week)

So over the last few weeks we have learned how to make a car feel the need for speed and smash through some obstacles left on the road and we have set up our own little farm and then turned it into a little remake of Space Invaders. In between them we had been given some challenges like tests where at first we were given a plane who was probably given a line of white powder in its fuel supply and was flying backwards at the speed of sound and we had to reverse that method and gain control of it, then our second challenge was trying to play a game of catch with a dog but we have to change if so the balls fall from the sky instead of the dogs and we have to use the dogs as weapons. So now this week we have the concept of using the knockoff minecraft designs and blending it with the happy world of Super Mario. So let's describe the tutorials of this week.

So in the first of the three tutorials, it all has to start somewhere and with it comes a whole slew of new instructions to listen through (I mean all of these culminate into a 4 hour tutorial) we are given the assets and package to get it all sorted out. In the first wave we are tasked with the first of the simple tasks of changing the background because bland backgrounds is so 2005 while backgrounds with added scenery is so in right now. Once you have chosen the scenery it's time to get our player to move and this comes into play of using our old pal of Cscript code and having the stamina to get through it to create our character of looking like they are moving and given the ability to jump at the push of a button. But we also need something to jump over so we can also implement some obstacles to jump over like our concept of obstacles from the first tutorials. Somethings things come back and combine with new and now we are on our way to becoming a new version of Mario.

(and you just live at the Brooklyn Olympics for the 2mile hurdle race to get to work on time)

So in part 2 of the tutorials, we have a distinct layout sorted out of moving and jumping but after a few seconds it seems we are heading back into bland city backdrop. Now we don't want this to be the case as we want it to make it look like the backdrop is still continuing on in a loop. We also have to implement that when we time a jump wrong and hit off the obstacle the background and character stops in their tracks. Speaking of the obstacle what happens to it when we jump past it does it disappear or continuing to travel into the endless void? Well to get an answer to that question we want it to become the former and have the box disappear at the edge of the scene after we jump over it so it's not still lingering in the background or out in space. Now if we implement a speed function into this game we are going to become Sonic the hedgehog but one step at a time.

(I believe that their are some problems with scripts and stuff here)

In our last round of tutorials we have created a basic movement, we have fixed the background and we have made the obstacles disappear when they pass us, so all that remains is with the character itself as this character is president of snoozeville when it comes to their life like persona. We need to give this guy a little bit of a personality and what better way to do that then by giving him two traits. First we are going to give him a bit of animation to make him look like that he is on a light jog, a nice stroll or even training for a marathon with making him move. But sometimes you feel it's not enough so why don't we add a bit of dramatic flair to it where when he hits an obstacle from mistiming his jump that he just falls on his back and dies. In the same process we also learn that we can control the speed through sheer use of C-script and the sorts so the likes of being super fast isn't solely given to a blue hedgehog or to a guy who gets shocked by lightning and spills some chemicals on him, now we have that power too.

(I just realised that I am creating a version of the Chrome dinosaur running game when the Internet is down)

Now of course with every tutorial their is always going to be some error with these and it is somewhat similar to the likes of the previous week with the whole script error. Now I have updated all my stuff to the recommended version and I have hone gone through vast amounts of code to solve it but sometimes it has a problem that it doesn't tell you how to solve and that can be an annoyance. But like any tutorial all it takes is time, patience, a slew of trial and error and vast amounts of caffeine to get it all sorted out but it comes together seamlessly when you take it all in.

(When their is complications (which seem to be a lot lately) there is always a solution or someone that can help with finding it)

Well that is all I have to talk about this week on the concept of the Unity tutorials for another week and I have learned a lot from when a few months prior I would've been smashing my head and fists against the keyboard in frustration trying to understand it but now I have it all in the palm of my hand. Now if you'll excuse me I have got to get some stuff sorted out for some deadlines and for some other important things and going to work so until next time.

Cheerio!!!

-Sam H