Showing Unity to a 13 year old at Christmas.

I’m incredibly lucky.*

It seems that whatever I’m doing, it’s something that I love.

Over the christmas holidays I went to visit the various branches of various families, most of which don’t have a clue what it is I do. Among one of these families is a 13 year old boy that is pretty much a replica of myself at that age. Whilst we spent a good few hours over that time playing Skyrim, Halo and Call Of Duty (age restriction issues are for a different day), the most fun was had showing him what I do, as it’s something that he’s very interested in. He’s asked a few times about doing work experience at a game development studio, so I figured I might as well just show him what I do now, rather than waiting a couple of years. We downloaded the version of Unity and spent a few hours messing around.

Now, I’ve taught Unity to a fair few students over the last couple of years, all with varying degrees of competency of 3d modelling, game design and game development, but never a 13 year old with no experience of game development, the intricacies of game design and not a GCSE to his name (not really his fault, he is 13).

The amazing thing was that the process of teaching a 13 year old and a final year game design degree student was no different. The straight forward nature of creating content in Unity is self explanatory, you just point the users in the right direction and let them do the rest. After the initial explanation of how Unity combines game objects and components together, the main thing we focussed on was where to find the cool stuff, and how it can be used to make games.

There’s a big different between how to DO the cool stuff and where to FIND the cool stuff, but even with the basic packages that come with Unity, it really is a case of where to find it.

The most important observation I made though is that within about 30 minutes of explaining Unity’s UI, game object and component based systems, I was already talking about how things are done within the game industry. I was talking about the little tips and tricks to speed up development, rather than how to get the software working. We were playing with physics and coming up with ideas of games through playing with the software, rather than battling through it’s labyrinthine network of menus and stacks to do something, to do anything.

After an hour we were walking through hurriedly painted mountains and pushing down walls of blocks with giant bowling balls. Two hours later we were back fighting ice trolls on Skyrim, but at least he can go back to school in a few days and say that he made a *game* over the holidays, as well as playing the shit out of them!

Happy New Year.

Unity Present image created by Mike Renwick

*luck really does come down to hard work and putting yourself in the right positions though.

You’re not playing Skyrim, you’re sucking the life out of it.

Skyrim is wonderful. It’s alive.

Wherever you go there is something going on. The characters you meet have stories, thoughts, desires. They have lives.

The more you talk to people, the more you have in common with them. You’ll do anything for them, as long as you get an XP boost in return.

However, once you finish the task that you’ve been asked to complete, they don’t want to know you. They’ll revert to the stock lines and VOs that come out of the mouths of any other Skyrim inhabitant, the same things the unimportant people say… the ones you can’t click on.

Soon you’ll have cleared out a small village. Then Whiterun. Then Winterhold. The people that once greeted you with open arms simply pass by and tell you the origin of their surname. Just like everybody else.

You’re sucking the life out of Skyrim. You monster.

Highlights London Unity User Group 7 (iOS Gyroscope integration)

Last Thursday was the 7th London Unity User Group.

Each month the attendance is increasing, and we’re getting new members signing up to the meetup page on a daily basis.

The success of the event so far has been purely down to the fact that there are so many talented people that can potentially talk at these events. There is a also a broad range of topics that can be covered. It allows us to provide you with a varying degree of talks and complexity.

All credit for the latest event needs to go to Jasper, he pretty much organised the whole thing.

Whilst we had the highly anticipated Unity 3.5 preview from Will and Chris from Unity Technologies, we were also treated to fun and informative talk from Iestyn Lloyd.

I first met Iestyn at one of the first meetups for the previous Unity group, organised by Tim Whitlock, about 18 months ago. I liked his style, it was a no-fuss approach to development, built on his former experience in game development, but without the air of snobbery which can sometimes come from experienced developers looking at new technology.

His talk, “Why I’m not even slightly worried about this whole Flash thing”, was a show and tell into some of his previous work, as well as a peek into future projects. The most intriguing of which was based around Gyroscopic Camera controls with Unity iOS.

He showed a few prototypes using the tech, and his honesty when answering the question of how it was put together was refreshing. “I got it from the Unity forum, someone had already done it. If you want it, I can send you the link”.

No lengthy explanation on the intricacies of effectively moving the camera based on the gyroscope data, just the facts. Even one of the prototypes used to the Unity FPS Tutorial environment.

I did a little google search…and here’s the link to that forum post.

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/98828-sharing-gyroscope-controlled-camera-on-iPhone-4

Thanks to the original poster for this! All credit goes to them!

I then played around with it for about 15 minutes, and these are the results…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzPlu_QxeBQ

(The environment is just a bunch of assets I took from our Super Springbreak Speedboat Hero SD project at PLA Studios.)

It’s incredibly easy to set up. You pretty much just drag and drop the script onto your camera.

I did some extra work with the FPS character controller and iOS Joystick script to allow walking with onscreen controls and direction dictated by camera movement, which can be provided upon request.

Hope you have fun with it.

Batman & Catman

So, Batman : Arkham City is finally out. Everyone is playing it, everyone is loving it, and a lot of people seem to be talking about Catwoman.

Some people are talking about the differences that playing as Catwoman brings to the game, some are talking about the fine job that the rocksteady artists have done to capture her ‘assets’, and then there are those that are talking about it being DLC.

There was confusion around the release of the game that the Catwoman content was actually going to be DLC content, rather than just…oh, I dunno, part of the game like rocksteady had been saying for ages. It seemed that weeks prior to release they quietly let us know that you get the Catwoman content for free if you buy the game during the initial release window, whilst later adopters would have to pay for the privilege. Judging by how much time rocksteady had spent discussing catwoman’s inclusions in the new game prior to release, I’m guessing they were pretty surprised when they got that call from WB.

On the most recent Weekend Confirmed podcast, Garnett Lee has spoken out about how he felt that it’s a shitty deal for customers, and it kind of is. But it’s a good deal for WB, who will make a ton of money. How much that will rocksteady get? No one really knows, but judging by the fact that the Catwoman DLC actually integrates really nicely with the story, I’m guessing that they’ve already received a nice cheque for the hassle of REMOVING THE CONTENT FROM THE GAME.

This is nothing new though, this is just the ‘online pass’ for games that don’t have online pay. And whilst Garnett Lee can talk about how shitty this deal is for gamers one week, but talk about how games need to combat second hand retail the next, then he’s kind of contradicting himself. And if we are worrying about how much money rocksteady will get, then this aggressive strategy might just help in the long run.

Super Springbreak Speedboat Hero SD Beta.

Hey, look! I made this, along with the other people at PLA Studios. (it was released a while ago, but it took me ages to move this post from ‘drafts’)

After the success of get182.com , we were really excited to release our next game.

It’s more mainstream than get182.com, but it is far from conventional. At it’s core is a competitive racer,complete with custom track builder, but with an interesting take on social network sharing, we really think we’ve got a unique way to share your content.


We really wanted to focus on the game gameplay mechanics in order to make sure that at the heart of the game was a well balanced, competetive, and fun experience.

I’d like to offer an insight into the design process behind some of the key features of SSSHSD, and in this blog post I’ll be looking at the reason behind the track pieces that are in the game.

There are currently a limited number of track tiles, but each one was carefully picked to offer unique challenges, working on a risk and reward system. The track builder is also a big part of our game, and we wanted to make it as accessible as possible, without restricting each player’s creativity.

Keeping track pieces to simple straights and turns means that we can add more traditional features, like speed boosts, or non traditional features, such as the sharks and dinosaurs, that allow us to inject not only gameplay, but also character and charm. The aim was for the player to easily understand what each track tile does on a functional level, allowing them the opportunity to work out fun, unique combinations.

The dinosaur corners are a perfect example of our risk and reward approach. Do you risk taking a tight line down the inside, knowing that you have a higher risk of hitting a dinosaur, but possibly cutting a vtial half-second from your time? Or do you play it safe and go around the outside?

Similarly, the shark works on the basis that you can risk it and go through the mouth, activating that all important speedboost, or ensure you wont lose time by going around it. Combine the dinosaur corner and shark piece together, and you start challenging the player to not only deal with the immediate dangers, but also plan for the ones ahead. There’s a massive difference in time between taking the inside of a dinosaur corner and nailing the shark piece, to playing it safe around the outside. But if you hit either one of them, then you’re lap is done for.


You can play SSSHSD by heading over to http://www.springbreakhero.com


There are other features within the game that I’d like to talk about, but we’re busy doing some cool stuff at the moment…

Busy times at PLA Studios - Our first ‘game’.

It’s been busy at PLA Studios lately. Whilst in the middle of putting the finishing touches to our first game, we had a call to make a game for a well-know band. It needed to be done quick, be addictive, and give away a free song. We talked for a bit about the best approach, and then Iain came up with a great idea.

He came up with get182.

It was announced a few days later on BBC Radio 1, during Zane Lowe’s show, and within 2 hours had over 1 million plays.

You can play it at get182.com

We’re incredibly pleased with the response it has got, and Tom wrote a nice little blog post about it over at the PLA blog.

Now we can get back to finishing our first game, which I guess is now our second game…

Wonderputt

I’ve been keeping an eye on, the very aplty named ,Wonderputt for a while. It was created by Reece Millidge, who is otherwise know as Damp Gnat (twitter @dampgnat). It’s not Unity, it’s Flash. Regardless, it’s beautiful, charming, and golfy(DEFINITELY a word).

You can play the game on Kongregate here » Wonderputt

Check out Reece’s website here » dampgnat.com

‘wormholes’ looks familiar.

It’s not uncommon to find some games on the iTunes store that remind you more well-know titles, but ‘wormholes’ takes the fucking biscuit, for science.

http://itunes.apple.com/app/id436080350

PLA Studios

This is where I work.

When I graduated last year , I had a plan; get a job.

I got work pretty quickly, and whilst it was very good work, it was freelance or short term contract work. I was looking for something permanent, something that would really give me an opportunity to test myself. I applied at numerous large studios, but making rocks and barrels wasn’t what I wanted to do. The dream was to join a startup studio, one where I would get a real oppertunity to design.

A few months ago I got a call from PLA Studios and it was obvious that the opportunity I wanted had arrived. I’m one lucky SOB.

please check out our website www.plastudios.com

Follow us on Twitter @plastudios

London Unity3D user group 3

I feel bad, really bad. There’s two reasons for feeling like this. The first is that I haven’t had time to blog about anything (despite there actually be really cool things to talk about lately) and secondly for not posting about the previous London unity3d users group event. It was another great evening, with some interesting talks from the guest speakers, and some lively discussion over a few pints afterwards.

The success of the first two meetings has convinced us that there are many, many people based in and around London to jusify holding an event, and even at the early stages of these events we’re already queuing people up for future talks.

This month the London unity3d user group event takes place on the 23rd June at London south bank university.

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We’re back, and we’re in the same place as last time. As with previous meetups, LSBU will be hosting us.

We always aim to provide content for both the new and experienced Unity user, and this month we’ve managed to secure two great speakers. 

Sessions

Rapid AR development with String Augmented Reality for IOS.  

Mike Renwick will demonstrate how to use String’s Augmented Reality plugin to set up a simple scene in Unity3d, and show some of the ways that it could be used for interactive applications and games for iPhone and iPad2.  Augmented reality is essentially overlaying 3d objects on a real-world view, in this case, the device’s camera, making the object appear to be part of the scene. String is a lightning-fast, lean plugin that can be tightly integrated with Unity3d for quite spectacular results.

Mike worked with String to help produce an interactive AR toy for their initial application showcase, available free on iTunes  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/string-augmented-reality-showcase/id417606536?mt=8 ,

Follow Mike on twitter @runonthespot

Check out his blog here »  http://www.darkquadrant.co.uk/

Preloaded

Preloaded is an independent games studio that makes casual and social games on all platforms. They have worked with some of the brightest and best people in the industry, ranging from broadcasters and production companies, to galleries, museums, educators and enlightened brands.

Preloaded will talk about the challenges of getting paid to create Unity games and showing us ‘under the bonnet’ of their forthcoming Unity project, which is being developed for a major UK broadcaster.

Follow Preloaded on twitter @preloaded

Visit the Preloaded website

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We’re super excited about each of these talks, as they represent two areas that we haven’t yet covered in our London Unity3D user groups.

Once sessions have finished we’ll head to The Ship on Borough Road, as usual.

Look forward to seeing you there.