koobas.hobune.stream
Making the leap - How to get into Unity development?
Hello,
This is my first posting in what I hope to be a long and prosperous adventure in the Unity community. Some background, I've created since I was 4 (Legos), I've been in some kind of digital content creation since I was 10 (fell in love with TimeSplitters map maker), then onto some crappy little BYOND engine games, moved to Unreal Tournament2004's expansive editor got extremely involved in the community and created multiple popular levels and worked with a few mod teams(e.g considerable art contributions to Ashura: Dark Reign), and then to goofing off in UDK a bit. I would say I have a decent grasp of how to make something, I understand concepts of game design and how they click, and how to make it fun. I pick it up quick. I can think like a developer.
My cousin and I are interested in starting on some projects of our own. We are tight bro's and work like Napoleon Hill's concept of the "Mastermind", we have tons of ambition and imagination going. I personally have several notebooks full of ideas I want to bring to life. Because of his PC's severe lack of power, lack of man-power, time, and budget(hey, indie just like you!) we have decided to switch to Unity after hearing good things. Here is the problem, my cousin has NO experience yet a raging imagination. Its easier for him to twiddle his dick and procrastinate then actually get started, he's lost and overwhelmed. I'm more of an art guy, yet I want to learn code a little to help, and he wants to get started in coding. We really are driven to make something, though. I could scour the internet for tutorials as I did before, but I figured going straight to the pro's for a lead would be best this time. (yet I am still a google-fiend)
Here is where you guys can help. Do you have any good tips for an aspiring designer? Is there a great place that you found invaluable info? Where can I find an "ultimate starter's guide for the ultimate coding newbie" tailored towards Unity? We really want to get started soon but its hard for me to completely manage him and communicate the right mindsets, etc, to get him started research and practice on his own.
This community will be a good lead, a good head start. Thank you guys in advance for helping us out, it is really appreciated. I aim to create great games and one day contribute back to Unity.
Cheers :)
As happy as I am to see such a constructive and well-formed question, it's one without a true answer and is probably more suited to the forums. In the future, try posting there for discussions and here for specific issue questions.
Well, to answer some of your questions, I have a few links: Javascript intro. Great video tutorials. Unify Community. This has scripts, some tutorials, and other stuff. And when you need to ask real people, this site is great, as is the unity IRC and their forum, both found on the unity site.
These should give plenty of help. What you should do is start tinkering with Unity, learning as you go - worked for me so far - and always look around for unity examples, tips, and other stuff. Good luck. Edit - Almost forgot - if you ever get stuck and just want to kill your script, don't feel bad about nagging all those pro's out there! It works, trust me. :)
for Walker Brothers video tutorials. Started it 8 weeks ago and I'm almost done. Learned a ton from scratch.
Nkay, here we go heh
First thing's first, realize you wont be making anything other than the most basic games for your first few projects(We're talking Space Invaders and Pong here). Once you get into that mindset, you can start your journey of learning, because thats what you're gonna do for quite a while. My suggestion, is to start with a few really good tutorials, learn all you can, even if it doesnt seem interesting or completely in-line with what you want to know.
There are tons of good tutorials on youtube, start of by making a simple prototype game. Don't begin developing your dream project off the bat, start with small quick-n-dirty prototype game, or you will be disheartened and most likely give up. Those are the ones that are gonna define you as a designer, try to come up with new twists for old notions/concepts and remember great games are played, not made(Todd Howard, Bethesda Softworks).
For a huge (though possibly dated) list of tutorials and resources, check out this question.
In terms of advice, start small. If you haven't already, check out TIG Source for Indie-type support. They also have a pretty decent technical forum that covers a range of languages/engines/topics and advice threads on getting your games/ideas off the ground with input from established (and aspiring) game designers.
For learning to program from scratch...well, that I'm not so sure of. Personally, I had a bit of a background in programming before getting into Unity and I can only imagine how overwhelming it might be for someone with no exposure to it to dive right in. It will likely come down to learning styles; if you're a visual/example learner, check out youTube (I started with infiniteAmmo's videos); if you're a theory learner, it's probably worth your while to pick up a book or manual on JS or C#.
Possibly the most important advice is finish your games. The last 10% tends to be the hardest stretch.
Good luck and welcome to the community :D
