Game development with Unity3D

Jordi Linares. UPV. Campus dAlcoi. Spain

Personal profile

Jordi Linares

jlinares@dsic.upv.es

http://jordilinares.tk @jordilinares

Short CV

Game developer of 8 bit games in the 80s Phd. in Computer Science (Computer Graphics) 9 years experience developing computer graphics applications Lecturer at the Departamento de Sistemas Informticos y Computacin of the Campus dAlcoi of the Universitat Politcnica de Valncia Current technical manager and programmer of iOS/Android game

Introduction to game engines

Game market is in one of its best moments In addition to the traditional platforms (desktop, consoles), the new mobile platforms (especially iOS and Android) are a new huge market Game incomings is becoming greater than lm industry

Introduction to game engines

The new mobile platforms offer the chance to develop successful games with low resources (small teams, some months of work)

Introduction to game engines

A lot of platforms and development frameworks

Desktop (PC, Mac) Web Mobile platforms (iOS, Android, WP7) Consoles (Wii, Xbox, PS3, PSP, Nintendo DS etc.)

That makes game development troublesome

Why a game engine?

Is it possible to democratize game development?

Using a game engine

Consequences

Positives: less development complexity, multi-platform, less costs and development time, less initial training etc. Negatives: dependency, not be able to reach the limits of the device, difculties in front of non-implemented features, high economical cost etc.

What a game engine should offer

A powerful editor: 3D scenes, importing multi-format resources, scripts, animations, 2D and 3D, GUI, game preview, input manager, sound management etc. Efcient script engine Advanced physics and rendering engine Others: multi-platform distribution, multi-platform editor, particle system, terrain editor, LOD, version control system, plugins, editor extension through scripting, complete docs, third party add-ons, affordable price etc.

Why Unity3D?

Because it makes possible most of the previous requirements The game engine with more developers and games of the moment

Why Unity3D?

A free basic version in order to create games for PC/Mac/Web (using its own plugin) Editor available for Windows and Mac It allows iOS and Android in a reasonable unique payment (no royalties) Its Pro version has also no royalties

Why Unity3D?

It also allows Wii, PS3, Xbox (other future platforms are Flash, WP7 etc.) Powerful editor and development framework Development framework is based on Mono Project (the open source implementation of .NET), allowing JavaScript, C# and Boo (we will use C# because its fantastic features) The most popular game engine, with AssetStore and many third party addons

Why Unity3D?

Similar engines :

UDK (http://www.udk.com) -> PC, iOS Corona SDK (http://www.anscamobile.com/corona) -> 2D Shiva3D (http://www.stonetrip.com) Torque3D (http://www.garagegames.com/products/torque-3d) Hero Engine (http://www.heroengine.com) -> MMO Big World Technology (http://www.bigworldtech.com) -> MMO Trinigy (http://www.trinigy.net) Cry Engine (http://mycryengine.com) -> PC, consolas

Other alternatives: OGRE, Cocos, GameSalad, etc.

Important websites

http://unity3d.com http://answers.unity3d.com http://forum.unity3d.com http://www.unifycommunity.com

Structure of the course

Unit 1. Introduction to Unity3D Unit 2. Basic elements of Unity3D Unit 3. Scripting Destoy Stones example