While it wasn’t the standard when video games first became extremely popular in the 80’s, now almost every game with a jump is expected to have a double jump. Sometimes they have to be unlocked later, but nonetheless, show up eventually. Here’s how we can code one in ourselves.
In order to learn the double jump, we must first be able to jump. You can use whatever technique you feel comfortable using. For this example, we are going to use a Character Controller in a 3D game setting.
First, create your Player as a Capsule, Cube, or any object you…
I know when playing a video game, most people are not happy to see a loading screen. They are slow and you just want to play. Unfortunately, sometimes they are necessary. If you are someone starting out in game development, making 3D environments and realizing that loading the next scene can be a little slow, it’s time to learn how to add a loading screen yourself.
Normally when loading a scene in Unity, you would have a script that has something along the lines of ‘SceneManager.LoadScene(2)’ or whichever scene in your Build Settings you are looking to load. When a…
The Singleton Pattern allows us to make an instance that can be accessed from anywhere. While not specific to game development, that is certainly the type of example we are going to use.
Since this pattern allows access from anywhere, it is often used for a manager class. In our example, we are going to create a GameManager script. You could also create an empty Game Manager object to place the script on.
First, at the top of the script where you would normally declare the variables, you are going to make a private static instance. The type is going…
We have worked on some AI enemies spotting you out in a stealth game. There are other things that can blow your cover, however. Let’s make some security cameras that could give the players some challenge as well.
As far as the visual aesthetic, you can do what you like. For our purposes today, we will have two cones representing the area where the player can be caught, which are children of two camera game objects on some pillars. These cones have on a material in their Mesh Renderers to have them be transparent. …
You have some AI enemies that are moving to their waypoints and following a path properly. That is a great first step. If you want to reach the Metal Gear level or any other stealth game, you’ll have to make sure those enemies can see the player.
When we say we are going to give the enemy AI sight, we are really just going to use one of the basic Unity tools we have learned and manipulate it to seem like the seem that way. In actuality, we are going to use a trigger collider. …
In a 3D world, you can add the proper colliders to all objects in the scene to create realistic obstacles. Even with this done, an object using code to get from Point A to Point B will not know those obstacles are there. With Unity’s 3D Navigation system, we can quickly fix that.
For this example, we’ll have a 3D scene set up with furniture or other obstacles in a room. We’ll also need a floor to represent where the objects could ‘walk’. …
To make a full cinematic experience, there must be both audio and visuals to complete the scene. In Unity’s Timeline, you can add audio and cinema tracks together. Once you learn the tricks to properly line them up, you’ll be making cutscenes, or even full films, in no time.
If you have your assets ready, you can make an empty game object in your scene and add a Playable Director. This is made easier if you have the Timeline window open and hit the ‘Create’ button while your new object is highlighted.
When building a cutscene in Timeline, you can use dolly tracks, audio tracks, animations previously created and more, but you can also animate objects within Timeline. Let’s take a look at that now.
In the Timeline window, one of the tracks you can create is an Animation Track. All you have to do is go to the ‘+’ symbol and add one.
If you have put in the time to study up on Cinemachine and Timeline in Unity, you most likely saw just how great these tools can be. It is these tools that have allowed developers to make amazing cutscenes and even award winning films within the Unity engine. Let’s take a look at one more trick to help your directing skills in Unity.
Introducing the Dolly Track. Many times when you see a high speed shot on the silver screen, maybe following a car chase or someone running for their lives, it is not just a camera man following as…
At this point in your game developer career, you are most likely starting out with a few arcade protoypes or other projects. With this, you may think that you are not ready or have any need to learn to make a cutscene. Maybe you don’t need one for a giant RPG just yet, but there are many uses that come knowing how to make one. Unity’s Timeline is the answer.
Unity’s Timeline window works similarly to the Animation window. Create an object in the Hierarchy that you want to hold the Playable Director. …
