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Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Setting Up A Unity Project


     Taking what I learned from other projects into account, I'm making a Unity project that won't fall apart when I move things around. A lot of things went wrong with TriGrid and Candy Shop Catch when I would delete a script or move files into more organized folders. I put all the things I could possibly need in place (as empty folders and scripts) so that I can try this new style of development. 

    I want to be able to test out new ideas for the game as I come up with them. My usual method is writing a full design document before even starting whereas the document for this one is an evolving work in progress as I play around with different ideas until settling for the one that will result in the best product.

If you're interested in the specifics of what I have setup, read on.


     I have a new dedicated Unity folder for the games I'll be making from here on out. My old projects are being locked away to make room for the new and help me access Unicorn Quest files more quickly. 



     Of all the files in my testing folder, animation studio and mega mockup are the most important. I make new sprites with those and drag them into Unity to test how they look in-game. This is a much faster and appropriate way of testing animations than flipping through the image files quickly.

     A big difference between this project and my older ones is the wariness of file size. Unicorn Quest is a big game, but I need it to fit on most people's crowded phones. To minimize the final game's size I'll be getting rid of demo assets, avoiding duplicate sprites, using as few animation collections as possible, using as many sprite collections as possible, compressing audio, and enlarging small sprites in-game to make them seem big.

     In terms of code, this will be my most organized ever. If I plan to build other games from this one, I need dynamic code that works smoothly when altered on the fly. In a way, I'm making my own engine on top of Unity. An RPG engine I'll be using for a lot of games and will be building on over the years.

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