My top tip: don't upgrade your unity version just because it's come out. Wait until you reach the end of a feature, make a source control branch (or back up), install the new unity version, upgrade your project and see what's broken. Unity upgrades nearly always bring breaking changes. If you're near the end of your project, you're unlikely to see much benefit from the new version, so it's cool to hang tight on an older version of it means your game is going to get completed. (Unless you know for certain there is something pivotal you need) Great video, thanks Jason, keep them coming!

My brother based his entire first project on a single goat asset he downloaded 😂

@iangraham6730

3 жыл бұрын

Ah stop 😂😂

@kerbalette156

3 жыл бұрын

Did he write “goat simulator”?

@runmycode4940

3 жыл бұрын

He likes goats 😁

@joesano9752

2 жыл бұрын

That was ba-aaa-aaa-aaa-aad.

I really like that last tip about prioritizing the creation of the core game loop. I have started a few projects, thinking ahead. Wanting to add this feature and that feature, this mechanic, this asset. But nowhere along the way are you able to press play and even properly experience what I want the game to be. However, my next project I didn’t even start with coding. I wanted to build a maze puzzle game where you manipulate blocks to open up paths to the end. I prototyped a level with wooden tiles with a few obstacles I wanted and played it like a board game. I brought it around with me and, after getting positive feedback on the engagement, I started building it with Unity. I started first with a maze and a player who could move around it. Then, I added the basic block that was a foundation for the blocks, one you could push around. Just having two blocks in my way, I completed the loop by resetting the level when you get to the end. It already felt fun to play around in. I think that’s what “finishing the loop” taught me the most. You can have an idea, that sounds neat in thought. But may once actually played. The scariest part about putting too much time aside for expansions in the core loop before making it is finding out all that work leads to a game that’s not good. It took me a week (in my spare time) to make the other obstacles, and it’s taking me more time to make the UI and menus. Imagining doing all that first prior to having a playable level and then finding out it wasn’t gonna work sounds awful and disheartening. Not to mention, hard to sit through and work on. I’m not the biggest fan of UI making, if I was doing that and still didn’t have a game to play, it would be hard to stay motivated. Maybe once I’m done with this one, I’ll pull out those old projects and finish up their loops quick. I may end up finishing those too.

Thanks for these tips, I'm new to unity and sometimes I really feel stuck and here you are coming from the heavens

@Unity3dCollege

3 жыл бұрын

Happy to help! I remember being new to unity myself. I'm very glad the community has grown a ton over the last 10 years :)

@syedsadiq8631

3 жыл бұрын

@@Unity3dCollege make mobile game in unity

@wolfeatsheep163

3 жыл бұрын

im also new to unity hit me up maybe we could collaborate

#7 speaks to me. In highschool I spent weeks on level editors for games I never finished. More recently I spent a couple months on an AI system and never actually got the rest of the game really working. Proud to say that I have learned from past mistakes, and also learned to better scope my projects, and am closing in on completing my first non-jam game after less than 2 months. Pretty much just polish at this point, but I definitely now understand that old game dev saying that the last 10% of the project is 90% of the work.

Great video, Jason. Thanks for the tips!

Great video, as always. Keep up the great work Jason. You really are by far the best game dev youtuber. Maybe make the number transition thing a little shorter the next time... but apart from that: great video. Thank you! Oh and that "Dont open"-Box is tickling my brain

importing assets into a temp project first is really great advice. I actually think I might use this strategy when creating new prefabs too. Build it in a temp project importing the assets I need and then exporting to my main project. Thanks Jason

I've done all of these. Thanks for sharing Jason, great tips.

Thanks so much Jason! Your advice is gold as usual ... Would love to hear your opinions on how exactly to split and separate core systems of a basic game (e.g. some arcade style project and how to set up and where to hook up systems for a simple UI, a main menu, some settings, load/save systems, main gameplay loop, etc). I tend to end up with monolithic blocks of code. Some general advice about when and how to use things like namespaces, partial classes, events over if-statements or general thoughts about organizing source code (e.g. where and how to declare fields for best performance) would be very much appreciated as well. Keep up the good work! You're one of my favorite KZread sources for a long time now (although I could not check out every single video). Best wishes!

Yeah, man. This was validating. I recently used your suggestion to use a separate sandbox project for testing new assets. I felt free to fully play around with the asset and didn't fear breaking the final project.

@gasparweb

3 жыл бұрын

Hows the workflow? Did you export the selected assets as unity packages?

@erikdewhurst8049

3 жыл бұрын

@@gasparweb I did a mix. There were things that I exported as packages. There were others I just installed all over again so I could see if I missed anything the first time around. Specifically, I used Cinemachines for the first time on a recent project. I installed it in a sandbox, played with it for 3-4 hours. Then I did it all over again in the main project. That gave me a chance to see all the parameters and options from a mind-set that wasn't focused on learning, but applying that learning to the needs of the project.

Thanks for your efforts, tips and methods to teach us game development Jason, it is much appreciated from everyone me being in the first place. Although sometimes I feel like I'm quite a bit late to start , you just fade in from the recommendeds and help me out

Synty Studios, Ork Framework, Game Kit Controller, Gaia, Horror Kit Fps, Opsive Character Controller. Pretty much just start from stratch when I hit a wall with all these.

For 6 - "Polishing systems before you have a gameplay loop." I think that there is also another side to this. Sometimes things just don't feel right until you polish them.

I am a new Unity game developer, I'm thinking of following tutorials on Udemy first and go step by step? Then I should create my own game? what do you all think?

I have been buying a lot of stylized assets and focusing what I am building around those as well as making a big world without making the fun parts first. I needed to hear all of this

Thank you for the HacknPlan recommendation, I was looking for a tool like this.

Apparantly it's only me who never created a game based on assets :) although some assets inspired me to make certain games which I never made eventually

#6 is super important IMO. Thanks for the video.

I'm currently building a game off of Tiny Dragons asset pack on the asset store. I realized a few days into working it that I had no idea what the actual gameplay loop was supposed to be. I had to backup and figure that out before I could make the game part of the game.

Once I found a spider with procedural animations. When I saw it climb on everything, in my head the game was 75% completed. You're welcome!

@OmegaF77

3 жыл бұрын

If I saw that I'd be 75% to Nope land.

Started with a medieval character with great animations and the ability to hot-swap armors and clothes. Unfortunately I couldn't match the art style myself and the artist moved on to greener pastures. Was stuck with this beautiful set of characters in a poly world. Still working on the project though haha

Thanks so much for all of your content Jason. You are the best creator in this niche by far, very professional. Aspiring to get into AR / VR dev and I look forward to the day when I can tell you that I made it!

You always give the best practical game dev advice thanks !

I feel like I am of the few developers here who can say that they were and still are too stubborn to buy an asset. I still would rather create the asset even if it exists. That's just the kind of dedication I have when it comes to pulling off what it is that I want.

@NukeCloudstalker

3 жыл бұрын

dedication or idioct, depending on the case. Why aren't you using your own engine?

@Thesupperals

3 жыл бұрын

@@NukeCloudstalker Good question. I kind of just don't know how or where to start honestly. I'm not the best at programming, but I'd definitely swap to godot if I knew a lot about it.

Number 2 . . Noted! 😂 . . Great advice, thanks for sharing Jason!

Oof that last one... I feel seen

@cic_studios

3 жыл бұрын

Same

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing.

About the second tip about building around an asset .i think that that its bad to build around an art asset like models or style or animations but its good to build around big functionality assets . for example in my current project i waned to build something really based on physics . so i started with puppet master and i am basing everything around it . if i had made my own functionality and then decided to implement the puppet master then the time required to make everything come together would be immense

Thanks for the video and I love your channel!! You talked about Core Game Loop: Would there be a specific order that you like to follow when you build a game?? Ex. Level design, Input System & Player Movement, Minion AI, Inventory, Multiplayer Network setup, etc Does it depend on your mood or do you have a strict order to what must be complished first??

A trivial mistake to make that can waste time and possibly break things: if you upgrade a package or install a new package, especially something that interacts with other things like the Input System, and then something isn’t working, don’t panic and start upgrading other things or rapidly changing things to try and fix it. Stop, restart the editor, and then if it still doesn’t work (but it probably will work), take your time figuring out what is broken and what needs to be fixed.

Number 3 was gold thanks!

Thanks for the great videos. I haven't done the asset thing in that order, but I've done it in the middle of a project. Everything was going fine, until I found this great asset that I forcefully jammed into the project. Since it required so much workarounds, re-fiddling with existing systems, it eventually broke so much and made adding stuff so overly complex and slowed down the workflow that I ended up abandoning the whole project

TYVM, picking up unity again and Im making all of these mistakes haha. I will add that I was reading a story from a dev who has 30 unity games published from over the years that have players and he said I think like 26% of the assets from the asset store he used ended being depricated or the authors abandon them, something like that. Definitely be mindful about the third party assets you are using

I may be the exception to the rule. I modeled this cool skelly boy for a Halloween game jam. While I was making him I thought it would be funny to turn on physics and watch his bones fly everywhere. I based the gameplay loop off of the player dyeing, and leaving behind a ghost to activate buttons, and whatnot.

2: yes I'm very guilty of this but I think if you choose a smaller asset with simple code that you can understand theres no problem with it. My most popular game was made with a 5$ wave shooter that i modified (and fixed) but the code was simple enough for almost anyone to understand. Of course making one from scratch is always better and just pulling a few scripts and models always works best.

Done a bit of that but was still learning well you're never done learning especially solo indie dev. but yeah pretty focused this time on the core loop even before watching although i think i will try and get as much of the coding done as possible before switching to a new scene for this particular game i think it will strengthen it.

Just started looking at the Unity Asset store and I 100% repeatedly wanted to make a game based on a great looking piece of art - with no idea what the game would be !!! Not sure if you warned against that in this video or one of your others. But just wanted to say that your advice was great and helped me stay focused on looking for art I need for the my current game and not be distracted by all the different beautiful art out there....

am a newbie this is my second year learning unity and C#.......i waste a lot of time learning and re-learning now i realize some time i should try to build a simple game on my own coz start making on your own game is the best way of learning

I have a question regarding the first tip you gave. I'm about to start a new project, and prior to seeing this video, I was so excited about thinking about my game, I started a trello and wrote out dozens and dozens of the systems that my game will need along with descriptions of each to say what they're responsible for (not specific methods, but a sentence or two outline saying what the system does). I know what I want the game to do/be about, and I have my game's story scripted out as well, so I'm wondering if you would consider that enough in terms of planning. I was thinking setting a system or two (or more) per week and having a schedule to force myself to work on these systems. I've been making games for about four years now, and I'm curious what you think as you've been doing this a lot longer than I have, and you've done this professionally as apposed to just a hobby like I'm doing (at least for now). Do you think my list of systems is enough planning. What else would you do in my situation?

This resonated with me pretty heavily tbh. Lately I've been obsessed with making a "retro style FPS", but this made me aware that my focus has been more on the aesthetic, as well as basically making a damned Quake clone, then actually introducing some more original mechanics first, THEN focusing on the aesthetic later on(which isn't really too hard to replicate either). Thanks as always Jason!!

lol tried to make a whole submarine game when I realised suimono had a cool underwater effect thanks jason now I feel better :)

ha number 1 i use to do that until i started joining game jams. Excellent vid Jason btw

That random world generator hit home. I've been mulling over an rpg-lite game and I was thinking about all the ways I could generate dungeons (my overworld would possibly be static). I've thought significantly more about generating the dungeons than the actual combat and magic systems, which would be my core gameplay. So, yeah.

super helpful man thx!

very good, simple but useful!!

point 6 is so true; the rabbit hole of over developing components rather than the game itself. Morale and time attrition ++

I switched from Trello to Hack'n'Plan just because it's really more suited to game design than Trello is. You can follow an Agile approach, plan out sprints, put things in design mode, etc. and it works great for a small team. No, I'm not affiliated with them I just find their system to be useful even for a one-man operation like me.

# 6 is an ABSOLUTE sink hole lol. I've been lost in some systems for days/ weeks at a time, only to realize that I have like one thing that its even applying to at the time. THEN , you add a few more things for this "system" to manage and thats when you realize that the system needs to be rebuilt because it was too focused and not really all that scalable lol

I got a challenge for you. Recreating the unlockable combo system from DMC5 or any hack and slash game in unity and the animator system. Seems simple. Just mute and unmute animations transitions at runtime. Expect the api need to do that is only in UnityEditor namespace. Looks like only way to do this is manual animations crossfade. You love to see this there is a better method

yeah when using trello or notepad++ to make a to-do list....I populate it then complete tasks from my memory *my mind* then later when I want focus I go to trello or notepad++ and I mark off all the things I've done and look at the things that I"ve forgotten or added while completing the tasks from my memory......I don't complete a task and then switch back and mark it off 1 item at a time I lose focus on what I"m doing if I try to do that. I also think its fine to complete my tasks that are on the todo list randomly and at other times in order. You know make a method to the madness. At any rate the to-do list is always growing as I complete each task and realize I need to add to the to-do list until finally I'm satisfied usually around version 1.3.5 thats 135 versions and 135+ backups .don't be afraid to take a backup and increment 0.0.1 to 0.0.2 I usually backup at the end of the day or after reaching some key milestone that I might want to return to if I mess up something going forward. He said he has an intial plan to build around .....my initial plan is usually a story line. You have to pretty much write a short story to build around. It can be 1/2 of a page. Think back to the days of Nintendo game manuals that came in the box. My favorite examples are ........ "all your base are belong to us" russian attack or Metroids story. --calmchess

Your second point hit me. I was planing to create a game around the asset from unity asset store's lunar sale (Top Down - Fantasy Forest). Now i'm in doubt. But... is not that look awesome

@Unity3dCollege

3 жыл бұрын

I love that forest pack and literally started an adventure game based on it for about 2 days before I realized what I was doing :)

@andrewbuturlakin8298

3 жыл бұрын

I would advise you to do something that I've recently started doing. When I come up with an idea for the game, I try to imagine how it should look like, what will be in the game, what style (pixelated, low-poly, etc.). Once I figure that out, I look for assets for everything I would want to have in my game, like: heroes/enemies/environment and other stuff, and if I manage to find different assets/asset packs that could fullfil the whole game while being in the same style, then, and only then I actually start considering if I should make this game.

Thank you Jason

Thanks for the tips and really motivating and learnings from your tips Can you please make the video for the making application in unity for ex: e-commerce adding apis etc.

How do you get ideas / inspiration for RPG enemies, Im not talking about balance, but more like which enemies should be included and what kind of abilities should they have etc. currently the "best" method I found it to "copy" ability ideas from other games, but Im wondering how other people do this.

Sneaky. You got me to like and comment, but you forgot to sneak the bell in lol. well played.

TLDR; How do you get inspiration for a very small/simple 3d game that's actually worthwhile? Or do you just have to experiment/prototype and discover something? I'm struggling to think of a unique game idea that's also possible to implement. Part of me wants to make an fps like turok or doom, something really straight forward that's been done time and time again. But then I have to remember that even something "simple" like that, a lot goes into it in terms of content and testing the game. So does that effort actually payoff all things considered. The other idea is to create something super small scale, but what could I make that's worth playing? I can't think of anything I would actually play. I want to make something 3d to get the c# experience, if I were to do 2d I would just go phaser or godot. Idk of anything I could make in 3d that I'd have the slightest fun playing. Maybe some little physics based thing, a puzzle, a very simple platformer. I can't think of the specifics though

I once wanted to make a game out of some pre-made mario kart stylish asset. So you not alone don't blame yourself so much :)

Thanks for this great tutorial, I recognize it, made the same mistake hundreds of times. Always the other way around, lol.

hey whats up, Jason here! is my favourite welcoming text on any channel

Definitely 2 and 3 for me... Any suggestions for finding assets that do match once we the basics in place? I always have trouble finding things that have a similar style, without breaking the bank anyways.

@ChristianSasso

2 жыл бұрын

Maybe you can look into the largest Synty packages? All the assets should make sense together, and even though they cost more than the smaller ones, they do provide you with thousands of props that you would need to find somewhere else (or make yourself..)

I also start with assets because I am not a designer and work alone. I actually have no other option. And then I choose the assets that make most of the game possible. Mostly from Synty. If I don't have any appealing models or textures, effects, etc., I quickly lose interest. Many of these things make the game interesting. so it happens that i often allow these assets to tempt me to deviate from the actual planning. So a vicious cycle.

There are systems to build specific types of game on the asset store. Is it healthly to use them as a beginner?

3:30 -> ALL kenney assets!

I have never started a project based on an asset, but I think besides all the great tips, to me the biggest downfall is underestimating the effort. Most indie game devs greatly underestimate the amount of effort it takes to make a polished, publishable game. How greatly? By thousands of percent. Reality is that a small team of 1-3 people with medium Unity experience can only do so much. Any decently looking game is likely to take at least 1 year with a small team of 5 people, with a constant effort. And that will likely bring you to some sort of an Alpha. If you don't LOVE your initial idea you passion momentum will run out sooner. You want multiplayer - double that team and add at least 3-6 months. Building a video game is the equivalent of you deciding to build a commercial aircraft in your backyard, out of spare parts. It's hard, complicated and it takes time. It takes years of experience only to understand how high to set your sights. Knowing your limits and capabilities is half the battle and this is where I see most indie devs ( including myself ) fail all the time.

Fun stuff was to create map from assets.. Spend a lot of time. After that I stuck with 3d animations for player.. So need to know a lot.. Design, Animations, Sounds, Code.

• Don't start a big project on a non-LTS editor release. • Never update an ongoing project to a new version of the editor unless there are severe Unity bugs affecting your built game.

@kaasronald3623

3 жыл бұрын

is this like old unity knowledge? I've been using it for about a year now (after using other engines for over 10 years) and unity 2020 seems pretty stable to me every update. I'm using source control to roll back but I updated like 40 times and nothing ever broke. game is getting quite big as well. any specific type of things that stopped working for you?

I guess I did not really break the basing the game around a single asset but my entire game does revolve around a node editor asset I found called xNode. I use the asset to design stories for an interactive fiction game. It's more of a developer tool I use to make the game. Without it though my game would not work.

Tried to make a horror game based off a single cool old Victorian house asset. Very very bad practice and I learned a lot about why using a single model for all your level design was not... ideal.

2:26 This is why I like being a 3d Artist, I just make my own. Or Recreate what I have seen with motivation, also I have seen this done too many times, and you can tell when the creator did so lmao.

@danieljohnson574

3 жыл бұрын

Hi Justin, I'm a coder. Want to build a game together?

Started laughing at the last one. Yep, that's exactly my last hobby project. I'll organize myself a bit when I decide to tackle it again. It's so much fun though! (mostly...sometimes it's just stubbornness)

I like your saying, "Get it fun, get it done" I'm guilty of 4 and 6, I would add, don't try to create a game around half baked systems that are too advanced for your skillset, that are not designed for a fun game loop. I'm also guilty of that. I'm not guilty of any others because I feel disingenuous making something off of someone else's work. The main reason is cause I have zero budget for assets. My biggest problem is with learning things I had no idea I was going to be learning and having to dedicate serious time to learn and get good at, animations, level design, art in general, sound and music design, again cause I have no budget. I've learned as a tip, "Keep it simple" doesn't mean dumbing things down but keep things out so that it's fun even bare bones then start polishing once you've got an actual game on your hands.

Im using Unity 2019.4.19f making an educational app for android. With a Menu and 8 buttons to different pages, 4 to education and 4 buttons for diverse pages. Pressing on one of the buttons for education user gets to another page to learn about different words for example. In one Page there is like 1-100 different buttons that have a Text on them and a sound file. is it possible to not store this sound files inside the app, but inside some kind of database or online storage? Or do i have other options u can advise me? Are there any tutorials/guides availabe to do this? My main focus is that the users using my app wont use my app without internet causing me not too get less or zero admob income.

Can you please do a video on big multiplayer networking?

Hello, I would like to know if you could make a video explaining how to install vscode + unity + intellisense. I've been dealing with the problem for weeks and I can't find a solution. Help. I want to start developing but I have this limitation :(

Number 6 deserves a huge "Like"!

Personally, I'm not sure how much I agree with the first two points. For the first point I can see if someone builds way too much with out a plan just wastes time. And I can see how with the second point can lead to tunnel vision in the development process. But for the first point, if you don't really have any kind of ideas you want to build out and you are just trying to have some fun to get inspiration on what to build, I don't see anything wrong with messing around in your project. And for the second, again along the lines of you don't know what to do, ignoring a whole section of inspirational input seems like a waste. I've done both of these, but neither for the same project. I would recommend, and what I have done, is when you find that inspiration walk away from what you have and then build a plan. Just be aware of the pitfalls that can come about while doing it this way.

for the last one I agree but in the same time I don't! I agree because core mechanics are more important that just details I disagree because indie developers would be bored of something like programming for example so the could switch to level design and so on!

Lol yeah I spent the last year or so just practicing solid techniques. Super optimized and customizable. Ended up with... a random map generator xD

Corgi Engine (and Top-Down engine from the same dev) really makes you feel like you can make an entire game with that alone. Then you remember games need graphics and sounds...

I am in #2 situation every time I see a good asset on opengameart :D

I see... You are working on Halflife 3! Will you make live streaming as well? :)

I haven't tried to build an entire game from a single asset before... But i've done worse! I've tried to build an entire game / game engine ... from scratch... with NO PLAN... based on a new API. Back when Direct2D was first introduced into the UWP. i thought. "Oh i should play with that!" and then... "Well that's pretty cool... i wonder if i could make this sprite move around." and 6 months later I'm teaching my self Differential Calculus and writing a spatial hashing collection for a physics engine. that project never got finished. but i did end up re-using the idea, making a plan and starting again in unity.

I’m expert at #6, I spend so much time on those things and never get anything done

what is best system specs should be

#2 happens to me whenever Kenney releases a new asset pack

Number 5 has kicked my butt with DOTS

I don't like "art" assets. There is the huge risk to get several projects looking the same. How many times we saw a Sunny land asset used in a 2D platform game? It's awesome to learn, terrible idea to use in a real project. That's why I prefer to use some "tools" asset like the Rainbow, Editor console pro etc.

The asset was Winter Forest Environment! It was a mistake indeed.

Lvl12 says: Talk to people you think are similar to you, but it can be a little difficult to find such people My tip: instead of 12 years of experience in game development, it is better to start building a team and do it as a team (something that even professionals do after years)

Uff ur so right i also have the tipp 1 ishuuu :D

Guilty of 2 and 3 "every time I go through the assets store I find stuff I want to make a game about or I do this with KZreadr

hi sir big fan of yours.

@Unity3dCollege

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks! :)

Does someone knows how to duplicate the Druidstone movement system in Unity ??

I guess #1 would be enough for most cases :)

I think one of my biggest faults is leaving too many of my projects in the prototype stage for too long as I end up abandoning them for something new and shiny. Maybe I'm just a magpie in disguise xD. I think alot of us game devs have created amazing projects but they'll never see the light of day cause no-one was there to point it out to us.

Can you please make a tutorial on how spaceships fly in space

#3 was me i had to get a character controllers... i couldnt get my camera and player movement.

Yeaaaa the last one is the last 4 years of my life in a nutshell lol

Clickbait-y title, Jason, but it's an important topic.