Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Referenced by Pannam Imaging

Pannam Imaging did an article on the Top Traits of Successful Product Designers and Engineers.




In this article I was one of the referenced experts and spoke on the value of AB Testing and the fact that designers can't guarantee how well something will work.  Then it goes in to how many designers/engineers will follow Agile principles to deal with that.  I.e. Embrace change, build expecting it.

You don't need to be a designer or engineer to get value from Agile.  Go read the article:

http://www.pannam.com/blog/top-traits-of-product-designers-and-engineers/#Sagmiller

November 14th, Learn about RTS's in Unity 3D @ MKE DOT NET

I'm officially a speaker at the MKE DOT NET conference in Milwaukee, WI on Saturday, November 14th.  The topic?  Real Time Strategy games in Unity 3D.  

MKE DOT NET

If you've been following this blog, you've seen my RTS work for Lynda.com.  I've completed an RTS for a training course and I'm working on improving it now.  That course will cover  multiple AI players, battles with explosions, unit and building creation, mini map, unit/building actions, unit/building information, resources, and more.  




As a taste of what is to come, I'll be speaking about the journey of creating an RTS in Unity.  The choices I made, the general order of creating things, how I was able to simplify areas down and of course, *some* of the code.  There will also be open Q&A.  

This course was a tall order, how to get an RTS broken down into not only 4 hours of coding, but 4 hours of teaching, so the viewer understands why we are coding and tips & tricks along the way.  The challenges were big, but the payoff has been great.  

I really hope to see you all there.  Register early for cheaper tickets.



Saturday, September 19, 2015

Free: Learn C# & Unity in Warrenville, IL Sun Oct 4th

(Update, this will be in Naperville now, as I have agreed to combine this meetup with SDC (a group with 1370 members) so we might have a very active meetup this time.  :) http://www.meetup.com/SoftDev/events/224880708/ )


I'm teaching again, and this time its for anyone local to Warrenville, IL.



Learn Unity, a popular 3D game engine and also C#, one of the top languages for business and game programming.  Its meant for beginners, though if you already have experience in any kind of game development or programming, it will just make it easier to learn.

Come by and try it out.  I'm hosting this for free at the Warrenville Public Library.

http://www.meetup.com/Warrenville-Game-Dev-Design-Meetup/events/224585189/

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Lynda RTS Update 6: Wanna try it?

There are bugs in this version, and the AI is SUPER AGGRESSIVE.  One bug, if you have something selected that is destroyed, then you can no longer select anything else.   (I'll fix that in pass 3)  It is highly unlikely you will defeat the AI.  if you do, PLEASE SEND A SCREENSHOT.  I would love to see that.

http://az806498.vo.msecnd.net/general/Unity3D/LyndaRtsPass2/index.html


The odds are against you...

Hold Shift to select multiple things.  Only the last item selected gets actions.  Right click on the map to send selected drones to that target.  refresh the page to start over.


Keep in mind this is only intended to be a starter.  It shows how to build the AI, but there is very little AI in it.  It shows how to do the tech tree, but there is very little tree in it.  By all means, I would love to get your comments on what improvements I should add to it on Pass 3.

Since I am creating this for Lynda.com, it will be a training guide for people with C# knowledge and some Unity to learn how to create RTS games.  What is most annoying or needs improvement.  I need your feed back to make Pass 3 better.

 - Thanks!

Lynda RTS Update 5: Explosions, Battles, Pass 2 complete.

(and another angle)


Buildings are blowing up, Units are blowing up, sparks and smoke everywhere.  Effectively, the game is complete.  (For these parts of the tests I have map hiding off.  I.e. I can see them all, which allows me to test the world and AI)  Here is a video of that happening.


No sound as usual.  :)

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Lynda RTS Update 5: AI Complete...

So I've finished the AI for the RTS.  At least as much as I had planned for the AI section(s).  The AI can choose between doing nothing, creating a base, creating a drone and sending a squad to attack.

After having let the AI run for a few minutes, I looked back and found it had developed a large base (about 15 bases) and had about 30 drones sent in to attack player 1.


On the mini map, you can see that the red player has expanded to cover about a third of the map.  Battle code is not in place, so it pretty much just swarms and multiplies.

The AI is a weighted list, that is evaluated about every 0.5 seconds (editable) and has a confusion of 0.   The confusion makes the AI less smart, at least less smart than it was programmed.

The AI code is a little more complicated than I would like, so I've already evaluated I'll take a third pass at the project, to help simplify it further and clean up the architecture a little more.

Assets Request:  I'm still hoping for a couple models to replace what I have.  If anyone is up for it, I would be happy to showcase your portfolio in the training videos.
 - Check out this link for more details.

 - Thanks!

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Lynda RTS Update 4: Buildings and Units are in place!

In preparation for my RTS class for Lynda.com, I've been working up different features.  In this case, I finished the ability for drones to add Command Bases.  And then for Command Bases to add more drones.  They cost, you have to have enough credits to buy them, and command bases start earning credit.



Please keep in mind, that as I'm building this, its not just haphazardly assembling the pieces.  I've been developing, redeveloping and refining every step of the way to keep the code small, simple, and easy to teach in isolated segments.  When this is done, I'll have a really solid Unity class that I hope will be really popular.


Again, if any designer is interested, I could use some better graphics/models.  :)  I could really use a far better looking 2D HUD, a drone, though the drones not too bad and a command base, which I *really* want to replace.  So far I've created all the artwork myself.  Finally figured out how to pain in blender (sort of) and extract the art work with the model (also sort of)  :).

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Presenting on Unity at Veredus Group, Chicago


I'll be giving a presentation at Veredus in Chicago, on Wednesday, September 23rd at 6PM, covering an introduction to Unity 3D.  In the presentation, I'll reproducing a simple physics based game, commonly known as Hasbro's Jenga (tm).  The address is 200 N LaSalle, Level 3, Chicago, IL

The demo will show how to navigate Unity, take advantage of existing features (such as physics) and how to tie in C# code.

If you are ahead of the curve, you could also check out my Lynda.com course on Unity 5 2D Procedural Terrain.  In November, I'll be presenting on Real Time Strategy games in Unity 5 in Milwaukee, at MKE DOT NET.

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Lynda RTS, with the maps completed

I've been preparing the course for the Lynda RTS. I've simplified the map work down to about 7.5 minutes of class time. VERY easy now. I'm using the navigation and camera controls to move around in this video.



I'll be developing and simplifying the info panel at the bottom center next.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Unity 5 2D Procedural Terrain is Live!

I've been working with Lynda.com to produce an online training program for Unity 5, focusing on a light weight, real time infinite 2D terrain system.

 

Click here to learn all the tricks for making this yourself.  :)  The terrain has a form of biomes, animated water, cities being laid out with paths and neighborhoods.  you can even walk into some of the buildings which each have unique layouts in this never ending world.

Best of all is that this world is not generated in "chunks" like mine-craft, where you stand there and watch as pieces of the world load up.  No, in this case, the entire area around you is generated in real time, so you don't have to wait.


Cities are one of my favorite parts, because you can see how to get roads and pathways through it with ease, and give towns more natural feels from what is pretty random in nature.  Above is an example where I bumped up the ratios (something doable from the IDE with this project) so lots of cities are built up.