I have an idea for a little game that I designed on paper and after creating the project and setting up the repo I just stare at the open editor. I’m not new to Unity but feel paralyzed on how to architecture this simple project. I just sit here trying to think how I should start it. Two days have gone by and I haven’t done anything. Does that happen to anyone else?
Start with your inputs.
Build up a sane folder structure and naming conventions.
Create your prototype scene and start developing your root prefab assets.
Get the proper stand in geometry/ art in there and build it in a way that it’s easily upgradeable in the future.
Get the most important stuff in and pototyped first. The next thigns that need doing will reveal themselves.
Put on some music that pumps you up and get to work.
Thanks, that’s actually looks like a useful process.
What works for me is to freestyle it in the beginning. I write lots of filthy, disorganized scripts with no regard whatsoever for decent programming principles. I start off with whatever I feel like doing the most, regardless of whether it’s important to the game. Everything is wrangled and jammed into place like some kind of hillbilly caravan park.
After a few days of that, feeling quite refreshed, I crack down and start organizing things. But the important thing is that the soul of the game has been spawned.
Cram your mind with the game. Don’t think about Unity at all.
Just fill your head with how you see the game being, imagine it as a finished experience.
Stay in that space, “play” the game in your mind as long as you can, and design aspects of it that solve problems you experience in this virtual play.
Do this as long as you can. Iterate as much as you can. Until you’re celebrating in the greatness of your design the thrill of the play.
Now write down your game design document that encompasses as much of this as you can (some of it you will forget, which is why you need to write it down immediately).
Then once you’ve transcribed the game’s description and design to paper, immediately go and have a shower, with no plan to do anything for a while.
Stand directly under the water, so it’s landing on your head. Shut your eyes and begin to imagine how you’d build your game in Unity.
It might take a while. But you’ll come out with a fully formed plan of attack.
You’ll need to write this down as quickly as you can, before you turn on the computer.
Procrastination can kill the workflow completely. Goodbye to a few of my projects…