Need to ask the forums something before me and my friends start our new project.

Hey guys, me and my friends are currently making a game similar to Slender just so we can understand the basics of Unity. Our next plan is too move right into a game we’ve been talking about for quite a while.

We’re planning to make our own homage to classic top-down apocalyptic RPG shooters like Fallout 1 and 2 and Wasteland. We’ve extensively played all of them and we’ve got our ideas pinned down but before we continue on making our project we thought we should find out some more stuff about making a big game.

First of all, we don’t do this professionally, we just picked up on Unity and making games after I saw a presentation of Unity at my work experience so we don’t have much money. I’ve noticed a lot of games, even small ones require a lot of money to get going. Like I said, we aren’t getting paid for this and we usually summarize everything so far during lunchtimes at school. Would we need money to get our game going? It’s a silly question I know but I think we should find out before we go any further.

Second, we plan to do the game top-down with turn based combat much like Fallout 1 and 2 with action points granted each turn so you can make a limited amount of moves each turn. We plan to have 2 constant AI partners and we want the game to shift turns between the 2 AI, yourself and your enemies. We aren’t scripting experts so we don’t really know if this is possible with just basic Unity scripting. Could we do this with Unity?

Third, our game isn’t going to be like the Angry Bots game that comes with Unity in a way that you can’t move on every inch of the field. We’ve thought of there being “hexagon tiles” that players can stand on. Can we layer our field out to do such a thing (no stacking, partial cover) with Unity?

Fourth, our combat will be turn based like said before but the chance of hitting someone is determined by a percentage which is affected by numerous factors (standing over partial cover or full cover, distance, skill with weapon). Does Unity allow this?

Fifth, our current game is just an experiment with a AI constantly following you in a building. Our building has been done in Sketch Up Pro so our buildings aren’t very detailed at all. We’ve got Blender but honestly the program is just such a pain to understand even after watching tutorials on it. What are some good character modelling/building making programs out there?

Sixth, our whole plan of talking to civilians in the Wastelands are entirely done in text. We plan to have text messages pop up above characters heads and responses done in a little box at the bottom of the screen. Can this be done in Unity?

Two last things, this is pretty stupid but if we were to just play a guitar or some instruments and record it on an iPhone or something, we could use it as background music. And how big should we make the game if we plan to charge maybe $5-$15 AUD for our game?

There’s only 3-4 of us working on this so it’ll probably take a few months to get it done. If someone hasn’t declared this as a tl:dr and has actually read this and gives us some answers, you’ll be high-fived from the heavens.

  1. Money is always helpful, whether it pays for art assets or pays the rent while you make your own. Can you do it for free? Yes, but you have to be able to do everything. Art, animation, audio, level design, mechanics, scripting, story… possible with 3-4 people if they have complimentary skill sets. Also if you expect to develop for the iPhone/iPad, you’ll need to contend with the Apple Developer Network.

  2. Yes. Check out the following tutorials: http://www.youtube.com/InsurgentXdotcom. While they are based on a Final Fantasy style turn-based combat, the concepts are all there.

  3. Yes. Unity Answers handles this question fairly extensively: Hex Grid Map Implementation.

  4. Yes. See Answer #2 above.

  5. Blender seems to be at your price point is regards to Question #1. I would suggest a division of labor with one member of your team learning the modeling/animation software of their choice.

  6. Yes. GUI Scripting Guide

Last Thing 1) I don’t see a question. Game audio can be quite complex and is often more than just a background MP3 of a guitar.

Last Thing 2) At a $5-$15 price point I would expect it to look and play great and have extended replayability.

Please take these words of advice: You’ll need more than a few months. Take time to learn the tools, work through some tutorials, ask questions, and start by creating a less ambitious game, something you can build on to make that dream game.

Best of luck to you!