Hello everyone. I’m a new game developer who is also new to Unity. I’m putting together a small team of like 3 guys to develop a Unity game. My original idea was to do a Zelda-style, A Link To the Past inspired game but with really cool anime artwork. I am a very good 2d artist and i have designed a game around that concept that i think will bring a fresh take to the adventure rpg or what ever gamers call zelda these days. Ive been thinking about going with 3d as of late after looking at what is possible with Unity. What do you guys think? I need advice. Is it wise to jump into 3d or should i stick with 2d? Like i said…i have no game development experience beyond learning some core concepts of C# and my buddy is in college for programming and loves it.
My goal is to put together a prototype demo that i can show off and try and build a community through social media before i try crowd funding. What say you?
I would have to say that if you’ve never built a game before, stick with 2D instead of adding the learning of 3D modeling and animation on top of the task of building a game. Unity is fully capable of producing a 2D game, and has many published already.
You may want to take a look at some of the kits already on the asset store for handling the backend of the 2D system before thinking about rolling your own. It might also be wise to start with a few smaller projects within whatever environment you settle on, to get a handle and a bit of experience in the production of a game before you take on the big project you have in mind. Just a few thoughts of mine, but either way, I wish you luck!
If a person just can’t bring themselves to start small enough, oldschool Zelda is a decent compromise. The basic idea is simple enough, and you can get features working one a time with a clear progression:
Movement on a plane
Walls
Map areas
Mobs
Weapon swinging
Damage to mobs
Damage from mobs
Talking to people
It gets a little more complicated when you start on the inventory, but they should have quite a bit of dev experience by that point and can work through it.
Yes, I still recommend they start with Pong. But some are stubborn, and they just might be stubborn enough to make it through Zelda.
I have to add a question: Do you really need crowdfunding? It sounds to me that you are already able to finish the project with what you’ve got.
People tend to look at crowdfunding and think “Hey! Free money”, but things are a little more complicated than that. One reason is that you’ve made a public promise. You’ve sold your product, meaning that you’ll have to deal with both a promised delivery date and the expectation of your backers.
Being able to deliver “when it’s done” is a luxury and you should remember that by accepting external funding you will give up that possibility. If you decide to go for funding: have a good reason for it.
I would stick to 2D for your solo effort. You can still use Unity for the project, just keep things limited to simple quads for your visual representation of characters. Incorporating a little 3D into the environment is a possibility, play around with it and see what you like.
The setting you would need to tweak in Unity is the camera. Set it to “Orthographic” for true 2D, and leave it with its normal settings for 3D support. Both are viable options for the game type you are suggesting. You should also be able to use Unity’s built-in collision system for basic movement.
So if i stick with doing a 2d title, would you guys recommend using Unity on its own or purchasing the 2dtoolkit? Ive checked out the 2d toolkit and i like what it has to offer. Im just wondering does it still allow me to tap into everything Unity has to offer like use of 3d objects and lighting etc?
First, you need to learn about game development. Read on the internet, buy a book, or join a gaming group(that’s what I did) and speak to indies and professionals alike. Get an idea on how to do it, create a game design document, and ask for help.
As for 2D or 3D, it’s preferrance; they are both equally difficult to do and have their own challenges.
Well i was gonna go with crowd funding simply because i dont have much experience on my own building games. I an design, create and draw, but programming and modeling are not my thing. I do understand the basic principals of programming but i thought it would be a better idea to pay a few people to come on board and help create this game. Since i dont have the funds on my own if thought id turn to crowd funding. I guess it all depends on how the game begins to shape up. Im in the very early stages right now. Im about to move in to conceptual design while a buddy of mine is playing around with Unity. Hes actually in school for programming.
A two-person team is enough for what you’re trying to make. In fact, adding more than that can bring more problems than it solves, especially with your lack of experience. While i do understand your reasons for wanting to use crowdfunding, it is kind of like swatting a fly with a shotgun. If you’re a little creative and make good use of free and cheap assets (the asset store is your friend), you can fill in the blanks without spending more than a few dollars. For some things, like modelling, you could probably learn it quicker than you’d expect. Since you have the artistic skills, it shouldn’t be terribly hard to get into making proper models. Blender is free and powerful enough for anything you might need.
If you really find yourself in a deadlock and simply cannot make the game good without proper funding, well, at least you cut out a lot of the expenses along the way. I want to make it clear that i’m not saying you should never use crowdfunding, but you should give the easier alternatives a shot before you do.
Excellent advice and thank you. I actually started playing around with Blender and i made a cup. lol. It wasnt that hard just time consuming so im sure i could learn to make a good looking character model. I guess when it comes to crowd funding i would only use it once i got to the point that i knew my game was something special. Something that no one else was offering and i knew my small team could not make the game that we really want with out the proper financial backing. More artist, programmers etc. First things first though. I believe we have a strong concept and we will take it from there. Thanks for all the advice. It is really helping me out alot.
Don’t forget that Minecraft became a hit while it was still a solo project
Remember that additional staff only goes so far. You might be able to squeeze out 10%-20% higher quality with a full team, but at the end of the day this is only relevant if you are competing directly with a similar product (BF vs CoD for example). Make your game unique or just plain fun to play and it won’t matter. After all, who is going to notice that your game is 20% less awesome than the hypothetical supergame you would have made with a full studio? It doesn’t even exist!
True. There was nothing else on the market like Journey. The game had pretty much no enemies, no voices and no real objectives but was absolutely brilliant! Good advice. Thanks. Your a big help
It’s kind of like me going to crowd funding to start a career as a choir singer. Sure, it’s not totally impossible for me to find success in that arena, but right now I can’t sing at all and I haven’t yet invested any time into doing so. What possible reason do people have to back me? And if they do, how can I possibly be in a position now to know what to ask for, how I am going to satisfy the backers, and so on?
This is a really good point, especially considering that the hypothetical supergame that doesn’t exist will inevitably be a thing anyway. I don’t mean that it will end up existing, I mean you’ll end up chopping or changing features and come up with ideas that you can’t implement such that the game you end up making isn’t the supergame you envisioned in your head. You can never make 100% of what you want because your brain comes with with new things to want way faster than you could ever possibly implement them.
