How to Make a Video Game

Introduction to Video Games

Many people play games, but not many people think about how they're made. All modern games are built on top of a game engine, which is collection of code and tools to help speed up the process. In addition, a tremendous amount of effort goes into game design, which is the process of deciding how a game should be played. 5 steps

• What is a Game? 4:13
• What is a Game Engine? 2:58
• Introduction to Games 3 questions
• Install Unity 7:51
• Install Unity 3 questions
• Extra Credit Using paper cut-outs and a writing utensil, you can play test game concepts before writing any code. Many game designers will create "paper mockups" of games, because it's easy to iterate on an idea quickly.Design a simple game and create a paper mockup. Even if you're creating an action-oriented first-person game, it may be helpful to design levels from a top-down perspective and navigate them with a placeholder (like a coin, for example). These types of exercises can help you visualize the mechanics of your game before doing any intense programming.

The Unity Editor and Scene Setup

The Unity game engine includes an editor interface for manipulating game assets and placing them into 3D spaces called scenes. After importing some premade game assets, you'll learn how to arrange them in a scene and setup the Unity project for coding. 9 steps

• The Unity Editor Interface 4:57
• Setup the Project 6:24
• The Unity Interface and Project Setup 4 questions
• Navigating the Scene View 6:47
• Place Assets in the Scene View 11:18
• Place Assets in the Scene View 4 questions
• Position the Camera 6:55
• Image Effects and the Asset Store 8:47
• Setup the Camera 4 questions
• Extra Credit Image effects have a huge impact on the final look of a game. Try modifying the image effect settings on the camera, or add some new image effects to see how they change the look of the game.

Player Input and Cameras

Unity uses a programming language called C#. After you've been given an introduction to C#, you'll learn step-by-step how to make the player move around the screen, and how to make the camera follow the player. 13 steps

• Program Games with C# and Unity 8:49
• Programming Games 4 questions
• C# Variables and Classes 8:32
• Gather Player Input 7:20
• Move the Player with Animation 12:54
• Moving the Player 4 questions
• Comments 4:35
• Quaternions 2:54
• Create a Target Rotation 9:10
• Rotate the Player Towards the Target 11:12
• Quaternions 3 questions
• Make a Follow Camera 12:52
• Make a Follow Camera 4 questions
• Extra Credit Try changing some of the values for the player's movement or the follow camera. For example, you could make the follow camera move towards the player more slowly, or move towards the player more quickly. Similar to the way auto manufacturers spend a lot of time refining the "handling" of a car, tweaking small aspects like player movement and camera movement can have a huge impact on the "feel" of a game.

Pickups

Game designers often refer to the items that a player collects during the game as pickups. A pickup could be an item that enhances the abilities of the player character -- like a powerup. Or it could just be an object that the player collects for points. In our game, as the player collects each fly, one point will be added to the player's score. 7 steps

• Script the Fly Movement 10:32
• Script the Fly Pickup 7:55
• Add Pickup Particles 9:31
• Scripting Pickups 5 questions
• Create the Pickup Spawner 9:02
• Spawn Pickups Randomly 13:14
• Spawning Pickups 4 questions
• Extra Credit Sometimes when the flies are first spawned, the frog will immediately collect a fly at the start of the game because a fly spawns in the same position of the frog. This could give the player an unfair advantage.Try modifying the fly spawner script to prevent flies from spawning in the same position as the frog. This may be more challenging than it sounds!

Score, Enemies, and Game State

Unity has a robust user interface system that allows for screen overlays like score counters, menus, loading bars, and more. After you've created a score counter, you'll learn how to add an enemy to the game that chases the player. Finally, you'll tie everything together and manage the game's state. 9 steps

• Add the Score Counter UI 8:29
• Script the Score Counter 7:21
• Add a Score Counter 5 questions
• Create Enemy Navigation and AI 12:54
• Enemy Navigation and AI 4 questions
• Monitor Player Health 12:14
• Manage the Game State 12:51
• Add a Start and End 16:10
• Manage the Game State 6 questions

Game Audio

Over the next several videos, you'll learn how to add sound to the game using code and Unity's robust set of audio tools. Sounds can heighten a game's immersion, and can even impact the gameplay. For example, bird calls and bird footsteps from off screen can give the player a hint about where the bird might be located. 7 steps

• Add Background Sound and Music 7:37
• Script a Random Sound Player 14:00
• Play Sounds with Scripts 12:44
• Audio Scripting 5 questions
• Additional Audio Scripting 9:50
• Audio Mixing 12:07
• Audio Mixing 4 questions
• Extra Credit Try making your own sounds and adding them to the game. How do different sounds change the feel of the game? Do new sounds change the gameplay in meaningful ways? Experiment!

Build and Share a Unity Game

A "build" is a stand-alone version of a game outside of the game engine or editor. When you make a build, Unity takes everything you've done in the Unity editor and turns it into a computer program that other people can run and play. 3 steps

• Build for Windows & OS X 9:06
• Go Make Games 2:22
• How to Make a Video Game Cumulative Review 12 questions
• Extra Credit Now that you've created your own video game and you're familiar with the basics of the entire process, try experimenting on your own. You can modify the game you've created, or create an entirely new game using the concepts you've learned. Practicing your skills and building projects is one of the best ways to continue learning.