Unity Project Sprint 1 review

Over the break I began to pick up working with Unity again.
I had played around a little with it in May, but it took a while for the architecture to sink in.
Now largely avoiding the mistakes I made from my first attempt, I've applied the agile methodology to my work in order to a small and concise sprint jammed full of tasks to complete over the break. Here is the summary of everything I accomplished:

Sprint I:

• Get working spritesheet for player standing/running
• Find sheet.
• Make Unity friendly.

~Player sprite transparency

• Working character script for player standing/running
• Create animations from spritesheet.
• Create organized animation controller.
• Write C# control script.

~Duplicate Inputs still problematic

• VR mission tileset
• Find sheet.
• Make Unity friendly.

~Moved to Tiled, but these resources can be generated from the GameObject tileset!

• VR mission scene
• Make prefabs of all tiles.
• Investigate combinations of tiles.
• Create static map scene from

~Artifacts from Tiled2Unity sometimes.

• Camera Controls
• Following Camera.
• Camera Zoom in/out
• Camera Slide

~Camera Pans are instant, not smooth.

For now, most of that can be summarized in this image. Eventually I will get some video capture for my youtube channel.

Currently the player character correctly idles and moves, and forms appropriate collisions with the training level, created in Tiled. In addition, the camera follows the player, but can be zoomed in and out, also panned in each direction.

In red you can see some of the issues I ran into in each of the tasks. They have been applied to a backlog and polished later, but the priority for now is to continue to add new content until the project resembles a full game.

I'm returning to work shortly so I'll likely save the next sprint for whenever I'm feeling motivated and have more time. It's been a blast working with it so far though!







*These assets were taken from Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel, a Game Boy Color title, for lack of any assets of my own. Full credit to Konami and that team for the sprites.

Building Robots #1: Overview

I'd like to announce a new, long-term project. I won't quite be throwing myself at this per say, but I would like to have something to do on weekends when I'm home, or whenever I just feel like being creative. Some people draw, others make videos, but I would like to start putting together robot frames. I think what I would like to do is to is to create a model of each type of robot, and then continuously improve on each design. I would start with the simplest variety, and gradually build up to the more complicated ones, since I'm of the belief that there are inevitable mistakes to be made, and I'd rather get those out of the way as quickly as possible, in a low-risk situation. Here are some of the models I would like to build:

• Turtle
• Rover
• Walking
• Arm/Gripper
• Humanoid

From the progression, one can see the rise in difficulty as you go down the list. For example, a humanoid robot needs to both be able to walk and use its arms, while a turtle robot is pretty much a saucer with wheels. I also like this broad approach because I can be as simple or complicated as I would like. No matter how simple it sounds there, there are still many components to consider. Here's an idea of the workflow of building a robot:

• Wiring: This is equivalent to the nervous system in a human body, You need wiring that puts into motion the function you wish to complete. This will involve a combination of sensing and the use of motors.Without the wiring, you just have an inoperable frame that's more like a toy.
• Construction: This will be new for me, but I'll have to construct bodies and frames as well. This will involve creating larger, light frames, as well as intricate work with gears and maybe even plastics. My father has a lot of know-how on this end, and should be able to help make some pieces for the large parts, and I'm sure I can find a way to make ends meet with the intricate parts as well.
• Programming: Here's the part I enjoy the most, taking this shell you constructed, and giving it life, whether it be through your control, or through autonomous programming. I hope to explore both along the way, although I also enjoy designing controllers.

It seems like a lot of work, but certainly has the makings of a great hobby. I imagine the excitement will build the further I get involved.