Tower Defense Tutorial: Part 9 AI Tanks

In this video, we will take our new found knowledge of AI Pathfinding and apply it to real, in-game Tanks! This means AI units that move along the ground, and intelligently dodge obstacles, relentlessly marching toward your base.  Luckily, we will also cover upgrading your defenses- setting up projectiles and turrets for this new enemy.

What is covered in this tutorial:

• Applying AI to an in-game enemy
• Upgrading projectile, enemy, and turret scripts to all be class-based
• Creating spawns for the ground units
• Efficiently rebuilding the AI Grid and Re-Pathing all units as needed

 This tutorial uses the “A” Pathfinding Project

• Download “A” Pathfinding Project
• View Getting started tutorial on the “A” Pathfinding project.

Tower Defense Tutorial: Part 8 – AI Pathfinding

This tutorial will focus almost exclusively on setting up a fully-functional AI Pathfinding solution for our Tower Defense game! This paves the way for our ground-based attackers, allowing them to dynamically maneuver around turrets, even as you place them. Of course, AI Pathfinding can be useful for many other projects, so give this one your full attention!

What is covered in this tutorial:

• Downloading and importing the “A* Pathfinding Project”
• Setting up a grid-based A* Graph
• Creating a script to intelligently Path your Units
• Using the Character Controller component to move units along the AI Path

 This tutorial uses the “A” Pathfinding Project

• Download “A” Pathfinding Project
• View Getting started tutorial on the “A” Pathfinding project.

Tower Defense Tutorial: Part 7- Upgrading Turrets

No Tower Defense game is complete without up-gradable structures! This tutorial will setup your game for upgrades, and also lay some groundwork for purchasing of other items such as inventory, etc. Best of all, we will delve just a bit into “extending” from base classes. This is a technique you will find useful in many, many cases, and very simple to use.

What is covered in this tutorial:

• Creating a new “Upgrade Structure” GUI Panel
• Creating multiple levels of each Structure
• Using a Base Class, and Extending it with other scripts
• Creating a generic function to handle cost-checking when purchasing

I would like to re-welcome Gabriel Williams to the site. We never really did an official introduction, so figure this was a good way to kick it off “again”

CGC: Gabe, so what do you do for a living or to pass time during the day?

I make tools and tutorials for Unity 3D, despite calling myself a “Game Designer”. One day, I might actually have time to make some games…

CGC: How did you get started in Unity?

Like a lot of game-folks, I started out with UT3, which is a great engine, but quickly found it was very hard to create anything other than a “mod”, without serious code skills and knowledge of the entire UT3 framework. I had ideas for some very non-conventional games, and was constantly looking for a way to start making these. I remember very specifically, I was waiting before an interview at HVS, and happened to pick up a magazine that highlighted the “Torque 3D Game Engine”, and mentioned Unity 3D as well. This was the first I had heard of either, or even realized such small, blank-canvas, game engines existed. Back then Unity was actually $200 (grumble grumble), but I paid up and instantly began messing around with the engine, and loved every bit of it. What really drew me in was how “artist friendly” Unity 3D is- I was able to create some very cool things in no time at all. Soon after, I realized I would just have to overcome my fear of code, started learning, and found that scripting in Unity was also dead simple, even fun.

CGC: Could you tell me how Sixbyseven Studio got started?

sixbyseven (kudos if you get the reference), started as just a name/blog to host my early attempts at Unity game making. Back then, I hoped to begin totally “transparent” and user-driven game development, something that never quite happened. The simple, solid-seeming, iPhone apps I started with, were a complete flop. Then, the random, totally experimental  crazy ambitious, “ProBuilder” tool became a great success, and has been consuming my time since. So at the moment, sixbyseven is about tools and content to help other devs…but hopefully soon I can swap back to making my own games!

CGC: Working on any cool projects you are able to share with us?

Several! ProBuilder 2.0 is just over the horizon, which is a complete-rebuild and just full of awesome. I’m also working with the amazingly talented folks at “verdgegamestudios.com“, who are making a game that, if they can get it funded, should shake up indie gaming in a good way! Imagine you had a game full of legos and kinex parts. Now, give all those parts specific physics properties and actions, make them fully usable  Make that multi-player, and drop it all into a shattered-worlds environment with gravity local to each world “chunk” and a cosmic backdrop. Add on a deep plot that spans dimensions, time, and space-horror elements. That’s “MaK“, and I can’t wait for it to be released!

Oh, there’s also The Unity Toolbox, for Unity 3D devs. Check it out!

CGC: What is a normal day like in the shoes of Gabriel Williams?

Not very exciting, sadly. Now that I “don’t work”, I work 16 hours a day, staring at the computer, but I love that I’m doing my own thing. One hint for those going this route- get a dog! If it weren’t for the dog, literally shoving my arm off the mouse when he has to go out, I would simply never get outside, and would probably have melted into some horrible man-chair-computer beast.

CGC: While you are working do you listen to music, if so what kind?

I have zero multitasking ability, I mean ZERO. So, music is generally off limits. Which is sad, because I love listening to music while working, it’s just that I slow way, way down. So there’s a lot of stabbing at the mute on/off key, working in bursts.

CGC: Would you recommend any Unity artist to pick up coding?

You ain’t a proper Unity Artist without it! The whole point of Unity is to give artists the ability to make their own creations come alive. The entire eco-system and interface, to me, seems purpose built for this, and is so easy to learn, I really see no excuse for not learning at least a little bit. You will be surprised how quickly and easily it can be learned, and love your new-found “powers”!

CGC: What is normally the last thing you think of before going to bed and first thing you think of in the morning?

Usually, excited thoughts about all the things to work on tomorrow…and then in the morning “aww $&*% I just woke up at noon again, guess I’ll have to stay up till 6am again.” Either that or something about bacon, and wishing I had some.

CGC: Any advice for artists/users getting started?

Back to the code thing- learn it! JavaScript is incredibly easy to learn, and there are tons of step-by-step tutorials (cough, cough, right here!). Some people say JS is “inferior” to C#, but tests have proven there is honestly near-as-nill difference in speed (for Unity), and C# is a MUCH tougher language to start on. Everything you learn with JS can be applied to learning C# later, and you’ll have some serious experience by then. Once you realize the power knowing code can give you, you’ll never go back. It’s like joining the Dark Side, without all the lava burns.

Thanks Gabe for the time!

Gabes Company Site - http://www.sixbysevenstudio.com/

Author Profile Page: http://cgcookie.com/unity/profile/Gabrielwilliams

Creating a Gun Turret for a Game in Unity

Everybody loves that part of a game where you get to control the Big Giant Turret Gun- now it’s your turn to create that experience in Unity! Whether you are planning a Tailgunner style game, Flying Fortress, Mech Suit, Anti-Aircraft Gun, or anything else, this Citizen series has you covered.

What the Unity Game Engine Course Covers:

You will learn how to model, animate, texture, export, and script your turret for use in the Unity 3D game engine. Your final turret will even feature animation-synced firing, smooth-follow rotation, a custom glowing HUD, and many more features. Along the way, you will also learn many very handy game-creation skills such as custom normal maps, emmisive textures, and utilizing the Alpha Channel, optimization, animation, and more.

Once you have everything built and working, take a look at the bonus tutorials to advance your game even further!

Videos 1 – 7 are in 3D Studio Max for the building of the assets, Video 8 then begins the integration into Unity.

Software used: 3DS Max 2010, Photoshop CS5 and Unity 3.5

Unity Tower Defense Tutorial: Part 6 Merging and Cash System

Moving even closer to a fully-functional Tower Defense, this tutorial will integrate a cash-based purchasing system for your turrets and structures. We will also add a cash reward for destroying enemies, and beef up the GUI to show off all these new features. On top of all that, this tutorial will take you step by step through the perilous task of merging the separately built waves, health, and flying enemy tutorials, into the full-GUI scene. Getting close, folks!

What is covered in this tutorial:

• Exporting and Importing objects between projects
• Merging separate scripts effectively (ie, no spaghetti code)
• Dynamically active buttons, based on cash amount
• Cash rewards and turret costs

Unity Tower Defense Tutorial: Part 5 Setting up Waves

This tutorial adds fully functional waves to your Tower Defense game, and also adds tracking of player score and health. As part of the waves, we will go over setting up a single difficulty multiplier, and applying it “globally”. There will also be talk on how to best tweak your waves for the right difficulty curve- a very important part of any game, but especially Tower Defense! Lastly, we will go over dynamically changing NGUI text (UILabel) items, for visual score, health, and wave tracking.

What is covered in this tutorial:

• Setting up Waves
• NGUI dynamic text
• Scoring and difficulty multipliers
• Player “Health”

Tower Defense Tutorial: Part 4

Finally- time for some action! This Unity tutorial will introduce a simple flying enemy to the game, along with some special tweaks for ground vs air turrets, and the missile projectile. We will also update the turret’s targeting systems to cope with many enemies at once, and lastly, lay some groundwork for a game-controller script.

What is covered in this tutorial:

• Creating a “flying attack vehicle”
• UEnemy “kills”
• Specialized turret targeting
• Smart re-targeting for turrets
• Spawning enemies

Using Player Prefs in Unity to Store Data

This Unity Tutorial “tip” will show how to use the “PlayerPrefs” to store data in your game. In this way, you can store just about any data between levels, scripts, and even multiple game sessions. Great for Highscores, player inventory, levels and “waves”, and more!

What is covered in this unity tutorial:

• Storing a new value via PlayerPrefs
• Retrieving PlayerPrefs data
• Checking for PlayerPrefs data before attempting to use it
• Clearing PlayerPrefs data

What is in the download source files

As a Citizen member you have access to the source files on available tutorials.

• Unity Project files
• Readme, and header banner image

Changing Scenes in Unity

This Unity Tutorial “tip” will show how to swap your game between scenes, and quit the game entirely. This is of course useful for moving between different game levels, and also specialized GUI scenes. Finally, it’s always good to give your players a way to exit the game!

What is covered in this unity tutorial:

• Opening a new scene by it’s name
• Opening a scene by it’s “index”
• Quiting your game
• Adding multiple scenes to the “Build Settings”
• Setting the default, or “start”, screen for your game

What is in the download source files

As a Citizen member you have access to the source files on available tutorials.

• Unity Project files
• Readme, and header banner image