OddballGreg - Game Design (Unity And Ludum Dare)

Ah, the wonderful default and hardly used layout of the Unity Engine. I will point out that I'm still about 99% noobcake at using this program.

Video Games! You've probably played them. You've probably enjoyed them. You probably, at one point or other, thought "gee, I bet it would be great fun to make my own games." If you have, then you're probably going to find this article interesting. (Provided you probably haven't gotten tired of me saying "probably.")

Gaming. Perhaps the third most discussed topic on this blog besides mathematics, philosophy and my continued YouTube addiction. (That's intentionally 4 things by the way. The list of labels for things that have been discussed in over 100 all time posts is longer than I could be bothered to scroll through.) So what's special about today's gaming article you ask? Simple: We're going to talk about MAKING games for once, not PLAYING them. (Probably.)

The reason is simple really, Game Designer, interesting enough, was actually the first "career" that I ever wanted to pursue in my relatively short life, before discovering acting, and eventually discovering that above almost all other things, I like having money. Naturally, being a somewhat unfortunate resident of a country where the gaming industry hardly exists in terms of actual game making, such a career eventually fell to the wayside as other, somewhat more tangible career paths exposed themselves. (Namely ones that wouldn't leave me destitute. I consider that fairly important.)

Several years later and we arrive at the present with OddballGreg the blogger who, in his constant instant "research" (Cough cough) for the TCSA blog, came across various things at various points which led to a variety of thoughts. (And if I use one more V word, I'm going to have to buy a Guy Fawkes mask.) Quite simply, I came across the free Unity Engine while researching how it was that many independent game developers were building their games these days, and I came across the extremely popular Ludum Dare game making competition thanks to the live-streaming antics of my frequently mentioned favorite YouTube Comentator; Quill18.

As it turned out, Quill18 is also a hobbyist game designer and on multiple occasions has live-streamed his 72 hour long efforts to make game for previous Ludum Dare events in which he has ranked fairly well for his work. beside that, he also runs a side channel called Quill18Creates which I frequent for tutorials in the use of the Unity engine and for is often humorous banter. If you're interested in seeing how the Unity engine works and how to use it, I do recommend checking out his 2d Game Tutorial series which I have linked below, or perhaps have a look at AwfulMedia's tutorial series below that for a fairly well explained 3D tutorial.

That aside, you're probably wondering, what on earth makes the Unity engine so special? Quite simply: It's free and fairly simple to use. Most game engines used  to be purely propriety engines made by large game companies for their own exclusive use while the Unity engine is a mostly free and very powerful engine that was designed with the independent developer in mind. While there are many upgraded versions and benefits to buying pro packages etc, it's entirely possible to design a great multitude of games in the free version with little hassle.

So naturally, having found this very awesome game engine and watched one of my favorite YouTubers frantically exhaust himself over 2 days in an attempt to create his entry for some of the previous Ludum Dare's, I figured it sounded like fun to see if perhaps I can brush up on my coding skills which was part of what had prompted me do the article on that subject in the past.

While I suspect I'm currently far too grossly incompetent at scripting and coding in C# both generally and in conjunction with the Unity API, my hope is that I can make use of some of my less busy days in the coming month to get familiar with the engine and see what I could do when the time comes for Ludum Dare 31. What could possibly go wrong? (Apart from realizing that I'm still grossly incompetent by the time Ludum Dare starts.) If I do happen to participate, I will be sure to make plenty articles about the whole experience, what I got up to and how it went in the competition and scoring. Of course, even if I can't participate, I will still be sure to give the event a good spot of coverage and talk about the kinds of games that were entered into the competition. Basically, It's just going to be fun thing to watch progress.

Of course, there will be other Ludum Dare events every 4 months, so rest assured that it's probably likely that I'll participate in one at some point or other. Until then however, you'll just have to settle for my random and strange banter on all variety of subjects, including those you suggest in the comments below... like right now. Please? (Teehee) Even if you don't, perhaps you have some friends who are interested in game design and would be interested in seeing what I have to say on the competition when it comes in 23 days. If so, consider sharing this article with them as I'm sure they'll appreciate it. Of course, if you yourself would like to read those articles, then do be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left to get all the latest posts, as they're published. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Happy gaming my friends.