Introduction to 2D Game Development

Course Description

The goal of this workshop is to get participants up and running with Unity, focusing specifically on working with its suite of 2D features. As participants work through the activities, they will build a 2D game from the ground up, covering major subject areas including sprites, animation, game mechanics, and publishing. The project in this workshop is a side-scrolling, endless-runner game that will run on mouse input. After the initial mouse click, the player will begin to run, and all subsequent mouse clicks will result in the player jumping. The goal of the game is to run to the end of the level while collecting as many objects as possible without falling off the platforms.

Level

Beginner

Learning Objectives

Learn how to navigate in the Unity Editor

• Identify the different Editor windows and their purposes
• Use common hotkeys and shortcuts to navigate in the Editor
• Configure a Unity Project for 2D development

Identify key features of the Unity 2D toolset

• Use the Sprite Editor to slice Sprite Sheets for use in the Scene
• Apply 2D colliders for Physics interactions
• Configure Prefabs for use throughout the Scene

Develop complex 2D parallaxing environments

• Use Tilemap to build multi-layered Sprite based Scenes
• Adjust Sprite Z-positioning to create a parallax effect

Create multiple types of in-editor animations

• Create sprite sheet animations
• Create keyframe animations
• Control multiple animation sequences with the Animator

Develop 2D game mechanics

• Use scripts to implement gameplay
• Configure a Cinemachine camera to create a follow camera
• Use multiple components to create a input based Player controller
• Build a simple UI to display gameplay behavior

Publish 2D games

• Publish the completed game for PC and Mac
• Publish the completed game for Android

Activities

• Introduction: Workshop Overview and Learning Action Plan
• Activity 1: Project Setup and Scene Creation
• Activity 2: Animation and Player Creation
• Activity 3: Creating Game Mechanics
• Activity 4: Finalizing the Game
• Conclusion: Learning Action Plan and Further Learning

What to Bring

• Each participant will need to bring a laptop (Windows or OSX), power supply (including any necessary international adapters), and mouse.

• Install Unity 2017.4 prior to the workshop.

Prerequisites

No prior experience required.