Unity in Action 2nd ed. is out!

So the biggest news this month is that my book is finally completely released! It has been a really long time since I finished writing it, but I suppose this is just the downside of Manning having a high quality bar and spending months on making everything perfect. At any rate, the book is available on both their website and on Amazon.

As for my RPG, this has felt like my single most productive month. I realize this is because of multiple systems I implemented months ago falling into place (eg. the data models for shops have existed this entire time, but you couldn’t see it) but it still feels awesome.

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Portraits, Inventory, Saving

Here’s a video showing off updates since last month:

The main things added are character portraits, a grid for selecting spells and items, and saving the game.

Map and Combat WIP

Last post I had shown the prototype’s combat UI, but I hadn’t shown it in action. Here’s a video of a full battle sequence, from encountering enemies while wandering the dungeon, to gaining loot after killing them:

Building the Combat Prototype

Happy holidays! I’m writing this month’s post a few days earlier than normal because of the holidays. Since last month, I’ve put in the UI when you enter combat:

(wood frames by Rexard)

This of course needs to be polished further in the final game (checkout those awesome fonts!) but is perfectly functional for prototyping. Combat is actually playable now, but I want to implement a bit more of the game before publishing a public prototype.

Finished first draft of 2nd Edition!

Not a ton to blog about this month; I’ve been working on the second edition of Unity in Action mostly. I have hit an important milestone; I’ve finished the entire first draft! That is, all 13 chapters (12 from the first edition, plus the one new one) are updated and sent to my editors. The first 6 chapters have been through one editing pass already actually, and are already available for early access; Manning has a system for readers to get access to unfinished ebooks before the print book is ready.

Besides working on my book, I’ve also been gathering assets for my first-person RPG. Bought a bunch off Unity’s Asset Store, found a bunch of free music, and currently contemplating where to get the rest.

Oops, a new game idea has appeared

So as described in my last post, lately I’ve mostly been working on the second edition of my book. In particular, the one new chapter, about developing a 2D platformer in Unity, is done. Very soon (probably in just two days) it’ll be available through MEAP; my publisher, Manning, does early access while the books are being written.

Besides that though, I’ve been planning to resume developing my own game after the book is finished. Up until a couple weeks ago I had been assuming I would resume working on the strategy game. However, I’ve been gripped by a new idea lately and will probably start developing that instead. I feel bad about abandoning the strategy game because it’s pretty interesting, and will probably pick it up again in the future, but for now the new idea I’ve had has a number of advantages.

In a nutshell, I’m planning to do a very simple first-person dungeon crawler; basically a clone of Shining in the Darkness:

2D Platformer for My Book

Doing the 2nd edition of Unity in Action mostly involves updating code listings for the latest version of Unity, but my editors and I also decided to add one new chapter. While the majority of feedback from readers has been (thankfully!) very positive, one thing we’ve frequently seen is people wishing there was more content about 2D games. Thus, we decided to add a chapter about developing 2D platform games.

My process for every chapter has been 1) first build the project, then 2) write about what I implemented. So I implemented the shell of a 2D platformer a couple weekends ago, and am now writing the chapter about it. Here is a WebGL build of that project:

 

(controls explained on that page; left/right move, Space jump)