BSSD 4150/5150 Game Development

1. Here is some code to test if you are on desktop or mobile and switch controls accordingly.

https://answers.unity.com/questions/625540/use-accelerometer-for-roll-a-ball-movement.html

   transform.Translate(Input.acceleration.x, 0, -Input.acceleration.z);

2. Here is the link source for the above line of code and a video about it from Unity

https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/topics/mobile-touch/accelerometer-input

3. Here is just an interesting example of someone making a ball maze rolly game in 3D. Could be a 2D project for someone.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29332871/unity-3d-realistic-accelerometer-control

4. Here is someone using some processing of the acceleration input in case you are not getting desired values you could try their modifications.

http://www.theappguruz.com/blog/learn-to-use-accelerometer-in-unity-in-10-mins

5. And here is the full documentation from unity for mobile devices, including finger inputs as well as accelerometer support.

Here is an overview from Unity themselves.

https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/webgl-interactingwithbrowserscripting.html

The idea is you inject javascript functions into your unity code so that you can do two way communication. This allows you to talk out of Unity to the browser to update a textbox or div or for something more useful like an AJAX call.Using an AJAX call can allow you to connect Unity to APIs for data visualization or some other incorporation.

Here is a video showing the process and drawing a graph from retrieved data.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g0N__K7Wlo

PlayerPrefs (short for preferences) is a key value pair object that is serialized to a flat file on the user’s harddrive. The goal of this file is to allow data to persist between sessions of a game.

Some people pass data between scenes using PlayerPrefs, this means a read and write operation to the hard disk and it means this data could be corrupted either accidentally or overwritten purposefully, to cheat. It is recommended that you not put sensitive information in PlayerPrefs or that you encrypt it if you must.

For instance, in 11.1, if we had a high score ranking feature that uploaded the score to the internet, and if we saved the user score from MainScene to a file before loading it in ScoreScene, the user could have edited the score, cheating and uploading an implausibly high score to the internet.

Here is a use case tutorial using playerprefs to pass data. He mentions you could also cheat by editing experience points or powerup unlocks.

https://medium.com/@zachcaceres/persistent-data-between-scenes-how-to-use-playerprefs-in-unity-b6fd409363c3

In the Unity Documentation, you can see where the file is always stored. For some phones it would be difficult to access this file, but it is never impossible. You caution when storing data here no matter the platform. This documentation also gives an overview of PlayerPrefs access methods.

https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/PlayerPrefs.html

Here is a simple example of storing a String in Unity using PlayerPrefs

https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/PlayerPrefs.SetString.html

and another about accessing that String

https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/PlayerPrefs.GetString.html

You will need to research UI InputFields in order to do your homework

https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/[email protected]/manual/script-InputField.html

Homework Due Mon. April 20 before 10PM via github.

Create a new project called 11-2-your initials-PlayerPrefs.

Place a UIText element and UI InputField in a Canvas.

Your game should check playerprefs to see if there is already a value under the key “Name”.

If no name is saved, the UIText shows “Please Enter Your Name” *

If a name is saved, the UIText shows “Hello, Bob” (or whatever the user’s name is)

If the user types a new name in the InputField, update the PlayerPrefs.

You need to demonstrate mastery of the following 7 concepts:

Use the GUI/Canvas in some way with both UI Buttons and UI Text or UI Images.

Your GUI should update itself based on user progress, either change number of lives, increase score, or something else meaningful to the user.

Your GUI should have proper anchor points and be size responsive

Use Arrays of something in your game and use a random number to access their indices (spawn points, enemy types, weapon drops, etc.).

Use preferences to store settings (could be as simple as the player’s name)

Pass data between two scenes

Have 2 music tracks that transitions with the audio mixer due ot user actions or triggers.

Now choose any 2 requirements listed below from the Midterm requirements:

Accept keyboard input from the user.

Accept mouse input from the user (not via GUI).

Demonstrate mastery of Rigidbody concepts such as movement in the world, proper gravity, any necessary drag.

Demonstrate mastery of colliders vs triggers, using the appropriate tool for each piece of your game’s design.

Demonstrate mastery of prefabs and Instantiation, by making at least one thing appear on screen via code.

Demonstrate mastery of the animator by having at least one sprite change appearance due to its parameters being met.

Demonstrate mastery of timers for either timeout or appearance of objects in your game.

If you would like 10 points extra credit, attend the following guest lecture Wed. Apr 1st and write a 1 page paper on the speaker’s presentation including the following points:

1. New information you learned about the games industry

2. What tools they use in their job

Join via this zoom link, but make sure to mute your mic and turn off your video. If they do not answer question 2, then you can ask it during the time they take questions, but they probably will answer it.

Apr. 1st 12:15-1

https://nmhu.zoom.us/j/563460259

1. Create a new Unity project with your initials. Your project will have one player character who can jump and move left and right from keyboard input, and one bad guy character who automatically moves back and forth in a small area. The width of your bad guy will be called one size unit, because everyone’s game will be different.

2. The bad guy should patrol an area that is roughly three size units When the player is at least 3 size units away from the bad guy, if the bad guy is facing the player, an alert will sound, and the bad guy will run faster after the player until the player is more than 3 size units out of the bad guy’s sight, then they will patrol again, probably in a different location than before. If the bad guy is not facing the player, the player can be as close to them as possible.

Create a Hangman project with the following:

1. canvas input text box to accept a single letter at a time from the user.

2. Test the user’s character with the characters in the target word.

3. Display the character in the correct place in the word if it is a correct character.

4. Display part of the hangman figure if the character is not in the target word.

5. Drop down box that says easy or hard. If easy is chosen, the target word is shorter. If hard is chosen, the target word is longer. No random words needed.

6. If all pieces of the hanged man appear, tell the user they lose.

7. If the user loses or wins, show a UI button to restart the game.

Here is how mine looked last year:

Your button should be more descriptive. I did not put in the drop down yet.

Here is more info on hangman if needed:

Mar. 30 - Audio Mixing lesson on Zoom.

Apr. 2 - Audio Mixing own pace completion

Apr. 7 - Lesson 9.1 and 9.2 from below due Apr. 10

Apr. 9 - Continue Lesson 9.1 and 9.2

Apr. 14 - 11.1 Projectile with rotations + DontDestroyOnLoad

Apr. 16 - [Modified 04/13] 11.2 PlayerPrefs reading

Apr. 21 - [Modified 04/13] 12.1 Lesson adding Canvas to Rotations lesson

Apr. 23 - Final project ideas due. / Work on Q1 and Q2 from final

Apr. 28 - Reading about WebGL and Javascript communication

Apr. 30 - Reading about accelerometer support

0. You may want to do 9.1 first since it teaches you audio basics.

1. Create a 2D program that reads a free song and generates bad guys and moves them based on the spectrum data. Use information from 9.2 posts as a reference.

2. Take your project from 8.1 and add the bad guys from part 1 to it. They can just appear on scree to the data or move in from off screen.

3. Make your ship shoot a projectile to destroy the bad guys.

4. Do not make more than 5 bad guys at a time.

You can find free music in the asset store.

Documentation for Audio Spectrum Data.

Here is a video someone last year found helpful, about audio visualization in Unity:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtXirrO-iNA

Download this sample project to see 5 3D gameobjects being modified on the x coordinate based on manipulation of a subset of spectrum data.

https://github.com/jleeindustry/JL-AudioNumbers

1. Look at the 9.1 posts below. Follow along to create one button that plays a sound.

2. Add 2 more buttons and text boxes that play two new sounds.

3. Your app should have the following buttons and text when it starts (feel free to layout the app better if you like)

3. Once each button is clicked, you should see the following screen:

4. You can record your own sounds on your phone, or here are some sites you can check or find your own, just make sure the sound is free to use.

https://freesound.org/

https://www.soundjay.com

If you need to edit or convert the sound, you can use audacity if you do not already have another tool you are comfortable with.

http://www.audacityteam.org/download/

Mine was a little messed up, so I moved the text.

Modify your script to use that new canvas element reference instead of debug log.