Computer Science and Software Engineering Capstone Presentations
Fall Quarter
December 18, 2020
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Nicholas Young "100
Unity Mechanics for Programmers" (UWB CSS Faculty Research) Faculty Advisor: Dr. Yusuf Pisan |
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Abstract Over the past two quarters, I worked with Professor
Yusuf Pisan on the 100 Unity Mechanics for Programmers research project. The
objective of the project is to help Unity developers, both beginners and
advanced, learn how to implement Unity mechanics in a more straightforward,
easier-to-understand way. Despite having a large user community, there aren't comprehensible resources for learning Unity.
YouTube videos must be followed step-by-step and are not searchable. Text
forums are poorly organized where answers often reference older versions of
Unity and can take hours to digest, even when learning how to implement a
simple mechanic. Having a separate tutorial for each mechanic makes
it easier to develop Unity projects. I compiled a list of 100 commonly used
Unity mechanics when developing games and reviewed them with Professor Pisan
in our regular meetings. In particular, I focused on
mechanics used in the final student projects in the Introduction to Game
Development course as these mechanics represented good examples for novice
users. I next developed tutorials including source code and WebGL builds for
40 mechanics, from simple 2D mechanics, such as moving around in a 2D space,
to more advanced mechanics, such as a grappling hook in a 2D space and moving
and looking around in a 3D space as seen in first-person games. Each Unity mechanic tutorial is contained in its own
folder within a GitHub repository, and consists of four parts. The first part
is a text explanation and description of the mechanic, which helps the
developer understand the context and purpose behind the mechanic. The second
part is a step-by-step text explanation of how to implement the mechanic. The
third part is the source code, which helps the developer understand how the
mechanic is implemented. The source code also allows the developer to open
the mechanic in the Unity editor to modify and experiment with the mechanic
as needed. The fourth part is a WebGL build that developers can use to
experiment with and see the mechanic in action after being fully implemented
and built. This project will serve as a resource for the Game
Development course and the larger game development community, helping users
to build a solid foundation in Unity and allowing them to delve deeper into
the world of Unity game development. |
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Updated December 15, 2020