Game Art and Development

Examples, tutorials, and references for

• ART 270 Art for Games
• DIG 250 Game Development

Contents

• Course Materials
• Thinking About Games
  • Game Criticism
  • Inspiration
• Unity Tutorials and References
• Game Production
  • C# Scripting
  • 2D Platformers
  • 3D Games
  • Level Design
  • Storytelling
  • Dialog
  • Game Art
  • Sound / Audio
  • Version Control
  • Collaboration and Prototyping
  • Mobile Development
  • Performance & Optimization
• Past Books

Course Materials

• Texts
  • Halpern, Jared. Developing 2D Games with Unity. APress, 2019. Github
  • Ferrone, Harrison. Learning C# By Developing Games with Unity 2020 (5th Ed.). Packt, 2019. Github
• Github repository omundy/dig250-game-art-dev
• Course Reference Sheets
• Sample projects
  • dig250-unity-animation
  • dig250-unity-data
  • dig250-unity-interaction
  • dig250-unity-movement
  • dig250-unity-mobile
• Past Student Games

Thinking About Games

Game Criticism

Websites, journals, etc. for discussing games and game production

• The International Journal of Computer Game Research
• Extra Credits
• Gamasutra
• Another Castle Podcast
• Polygon
• USC Games Professor Master Class

Inspiration

• unity.com/madewith
• #madewithunity on Twitter, Instagram, and youtube

Unity Tutorials and References

Links to general Unity tutorials and documentation

• Resources from Unity
  • Official Unity Tutorials - Cover a range of projects and topics.
  • Unity Manual and Script Reference
• 3rd Party Unity Tutorials and Resources
  • Brackeys - Popular YouTube channel with high quality Unity guides and walkthroughs.
  • Unity Community Wiki Tutorials
  • CMU Unity Wiki
  • catlikecoding.com
• Forums
  • answers.unity.com
  • forum.unity.com
  • gamedev.stackexchange.com

Game Production

C# Scripting

• Course Content
  • Reference Sheets Unity-Scripting-01, Unity-Scripting-02, and Unity-Scripting-03
  • Presentations Unity C# - Introduction, variables, types, etc.
• Unity Scripting Reference and Manual
• Unity Tutorials: Scripting (e.g. Vector Maths
• Catlike Coding: Unity Tutorials - An in-depth series of tutorials that starts with the basics and covers object management, rendering, and procedural content generation.
• Introduction to Unity Serialization and Game Data
• Dictionaries, JSON and Streaming Assets (8:51)
• Using Cinemachine in 2D for Unity by Jared Halpern
• Brackeys 2D Camera in Unity (Cinemachine Tutorial) (9:18)
• Unity Community Wiki Scripts - Massive resource with many examples (on the tabs at the top)

2D Platformers

• Course Content
  • Reference Sheets Unity-Graphics-Sprites-Textures and Unity-Animation
  • Presentations Unity Animation Overview and Unity 2D Sprite Animation
• "Penny Pixel" Unity Tutorial 2D Platformer Character Controller series and source files
  • Introduction and Session Goals [1/8] (4:56)
  • Scripting Gravity [2/8] (7:39)
  • Detecting Overlaps [3/8] (9:00) ...
• Brackeys Playlist How to make a 2D Game Github
  • How to make a 2D Game in Unity (14:28)
  • 2D Movement in Unity (Tutorial) (21:08)
  • 2D Animation in Unity (Tutorial) (21:52) ...
• Lynda Advanced Unity 2D: Platformer Player Movement
• BoardToBits Better Jumping in Unity With Four Lines of Code (12:46)
• GDC Math for Game Programmers: Building a Better Jump (25:42)

3D Games

• Course Content
  • Reference Sheets Unity Coordinate Systems, Unity-Graphics-3D, and Unity-Graphics-Lighting
  • Presentations Unity 3D Graphics
• shadertoy.com - A massive collection of shaders with code and visual samples

Level Design

• GDC Ten Principles for Good Level Design (1:00:47)

Storytelling

• GDC Storytelling Tools to Boost Your Indie Game's Narrative and Gameplay (29:26)

Dialog

• Course Content
  • Presentations Dialogue with Yarn Spinner
• Yarn Spinner (Unity Quickstart)
• Ink (Github)

Game Art

• Course Content
  • Reference Sheets Unity-Graphics-Sprites-Textures and Unity-Animation
  • Presentations How to make pixel art for Unity games with Photoshop (23:03)
• Unity Tutorial: Intro to 2D World building w/ Tilemap (parts 1–8)
• Brackeys
  • Tilemaps in Unity (13:44)
  • Animate 2D Characters in Unity (15:40)
• Resources
  • Unity Asset Store
  • OpenGameArt.org
  • itch.io/game-assets
  • gamedevmarket
  • /r/gameassets/
  • pixeldudesmaker and pixeldudesmakermaker procedurally-generation sprite tools; 16x16 Dungeon Tileset version 1 and version 2 by 0x72
  • Silkscreen a pixel font by Jason Kottke

Sound / Audio

• Course Content
  • Reference Sheet Unity-Audio
• Tutorials
  • Studytonight Adding Sound Effects to Game
• Resources
  • freesound.org
  • The Yellowstone sound library - Free sounds from Yellowstone Ntl. Park

Version Control

• Course Content
  • Reference Sheet Unity-Git
  • Presentations Git & Github Desktop slides and Unity Collaboration and Version Control
• Brackeys How to use GitHub with Unity
• Unity Collaborate

Collaboration and Prototyping

• GDC Building a Paper Prototype For Your Narrative Design (30:22)
• Tools
  • Pencil and paper!
  • Google Drawings - Good for working out the flow of information, narrative, mechanics.
  • Boords - Collaborative storyboarding with drawings, dialogue, events. See their blog for examples.

Mobile Development

• Course Content
  • Reference Sheets Unity-Building-to-iOS and Unity-Building-to-Android
  • Presentations Mobile Development
• Unity Manual Unity Remote
  1. Install Unity Remote on your mobile device
  2. Install iOS package in your Unity installation
  3. Plug the device in
  4. Make sure you select the device in Unity > Player Settings > Editor
• Asset Store Fingers - Touch Gestures Asset for Unity - $20

Performance & Optimization

• Course Content
  • Reference Sheets Unity-Performance and Unity-Scripting-Debugging
• Unity Tutorial Optimizing garbage collection in Unity games