Yo so I've been wanting to start making games as a side hobby thing, and I found out that the Unity engine is now free. Does anyone here have experience with it, or know of any good tutorials to start out with it? I know it uses C# for the scripting part. I only have experience with C++ and Java, but are they similar to C#?

The official Unity tutorials are an excellent place to start. I recommend starting with the rolling ball one, however easy it may seem. It helps a lot. From there, just go through all of them whenever you have the time, and make sure not to skip anything.
You'll learn in no time.

:D

Quote from ???

The official Unity tutorials are an excellent place to start. I recommend starting with the rolling ball one, however easy it may seem. It helps a lot. From there, just go through all of them whenever you have the time, and make sure not to skip anything.
You'll learn in no time.

:D

Is unity good for 2D games?

Yes it is. However, depending on the complexity, it may be easier to use Flash or HTML5.

Beast for 3d games though.

Quote from Hobbes

Yo so I've been wanting to start making games as a side hobby thing, and I found out that the Unity engine is now free. Does anyone here have experience with it, or know of any good tutorials to start out with it? I know it uses C# for the scripting part. I only have experience with C++ and Java, but are they similar to C#?

Quote from Hobbes

Is unity good for 2D games?

Answering your questions:

1) C# is alot easier than C++ and more resembles Java in usage. If you came from C++, C# shouldn't be a problem as they have the same syntax but drastically differ in use. Many people would say C++ is the way to go simply because it's faster and you can do more things with it.

2) Next, if your desire is to just make 2D games and you're only planning to get Unity because it's free then well...alright good job. Don't listen to ???: Unity does not have a preference for any dimension; it is versatile enough to accommodate 2D and 3D---a fact that is overshadowed by the sudden influx of 3D games that have been prevalent because of Unity. It is foolish to assume that it is not meant for 2D when it does the job just as easily.

That said, I would still offer a few more options that could be better suited for your tastes: Construct 2, Game Maker, and Multimedia Fusion. Only the first 1 of those is free, but hey you're making investment and it's not really as pricey as you think. It really depends on what you're planning: Amateur Hour or a building block to something greater.

I am reluctant to say AS3 as that is a dying art, but if you just want to develop to learn how to make games (without publicly releasing them), then they're still a viable option. Be sure to explore Flashpunk and Flixel, 2 very popular libraries for AS3 if you want to get into that avenue.

3) Finally, I can't help but notice you mention that you're only getting Unity because it's free. Well, may I suggest that you consider UDK 4 AKA Unreal Engine 4. As of March this year, EpicGames decided to make it FREE to acquire and develop for and since you are already a C++ veteran, this should be a perfect fit instead of having to learn C# just for Unity.

Actual Link to UDK4 (the above was a news article): https://www.unrealengine.com/what-is-unreal-engine-4



If you need any resources, just ask. But usually the sites themselves provide and the Community is huge enough to fulfill your needs.

Which of these programs would you recommend to someone brand new that wants to get into making games? I'm by no means at expert at any of the languages that I know. I took AP computer science in high school and freshman year of college I took C++ and Java. So now that I'm looking at game design it looks like a different beast altogether from regular programming.

I'm downloading UDK4 right now the C++ part sounds a lot better than learning C# for Unity.

Honestly, the answer to the eternal question of every budding young game developer's "What language/program should I start with"? is....it doesn't matter. What matters is that you pick one and stick with it, learning everything you can from it, and just try to make something for yourself at first without considering its Commercial applications. In the longrun, any language is the same anyway. In this case, the fact that you know how to code (and how to code C++ in fact) is instantly a plus. So hopefully this engine can enhance your ability.

As to what to do with said engine, it is best that you start with something simple. Just try and make a Pong game, for example where you consider things like physics, scoring, and simple AI. Then move on to more complex things as time goes on. There are also a ton of ebooks on the subject, as well as a receptive community. Also, google is your friend.

Of course before you can even do all that, you hav to learn the basics of the engine first which I can provide below:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDeWaij8VG9jek04bWea0RnPT7-BR3mqb
https://www.youtube.com/user/UnrealDevelopmentKit/playlists
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZlv_N0_O1gaCL2XjKluO7N2Pmmw9pvhE
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZlv_N0_O1gbY4FN8pZuEPVC9PzQThNn1

Quote from ???

Yes it is.

Don't listen to ???: Unity does not have a preference for any dimension; it is versatile enough to accommodate 2D and 3D---a fact that is overshadowed by the sudden influx of 3D games that have been prevalent because of Unity. It is foolish to assume that it is not meant for 2D when it does the job just as easily.

When dafuq did I say that it wasn't good for 2d?

I saw your attempts to deflect his choice of language as a sign that Unity might not be a good fit for whatever he desired. I mean the fact that he decided to go with Unity at that point meant he was serious about it. So I was trying to as much as possible, guide him without suggesting outright that Unity isn't a good fit.

Sorry for any misunderstanding though.



Btw, Hobbes. If you're serious about C++ another route to take is developing IOS games on mobile. But I'm limited in knowledge of that department.

@Hewitt: Ah, no problem. Sorry for jumping on you.

Not sure, but I think there's a way to do it on PC as well. Like I think I've read about it before or something.

edit: http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/586014/can-windows-computers-develop-ios-games-1.html
found this, I guess not. :/

There is technically a way but you need to jump some extra unnecessary hoops to do it. Google "Hackintosh" if you're curious. Basically the idea is to dual boot your system with both OS'. However unless you machine is up to it, the most immediate difficulty is that your machine will have a hard time processing non-windows programming.

But if you really want to develop for IOS, you'd better just as well invest in a Mac/mini-Mac anyway.

You can develop for iOS on any platform. To publish yourself you'll need access to OS X, how you get that is up to you. You can also use cloud building if you can't get access to OS X. https://build.cloud.unity3d.com/landing/

I use Unity as part of my job so I've become pretty used to it. It's not really great at 2D authoring, but it can and will get the job done if you need it to. There are better methods for developing 2D games but they all have pros and cons, it's really down to your needs as a developer and choosing the right tool for the job. Unity is very performant and can easily build to many platforms, so even though Unity's workflow is definitely more oriented for 3D development, once you get past the learning curve it's probably one of the best choices for any type of game. You can also use Javascript to program in Unity instead of C# if you're more comfortable with that.

I'd recommend you just dive right in if you're seriously considering game development. In my experience it's worse to start with something else with the goal of ending up using Unity because there's a good chance that you'll get too comfortable with different standards or workflows and find the learning curve of switching to Unity too intimidating because it's not what you're used to, which is just a waste of time. Do some really simple starter projects, follow the tutorials Unity has provided, and just immerse yourself in it. You're not going to be great right away but the faster you learn your tools the faster you'll get to the fun stuff.

So I've been trying to learn unity so far, and it's pretty fun I must say! I made a few crappy basic text games. I decided yesterday to try and do a platfomer, and so far this is what I got. It has only 6 simple levels, and it's a bit buggy. But I'm pretty proud of it. I'm going to try and keep on improving this game!

http://alejandroez.comuv.com/Desktop.html
You need firefox or internet explorer and unity plugin.
Up jump
left right arrows move
space reset
p to pause