Design Sandwich. (Development Pipeline)

(This is mostly meant as advice for anyone hoping to use Unity and not knowing where to start!)

Being on my second and third games, I now have a good idea of what order to do things in, having gone into my second semester game without a clue and having to continually go back and change thing, I learnt what was important to do and when.

To better explain my idea, I will use one of the games I am making - “Bunny Robber” as an example.

This is of course the way I do it, it may not be the BEST way.

Initial mechanic

The most important thing after designing a mechanic is making sure you can make it work. In its simplest form, being able to interact with certain objects in a certain way and have them causing a desired effect.

In the instance of Bunny Robber, this was the initial demo I did with the other 5 games. No texture of fancy 3D modelling here.


Player, controls and camera

Now that the nuts and bolts of the game are working, it is time to get the player character in, make sure that specific animations can be triggered at the right time, have it look good, and be sure to clean up any issues it may have slotting into the mechanic.

This also informs the rest of the design, both puzzles and environment.

Blockmap and important 3D assets

Now that the character is moving about and the game works, it is time to make some test levels. The initial demo should give you some idea of what works and what doesn’t, but this will allow you to stretch out and begin adding other mechanics if you wish.

As well as this, one of the MOST impotent things I found was to not use “test” models, and instead use final assets.

My guard dogs for example have been fully animated and their hit boxes organised. This allows me to design the level around them and means I do not have to keep going back to keep doing more (But if there is something else I need, I can add it in.)

Another example of this was in my first game, the blocks that where pushed. I modelled and textured it then added all the code and animation triggers to it. This meant I could simply duplicate it and had an accurate idea of how my character and obstacles and objects would work in the block map.

Menu system and environment

Ideally, the transition between scenes should be working with the block map – but here you implement and decorate the various game over and front end screens. (And if you have one – the GUI)

The environment should also be properly implemented now – Lighting, props, floors, walls and even the sky all need to be here to give a well finished game.

IF you are feeling particularly smart, you could even add sound!