Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Many gamers, however, find themselves craving something a bit more classic. Some
want a more approachable gaming experience without all the triple-axis complexity
of three-dimensional space. Many just remember a simpler time, when a scene only
traveled in a pair of dimensions rather than a full trio. It is for these gamers—who in
reality make up an incredibly large group—that the art of 2D games has been revived.
Many of those gamers are also people who now want to make games—and want to
make the kinds of games they grew up with. You might fit that exact category! In
addition, the boom of mobile devices and tablets over the past five years has also
added to the resurgence of 2D gaming due to the hardware limitations on these
devices. However, this revival has not come with the same dark-age technology that
was used to make classic 2D games and evolved into what we make games with today.
No, instead, today's 2D game technology has embraced the power that makes today's
video games possible, and combines it with the design strengths that made the first
video games feasible.
For this happy marriage, we combine the power of a 3D game engine with the
techniques of a 2D video game to create something that is neither new nor old,
yet is both.
Overkill? Most certainly not. There is actually a lot that a 3D game engine can do
just as well as a 2D game engine—and much more. And in reality, most 2D game
engines these days are actually 3D engines in disguise, as everything on the screen
is rendered as a two-poly quad or a square built from two triangles, thanks to the
power of OpenGL or DirectX.
One of today's most powerful game engines, which is affordable for large and small
companies alike, is the Unity game engine available on the Web at
http://unity3D.
com
. Throughout this topic, we will be using the Unity game engine to learn how
to build 2D video games. We will learn how to think in 2D—we will operate the
camera in 2D, learn how to move in the environment in 2D, and learn how to build
a platformer video game in 2D. There will even be a few surprises in there for good
measure. Version 4.3 of Unity has built-in native 2D game support because they love
you and your awesome game creation skills.
Before we get started, let's go over some basics. This is a professional topic; however,
it is written to be useful for anyone. It is expected that you will understand how to
use the Unity game engine—we will not be explaining the basics, nor will
we be explaining how to build games in Unity. We will, however, explain how
to build a 2D game in Unity using Unity 4.3's all-new 2D capabilities. If you have
been building 2D games prior to Version 4.3, then you're probably already familiar
with using a number of tricks, such as the Box 2D physics engine, jointed paper
doll sprites, and physics plane restrictions. All of that information is still quite
worthwhile as it translates well into what Unity 4.3+ now offers.
