Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Note
CMOD is not specifically a mobile game. We won't be exploring mobile development in depth in this topic.
Nonetheless, here (at the stage of input development) is an opportunity where we may configure and prepare our
game in an important way to be cross-platform, should we wish to pursue mobile development later.
Head bobbing.
The second problem relates to first-person camera movement
and believability. Specifically, both the mobile and desktop First Person
Controllers offer no native support for head bobbing. Whenever a human or
biped moves by walking, the overall “kinematics” of the legs and body in motion
typically causes the head to move involuntarily up and down. This motion is not
included in the default First Person Controllers, but it can add an extra level of
believability and realism to a game. In later sections, we'll see how to add this
using sine waves.
Multiplatform Development
To get started creating a cross-platform (universal) First Person Controller, let's examine platform
support in Unity and the general cross-platform workflow for games. Unity
can
build for many
platforms, including Windows, OS X, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and more. The word
can
is
important here, because despite the platforms officially
supported
by Unity,
deploying
to them
actually involves additional considerations and issues
for you
as a developer. Not just technical
considerations about optimization and tweaking, but also economical and logistic considerations.
For example, to build and deploy to iOS devices, you'll need an
Apple Developer License
, as well as
a
Mac
computer—you can't build for iOS devices on a Windows PC, even with Unity Pro! Similarly,
to develop for Android, you'll need to download and install the freely available
Android SDK
, whether
you're developing on Windows or Mac. Without these requisites, you won't be able to develop and
properly test mobile applications—so it's important to be aware of them.
More information on developing for iOS can be found in the Unity official documentation at
More information on developing for Android can be found at
Once you're configured and set to go for mobile development, you can start testing your game for
your chosen platform in Unity via the
Build Settings
dialog. By choosing
File
➤
Build Settings…
from the application menu, you'll display the Build settings. From here, you select your platform of
choice, and choose
Switch Platform
. Doing this forces Unity to apply all relevant platform settings
to your project. Consequently, the next time you hit Play on the Unity toolbar, your game behaves as
though it were running on the chosen mobile device (see Figure
5-3
). With mobile apps such as
Unity
Remote
installed on your device, you can also
control
your game using a mobile device, such as a
tablet or phone.
