Okay, so check this out, I wanna tell y’all about this game project I was messing around with. I’m calling it “the most sensational game” – yeah, I know, super original, right? But hear me out.
It all started when I was bored one weekend. Like, seriously bored. I was scrolling through some game dev tutorials, and I thought, “Hey, I can do that!” Famous last words, am I right?
First, I grabbed Unity. Figured that was the easiest way to get something up and running quick. Downloaded it, installed it – standard stuff. Then, I stared at the blank screen for a solid hour. * stopped working.
Then I got an idea. A simple platformer! Jump, move left and right, collect coins. Classic. I started by creating a player character – just a capsule shape for now, don’t judge. Added a Rigidbody and a script to handle movement. This is where the fun began, I started smashing keys on the keyboard to get the character moving. It took a little bit, but finally got the player hopping around.
Next, I needed a level. Threw in some cubes for the ground and walls. Looked super basic, but hey, it’s a start. Made the camera follow the player. More cubes became the walls. A cube to the right of the player became the goal. Not the prettiest level, but it was functional.
Coins! Of course, gotta have coins. I made a simple coin object – just a sphere with a yellow material. Added a script to make it disappear when the player touches it and increment a score counter. The goal was now to grab the coin, and once that happened, reload the scene to start the level over.
Now for the “sensational” part! I wanted to add some challenge. So, I created some basic enemies – simple cubes that moved back and forth. If you touched them, you died (for now, just reset the level). Added an enemy that was stationary. Made it tougher to grab the coin. Now it had spikes surrounding it so you had to be careful.
The most annoying part was getting the controls right. It felt clunky. I messed with the movement script for hours, tweaking the acceleration, deceleration, and jump force. Eventually, got it to a point where it felt somewhat responsive. It was a pain, but I’m glad I spent time on it. The controls felt so satisfying when I finally got it right!
After a few days, I had something that resembled a game. Could jump, run, collect coins, and avoid enemies. It wasn’t pretty, or particularly innovative, but I made it! I hooked the project up to git so I wouldn’t lose anything. I was so scared of my computer crashing and having to do it all over again!
Lessons Learned:
- Game development is harder than it looks.
- Start small and build up.
- Don’t be afraid to experiment.
And most importantly, don’t give up. Even if your game looks like it was made in MS Paint, keep going. You might surprise yourself.
I’m not planning on releasing “the most sensational game” anytime soon, but it was a fun learning experience. I’m already thinking about my next project.
So yeah, that’s my little game dev adventure. Hope you found it mildly entertaining!
