Making Games in Unity3D for 21 days

So what do you do when you want to try and learn something? Everyone who's ever tried to learn anything in the modern world of instant information can probably relate to tutorial hell or half baked attempts to get off the ground, let alone finish something. 

What is often disgregarded in the modern world is that unlike instant access to anything and everything online, acquiring skills and building something worthwhile is not instant - by any stretch of the imagination.

Sure through technologies such as game engines, more people are able to create things which previously would've required degrees in computing and/or physics, maths etcetera. But even so there requires a certain personal discipline and culmination of skills in various facets which are needed to craft something worthwhile.

What's required is always what's been required for anything that's built that's worthwhile - focus, persistence and dedication. The 99% perspiration that will produce the 1% nugget of inspired, fruitful, well polished art.

CS50 C Library for Windows

Here's how to add the CS50 C library to Code Blocks IDE for completing the problemsets found in Harvard's CS50 Intro to Computer Science.

Pong in Unity

Pong in Unity3D is a time lapse affair at using what I've learned so far from tutorials and videos and recreating the classic computer game Pong.

Creating Pong in Unity time lapse

The actual process of creating the game was tricky, not to mention getting to grips with objects and references within the Unity environment. There's a great course on Udemy which teaches game dev, part of one of the modules was used as inspiration to create this. You can find it here [Note: I'm not affiliated with udemy and do not gain any benefits from this link]
https://www.udemy.com/course/unitycourse/

Apart from that actual slug fest that is trying to build something and get it working was recording the process and then compiling, editing and trying to create something that is coherent, useful and inspiring at the same time. Hopefully some of that aspects comes through. Original set of videos ranged well over 2 hours, not including ones I had to cut down or omit completely. Missed some key code modifications towards the end, the "AI Saga." I'd come across this great tutorial from Blackthornprod for crafting a simple AI which you can find here:
https://youtu.be/rhoQd6IAtDo

Hoping to build a tutorial out of this shortly, till then enjoy the video:

Game On: an exhibition of the history of gaming

Fan of gaming? Grew up in the hay day of 8 bit gaming and before? Well then this is for you. 'Game On' is a history of the origins of gaming and follows it since the very first times humans sequestered electrons for entertainment through the decades leading to the recent past.

Unlike most exhibitions though, this one is very hands on. Almost every device on exhibit is ready to be played. A few of the exhibits piqued my interest. Gradius was one; it was something I played as a kid on an early MSX computer. The version I played was ported to the PS2, with outstanding improvements.

Each ticket allows an hour of perusing through the gallery, which starts from the progenitors of gaming tech such as the very first lab machines commandeered for game development, magnavox odyssey - first proper games console, the latest generation consoles, and everything inbetween.

My personal favourites were the section on classic handheld devices and coming face to face with consoles, the very earliest of personal computers and not to mention classic games all from my childhood.

A few issues detract from this otherwise wonderful trip down memory lane. The layout is somewhat organic and doesn't present a chronological flow from the very beginning to the latest. There isn't even a tenuous guide to say the very least. A dozen or so magazine covers on entering the exhibit is intriguing, but not enough to warrant people staying on and admiring their content, given the limited time frame of the ticket. A single wall would've done the job better than plastering them through a hallway.

In terms of being a comprehensive look on gaming history, it falls short of not including the current latest technologies and not to mention where future trends, software, hardware and will head. 

For some of its short comings, the Game On exhibiton is great experience not to be missed. I for one wouldn't mind going there a second, third or even tenth time. 


Game On is being held at the Ambassador Theater on Parnell Street, Dublin. Hurry the exhibition is slated to close at the end of January 2011.