Code Philosophy

As mentioned before, I started with this idea that I would write "engine code" for my Card game, where I could basically play a full game in the console without even touching Unity.   I left hooks in my code so that information could be passed back to the UI whenever an event happened.  For instance, here's a sample of code from my "attack" function.

string AttackResult = bf.processAttack(nextCard);
//Play the attack animation on the player ("Active" or "Defending" returned) or on the card ("Card")
//Play the attack animation + the ability animation on any other ("Stalwart" or "Evasion" or "Retaliation")
//Update the defending card and/or player health in UI

//If there is a card there check to see if it's health is <= 0
if (nextCard <= bf.defendingBattlefield.Count - 1)
{
 //Check to see if the card was killed
 if (bf.defendingBattlefield[nextCard].health <= 0)
 {
  // Remove the card from the battlefield
  Card deadCard = bf.defendingBattlefield[nextCard].card;
  bf.defendingBattlefield.RemoveAt(nextCard);

  // Add the static card to the defending player's graveyard
  bf.defendingGraveyard.Add(deadCard);
  // Play animation from battlefield to graveyard 
 }
}

//Lower the boost, if any
bf.processRelevantAffix_AttackEnd();

//Update the UI with the card's lowered attack

I left myself notes to remind me that when implementing a function I'd need to return something to the UI, so that an animation could be played.  I didn't think of this from the start, so some refactoring was needed.   This caused me to move some of the logic from the "engine" code into my "driver" (which will end up being the UI code).   Something to keep in mind when starting my next project as well, if I follow the same backend/frontend paradigm.   

Impact With Unity
There were some growing pains when migrating my code over to Unity.   Firstly and most importantly, Unity uses .NET 2.0 so a lot of the code for SQLite that I was using was unusable when I moved it over to Unity.   My plan was to make a DLL and just put it into Unity.  However, because of the differing function sets this did not work.  I worked and worked at the DLL and ended up just moving the code in file by file, fixing code as I went along.  

I still like the DLL idea - but I'll work on getting that going another time.

S/O to http://hilite.me/ for formatting my code for this post!

My Environment

Here are the technologies I'm using to create my first Unity game:

- Unity 5.   I chose this because of the plethora of information available and great tutorials everywhere.   I also especially appreciate the company and their goals: "the democratization of game development".

- Visual Studio 2015 -- I went back and forth between this and MonoDevelop, which is the other editor that comes bundled with Unity.  This won out because of it's support, maturity, features, and comfort level for me.    I was a .NET developer in a previous life, so this just made sense.  I'm doing my development in Unity exclusively in C#.

- SQLite database -- this holds all of my card details from generating new cards from scratch, to saving Decks full of cards and more.   I use a firefox addon called "SQLite Manager" to manage my database in a UI.

- SourceTree (Git) - this is my source control.  It took me a minute to set up and understand fully, but I feel pretty comfortable now pushing my code to the central server, and can even switch back and forth between my laptop and desktop PC with ease.  This goes for both the C# code and the Unity project (after some ".gitignore" fiddling).

- Gimp - very useful as an image editor, although for very minor things I still use MS Paint.

- Trello - used for issue tracking, worklist, and feature control.   I also have a list of completed items so I can look and see how far I've come (stay motivated).

- Artwork - mostly "borrowed" for now, to be replaced later once my game is nearing completion.

What I'm working on

There's a card game that I have for my phone that Free To Play but limits how much you can play based on a real life timer.  I love the mechanics, so I'm recreating this game (plus some enhancements of course) in Unity.   It's 2D, so there won't be lighting/camera/shading issues hopefully.   There aren't many tutorials on Unity in regards to TCG/CCG on YouTube, so I'm hoping to fill in some of this gap.   I'm not a video content creator (yet) though, so part of the motivation of this blog is to keep some of my video ideas in blog form.  I feel that since I'm going through these growing pains right now I'm uniquely qualified to teach from a beginner's standpoint. 

Currently my card game has a backend engine/database and can create a random level 1-25 card with 1-5 "stars".   My background is in application development, so I took the tact of writing "engine" code before I started really implementing things in Unity.    Basically, this means I can play the game in a console without it rendering anything in a UI to the screen.   I'm using an object oriented approach with a SQLite backend database to hold a lot of configuration information about my cards.

 In the frontend my Unity scene can create a card with full details (health, attack, level, stars, artwork, card text) and place it in 1-5 predetermined positions on the screen.   It can also clear the cards currently on the board.    This may not sound like much, but it has been a month of working on it (not full time of course) and I couldn't be prouder of it so far!

My goals with this game are to create a working product that can be played by anyone (not just me)!  This means working on polishing the game after it's "functionally complete".  So many voices in the podcasts that I listen to that espouse the virtues of actually completing a game.   I want to "make it clunky", meaning making it go "clunk" whenever someone clicks something or moves an asset.   I want there to be both visual and audio feedback, and I want it to feel like a great game. 

Reincarnation into Unity

I am restarting this blog and re-dedicating it to Unity.   It's an amazing time to be a game developer right now, with Unity 5.0 and Unreal Engine both being free (to a certain extent on each, but nearly 100% free).   So, here I am to throw away my unread book on OpenGL and start from the start with my intro into Unity game development.  

First, I'll start by listing some resources I've loved using to get started again on Game Development.

1) Unity3D.com - tons of great tutorials on the engine and all of the documentation

2) answers.unity3d.com - haven't got a ton of usage out of this yet but I have asked a few questions.  You have to have a certain amount of rep to ask a question and not have it sit in the "waiting to be approved" step.   However, I don't know anything about Unity so how am I supposed to get upvoted?  Answers take a long time.

3) TheDebugLog.com - great podcast about Unity game development and game development in general.  Keeps me motivated, keeps me informed about the state of game dev.

4) Game Devs Like You podcast - another great podcast about game development in general.   Good to keep a pulse on the industry.

5) Twitter hashtags:  #gamedev #madewithunity #unitytips  -- I'll peruse through these and find some good stuff now and then

I'll update this post as I think of more useful Unity and game dev related stuff.