2D Vertical Scrolling Backgrounds (Football Field)

Hi, I'm in the process of starting to build a game like "Touchdown Hero" for mobile phones and tablets. The first thing I'm trying to decide on is the best method for getting the field to scroll vertically.

I don't have my artwork yet and the assets are limited on the Unity Asset Store, minus a football field material for $2. I've watch the 2D Scrolling tutorial and picked up on some ideas, but my problem is this... there are let's say 20 fields and they scroll randomly with weather and all.

What would be the best way to handle this to get me started?

Thx in advance!

 

Would the weather change during the game or is it constant once the game starts? E.g. Are there 10 different fields each in sun & rain making the 20 or are there 20 different fields that then each have weather variants?

 

I bought a weather particle asset from the Asset store and plan to have the weather drawn randomly. Not sure if the field background can randomly have leaves or snow on the surface as well or those backgrounds need to be created separately as independent objects.

Thx for the help.

 

My advice would be to start by just doing one field, get your scrolling & other assets working how you want it to so you can test everything works before you add the other fields & weather. Once you know how to do it with one field it isn't much work to add more as they will all work the same way, just look different.

 

That's my plan, but I know you can be more efficient with your code and not create x number of backgrounds for a vertical scrolling game. I'm just trying to find out what's the more efficient way to do it.

 

If you have a finite playfield, then using one background and scrolling over it using whatever camera code you need is fine.

To change the look of the playfield, you can change the texture applied to it. To simplify the number of textures you are using, you can adjust the material's parameters at runtime. You could try to adjust the Albedo color:


This could make grass look different depending on the situation. You can also overlay an additional texture or perhaps find a use for the secondary maps to add different details to the background on the fly...

 

Thanks for the reply Adam. Is there a thread or tutorial you could point me to on how best to do this? I'm also thinking of using a sprite instead of a quad as the background object, but wasn't sure if that would be best.

 

I would try looking on the asset store for the tower bridge 2d platformer project to break that down. Also go through the 2D section on the learn site to see how to set up a 2D game.

 

Are you referring to this game?
http://peetlee.com/portfolio/2d-platformer-tower-bridge-defence/

I think I've seen it as part of the 2D tutorials, but it's not mobile and not a side scroller. Am I missing something?

 

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/11228