{help} I only have a month to produce a game on unity, and I don't know where to begin.

First off I don't know if this is the right spot for this thread. But like I said in the title, I only have one month with around an hour or two a day to learn how to and then code a game for a final exam. I am allowed to use assets but I have been having trouble implementing them, and I don't want to spend money. Where do you think I should start? I know other coding languages but I don't know any c# and have only used unity for a week.

 

We need to know far more than that.

For starters, what's the broader scenario here? Why do you only have 1 month and 1 hour per day? Is this a school/uni assignment, a paid contract, what?

As a follow up, what are the specs or brief you need to meet?

As a heads up, note that we're not here to do your work for you.

 

Literally you saying, you have 30-60hrs to make a Unity game, with prior 0 experience using Unity.

You are failed to start early, when assignment was given. Now you need face harsh reality and consequences.

Your only realistic chance is, is to make a pong game. Don't even try or atemp make anything bigger. Otherwise you simply won't make anything in time.

There are tons of resources how to make pong game in Unity.

Once you got basics working, you will be having approx week left at best. You can use that time to polish and add some nice graphics if time allows for it.

Do not start from graphics. Don't waste time on it. First you need make a mechanics.

Other than that, good luck.

 

Google Unity roll a ball tutorial. Do that. I doubt you have time to figure anything out on your own or make anything unique. Just figuring out beginner kinks in doing a basic tutorial will eat all your time.
As an example, the first problem you'll likely face is getting confused about engine versions. You'll have some red errors that you dont see in the tutorial. You'll spend several hours just figuring that out. This kind of thing is going to make it hard to finish anything in such a small amount of time.

 

I am a student, and I don't have all of the details for the project my class is doing a game jam we have not learned the theme (we find out what it is tomorrow). I only have a month before the project is due, I only get an hour or two because I don't have a powerful enough computer at home and can only use the schools' computers during class and lunch. I am just trying to find a place to start I have been trying to watch tutorials but they are all for different versions of unity, and I am so confused, and every time I try to figure out how to use assets they don't work right, or some errors occur and it doesn't work.

 

Ok, thank you I think I am going to try this. I have already experienced those errors and they are so confusing.

 

I strongly suggest just sticking to Unity's first party stuff. The Learn section (linked above) for tutorials, and I'd say to stick to the Unity versions listed in those tutorials and the content which comes with them.

Third party stuff is a great way to make early progress quickly, but it also drastically increases the complexity and required learning, and you don't have time for that. Same deal with 3rd party tutorials - some are great, but many aren't, and you don't have time to cast your net too far and then sort them out.

Are you deliberately being put under time pressure, or has the class been doing Unity stuff before now?

Keep the scope tiny and I think you'll be ok. If the time pressure is deliberate then that may even be the intended lesson here.

By 'tiny" I mean something of a similar scope to Pong on the low end, or Space Invaders or Breakout on the high end. Get it working, and then change one thing to make it unique, and then call it a day and just tinker with presentation if you've any time left.

 

My class has not done anything with unity before. I think there is supposed to be a time pressure but only to make a game, like a normal game jam. We were given the option to use whatever service we wanted, but the one we have been learning on, code.org, can not handle any decent game it is designed to teach the absolute basics. My only other option would be Khan academy and I wouldn't be able to make anything good on that site, so I decided to use unity for that reason.

Thank you, I am probably, going to try and find a tutorial and do that.

 

Start here: https://learn.unity.com/pathway/junior-programmer

Put as much time into it as you can. It should give you plenty of knowledge to make a presentable micro-game.

 

Working within constraints can be surprisingly good for creativity.

Assuming that your brief takes the constraints of a system such as code.org into account, I'd start by thinking of simple text games which can be tweaked to fit the brief. I'm thinking stuff such as Hi Lo, Hangman, Wordle, and so on.

Does your own computer run code.org ok?

 

This might sound weird but if you haven't already done so try an older release of Unity. With every release Unity has only gotten more demanding. Unity 5 can be run on much older hardware than the most recent releases and the aspects that will impact a basic project haven't changed that much over the years.

 

Did you consider using scratch?
Is it permitted for the project?

Is much simpler o learn. You can use on older machines and you can make quite a complex games.

Also, are you working in group. Or alone?

 

How in the world did you get into a situation where you've got an exam that you are not only not prepared for, but unable to prepare for?

 

My recommendation is to figure out how to get yourself a computer which can run Unity, so you can actually do your homework at home. Sell something, borrow the money, apply for a credit card, etc.

 

Yes it does because code.org is a web-based service but it can only create very basic games, plus it uses a weird block code system so it is super annoying

 

I only have access to a Chromebook at home and I don't think there is any way to download unity that I have found.

 

Ah. Yeah. The editor won't run at all on the OS of a Chromebook. I'm guessing it's a school issued Chromebook?

 

I just found out the details today I am going to be working in a group with a person with just a bit more experience with unity, and the theme is color I am going to try and follow a tutorial on on rolling ball, and then just have people try and dodge colored objects.

 

I am currently in the progress of saving up enough money to buy a laptop for next year but I won't be able to until the end of summer.

 

Why do you have nothing but a Chromebook?