Interaction Kit - Pro Tools To Make Any GameObject Interactive

Hi everyone,

I'd like to introduce Interaction Kit, soon to be released on the asset store!



About Interaction Kit v3.0

Interaction Kit is an innovative and powerful system to handle practically any kind of interaction in your games. It is possible to build interactions with the kind of depth you’d see in popular RPG games. Anything from simple door triggers, switches, complex quests or even non-linear conditional speech can be built with InteractionKit’s incredibly easy to use visual logic system. The UI is powered by a very flexible editor that allows you to customise the placement, appearance and effects of your interface.

Interaction Kit has everything you need to make any GameObject interactive in a matter of minutes! The friendly editor allows you to choose from 8 RayCasting techniques that cover the majority of game genres as well as offering unprecedented control over collisions via a mix of layers and game tags!

Finally, the real power comes from the Interact editor which allows you to easily create conditional events just by pointing and clicking the mouse. Each event can trigger a wide array of built-in actions and you can even trigger external scripts! Maybe you want to create an interaction on a door, but only have it open if you acquire the key? Perhaps you want to build a conversation with an NPC that is different depending on the progress the player has made? All of this and more is possible with InteractionKit, the all in one power house of developing interactions!

Features

• Make any GameObject interactive!
• Powerful, easy to use editors!
• Easily build Conditional Events for any interaction!
• Events can trigger a wide array of Built-in actions!
• Actions can call external scripts!
• 8 Customizable Detection Modes to cover most games!
• Setup obstacles based on Physics Layers and Game Tags!
• Easily Customizable UI!
• Supports both the new and default Unity Input System!
• Custom Event Actions for LDC Plugin!
• All 4 Tech Demos Included!
• Detailed PDF manual!
• FULL source (No DLLs!)

Introduction Video

Find out more about InteractionKit in this short video:

Promo Images

Find out more about InteractionKit in this short video:




Tutorial Videos

Complete Walkthrough videos here:

> Tutorial 1 - Basics (22:12)
> Tutorial 2 - Detection Modes (10:29)
> Tutorial 3 - Building Interactions (17:05)

Documentation

Take a look at the Interaction Kit manual here:

> Documentation (PDF)


Release / Price

The system is pending approval on the Asset Store. It will be launching with a 33% discount and selling for $50.

Thanks for your interest! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

- Mel

 

Hi everyone,

INTERACTION KIT IS NOW LIVE!

InteractionKit is now LIVE on the Asset Store! Check it out here:

INTERACTION KIT - Pro Tools To Make Any GameObject Interactive

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

- Mel

 

Hi Mel
Am I right to assume that this will work out of the box with LDC and the meshkit?

 

Hi sicga123,

Yep, they're all compatible with each other!

InteractionKit also has special custom actions just for LDC users too!

- Mel

 

Hi Mel,

Ok, good to know. I'll get a copy at the weekend, assuming the discount lasts that long.

 

Hi Sicga123,

Sounds great!

Yep, the discount will be good for a while!

- Mel

 

Instabuy!! Really like the interface again. The discount is not active atm?

 

Hi Weblox,

Glad you like it! The current price is with the discount. The full price will be similar to LDC.

As is the case with all of my assets, you can expect the same level of support and quality you're used to!

Hope that helps!

- Mel

 

Awesome. Thanks for the quick response! I will get it while the disount is active...

 

Awesome!

- Mel

 

Can I use it for games that interact with objects like the Sims game?

 

Hi Cartoon-Mania,

Ah, that is a good idea! I'm guessing you mean triggering interactions by pointing / clicking the mouse on objects?

This should be pretty easy to add, I'll have it in an update ( v1.1 ) within a week!

- Mel

 

Couldn`t resist. Having them all: Playmaker, Gamemaker.....etc. Thought i would never buy another one, but this looks to cool. Great work.

 

Thanks unicat!

- Mel

 

UPDATE:

As suggested by Cartoon-Mania, I've already got the internal algorithms working for mouse hover / click interactions, I'm going to make a new tech demo for that too and update the plugin in the next few days!

- Mel

 

INTERACTION KIT v1.1 HAS BEEN RELEASED!

Good news everyone, InteractionKit v1.1 is now available on the Asset store (and my site )!

Here's what's new:

- 2 New Detection Modes: "Mouse Raycast 2D" and "Mouse Raycast 3D". This is great for point and click style games! (Thanks to @Cartoon-Mania for suggesting the idea! ).
- Audio improvements, quick audio fade-ins with a second audio source for transition audio.
- Fixed a bug where a custom icon would sometimes not appear.

There is also a new tech demo to showcase the new "Mouse Raycast 2D" mode:
> 2D Mouse Point & Click Demo

If you have any questions, feel feel free to ask!

BTW: A big thank you to everyone who has purchased Interaction Kit already! If you've found it useful please give it a good rating in the asset store as that helps to bring in new users which helps me to keep adding cool new updates. It's a positive cycle!

Cheers!

- Mel

 

Thank you for your prompt response. I would like to make another suggestion. It is a little complicated. Let's say that I selected training in the pie menu. There are several treadmills in the game. Treadmills differ in price. And there is a treadmill already in use. The character chooses a treadmill that no one else uses. Then choose a high-priced treadmill and exercise. It is an example of the Sims I said.

If such a feature is added, I will buy it immediately.

 

Hi Cartoon-Mania

Interaction Kit can facilitate all of that but it can’t build all elements of your game I’m afraid.

Generally speaking, interactions happen at the object level. So for example, Interaction Kit can make your treadmill interactive ( or any other object ). When you click on your treadmill, Interaction Kit can then figure out which treadmills are available based on the conditional events that you build and tell your pie selector what to display using that workflow. During that process it’s up to you to build the rest of your game’s mechanics.

Interaction Kit can act as a great framework to make all of your objects interactive and to also help separate what should happen with it’s easy to use conditional events.

However, in the Interaction Kit workflow, it would make more sense for the treadmill to show options for which of your other sims can use it, rather than showing other treadmills. What you’re trying to do doesn’t sound like it’s on the Interaction object level but rather a system wide level, so that specific action is probably better served with a custom script.

... At least for right now, anyway

Hope that helps!

- Mel

 

Hi Everyone!

INTERACTION KIT v1.5 HAS BEEN RELEASED!

Good news everyone, InteractionKit v1.5 is now available on my site and is waiting for approval on the Asset Store! There's lots of cool new features so let's explore what's new:

Local Variables!



Every Interact component now has 10 local integer variables that you can use instead of PlayerPrefs to handle conditional events. This means that setting up NPC dialogs and simple scene-based conditions is WAY EASIER and you can even look at the values in the Editor while the game is playing to more easily see what's going on!

This means you can build conditional events like this:



As you can see, Local Variables can be used in pretty much the same way as PlayerPrefs!


Local Variables Actions!

We've also expanded the interaction actions section to allow editing local variables! You can set, add, subtract of even randomize local variables like this:



As you can see, local variables are a super easy way of setting up conditional events without saving data between levels. This gives you an easy way to keep scene data and global data separate!

... But there's more!

Unity Event Actions!

In addition to the SendMessage actions, Unity Events are now implemented to allow you to connect to other scripts using Unity's built-in Event system!




I'd like to thank everyone who has purchased Interaction Kit already! If you've found it useful please give it a good rating in the asset store as that helps to bring in new users which helps me to keep adding cool new updates like this. It's a positive cycle!

Cheers!

- Mel

 

Again great job! These new features look quite handy. To get the best out of it, newbies like me still would need some in-depth video Tutos, also and especially covering SendMessage and Event actions (also for LDC).

Thnx and keep up the good work !!

 

Hi @Weblox !

Glad you’re happy about the latest update!

Did you watch the latest interaction kit tutorial video (building interactions)? I believe some of the SendMessage stuff was covered there

If you have any specific questions about any of that feel free to ask!

- Mel

 

Is it possible to select more than one object before a particular event is activated? But the maximum limit of objects that can be selected depends on another factor like an Item equipped by the player.

 

Hi @RendCycle,

I'm not exactly sure I understand what you're trying to do. Specifically, I'm not sure what you mean by "selecting objects". In any case, I'll try to help!

The easiest way of getting Interaction Kit to run a very complicated function is to use either the SendMessage or UnityEvent actions to trigger some code you've written elsewhere in a script.

On the other hand, depending on how things are setup you can do it all visually from the Interaction editor itself. If you have a PlayerPref setup called "IsItemXEquipped" whenever your player equips item X, then you can easily check this using the built-in visual editor when building your own conditions. Don't forget you can have multiple events on the same interaction which allows you to have different actions depending on specific conditions.

Hope that helps!

- Mel

 

Thanks for the reply. I watched the videos but could not find an example of group selection. To clarify, I mean would this work to let's say a similar behavior of group selecting objects that can be interacted in a strategy game (i.e. Warcraft, Company of Heroes, etc.)? Like mouse dragging or Ctrl+clicking over those target objects before clicking a button to fire an event (i.e. shoot those targets, move those targets, etc).

 

Hi @RendCycle,

Ah, I think I understand what you mean now.

Currently, interaction kit is designed for the player to interact with a single interaction at a time using a variety of techniques that makes it suitable across game genres.

The mouse interactions in IK are limited to single clicks at the moment, not group selections with the mouse. So clicking on a unit in a strategy game is possible to "select" them but not drag and drop functionality for multiple units.

I'll need to have a think about if and how something like that could be integrated in future and add it to the wish list.

Thanks for the request!

- Mel

 

Alright, thanks again!

 

No problem!

 

Hi everyone,

I've just released a new tool called Data Kit - The Reimagined Data Serialization System For Unity.

DataKit is a unique cross-platform data serialization system to automatically handle most aspects of saving and loading your game's data. Features include local and global data, save slots, save points, data groups, obfuscation, encryption and even automatic screenshots. Another great DataKit feature is the intuitive visual debugger, allowing you to view, edit, delete and restore your serialized data in real-time while testing your games in the Editor! DataKit is a powerful core asset that any game project would benefit from!

As with all of my Unity plugins, it uses visual inspectors in an effort to make things as easy to use as possible (although some scripting is required). There are quite a few tutorial videos on the DataKit forum page but please check out this introduction video to see how DataKit can help with your own projects!

DataKit is currently on sale with a 50% launch discount! For more information about DataKit check out the Asset Store page HERE. If you have any questions or suggestions for DataKit, please use its own unity forum page HERE.

... OK, now back to Interaction Kit!

- Mel

 

INTERACTION KIT v2 HAS BEEN RELEASED!

Good news everyone, InteractionKit v2 is now available on my site and the Asset Store!

Hold To Trigger

This feature required a rewrite of InteractionKit's input system but you can now setup specific interactions to optionally use a "Hold To Trigger" input method. This means that users will need to hold down the input button for a certain number of seconds (that you set) before it activates. These options are found in the Interaction Properties section under "Hold To Trigger" and "Trigger Duration In Seconds":



If "Hold To Trigger" is not checked (default), then interactions will work as they did before.

New Multi-Camera / Rig Demo

This was not (easily) possible in previous versions of InteractionKit but you can now dynamically change player rigs at runtime using some relatively simple scripting.

A new variation of the FPS demo has been included which shows you how to swap between 2 completely different camera / character rigs with InteractionKit!

Links:
Get InteractionKit From the Asset Store
Get InteractionKit From my site


I hope everyone enjoys the new features - As always, this update is free!

- Mel

 

Great, thank you.

 

@unicat you're welcome!

 

This might be a silly question, but I haven't seen any mention of it. Can an interaction trigger an animation to play for the player character or for the interaction object? Thank you!

 

Hi @DragonShadow,

Firstly, thanks for your interest in Interaction Kit!

Yep, you sure can! UnityEvents would probably be the easiest way to do this

- Mel

 

Cool, that's what I was thinking but better safe than sorry, haha.

 

No worries!

 

Hi Mel,

I'm currently interested in getting this plugin. For the distance 3D detection, would it be possible to make it work in a VR setting with the players hands out of the box? (Eg, then the players hands are near/on an object).

 

Hi @BennyTan,

Firstly, thanks for your interest in Interaction Kit!

I haven't tested this, but you could use the built-in FPS example as a base (with a few tweaks). You should be able to make it work with the following two steps:

1) Change the detection mode from 'Camera Raycast 3D' to 'Custom Raycast 3D' in the InteractionKit Setup.

2) Set the 'Find Custom Object By Name' field to the name of your VR hand's GameObject.

That *should* make things work!

Hope that helps!

- Mel

 

Thank you for the fast reply ! Will purchase this soon! Cheers!

 

Hi @BennyTan,

No worries!

- Mel

 

INTERACTION KIT v2.0.1 HAS BEEN RELEASED!

Hi everyone, InteractionKit v2.0.1 is now available on my site and soon to be released on the Asset Store!

IMPORTANT: PLEASE BACKUP YOUR PROJECTS AS FILE GUIDS HAVE BEEN CHANGED!

This is a maintenance update to address an issue with users trying to use InteractionKit and some of my other tools (such as MeshKit). InteractionKit appears to be using duplicate GUIDs which causes some strange issues with Unity's package installer.

To resolve this, InteractionKit's file GUIDs have been changed. This means on the next update, you may notice a yellow warning in the unity package installer to let you know that GUIDs are different. If all goes well, Unity's package installer should be able to update things properly.

Moving forward, InteractionKit will now officially require a minimum Unity version of 2017 LTS (although it will still likely work fine with Unity 5.6x).

TROUBLESHOOTING

Hopefully everything will update fine but if you get a situation where you have missing script slots, it will look like this:



To fix this, you should be able to just drag and drop the updated version of the scripts back in to the "Missing (Mono Script)" slots and all of your previous settings should be restored. The scripts you'll need can be found in the Plugins > Hell Tap Entertainment > InteractionKit > Scripts folder.

For example, on the InteractionKit GameObject example above, you would drag and drop the InteractionKit.cs script in the missing slot of the first component, and the InteractionKitGUI.cs script in the bottom component.

For any interaction objects with this issue, you should drag the Interact.cs script into the missing slot.

Apologies for any headaches this may cause, but its always better to fix these kinds of issues as early as possible. Please do remember to backup your projects before any update!

Thanks!

- Mel

 

INTERACTION KIT v2.0.2 HAS BEEN RELEASED!

Hi everyone, InteractionKit v2.0.2 is now available on my site and soon to be released on the Asset Store!

IMPORTANT: ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR PROJECTS BEFORE UPDATING!

This update provides compatibility for Unity 2019.3!

- Mel

 

Hello.Thanks for the cool asset.Can i use it on my FPS controller?
Is it suitable for UPR projects?

 

Hi @Jairusx,

Firstly, thanks for your interest in InteractionKit!

I don't see why not ... As you can see from the videos, it's pretty easy to implement it into all kinds of games as it is pretty much self-contained.

Hope this helps!

- Mel

 

Hello! thanks for the kit! It is extremely easy to use and quick to setup! I recreated something I was doing through hacky scripts in minutes. Already worth the price of admission.

Please forgive me if I am missing something obvious, but is there a way to add multiple interactions with different key inputs?

Example... you walk up to a chest and the interaction menu comes up and gives you three options:
1. Hit E to pick lock
2. Hit F to bash it open
3. Hit C to cry because you can't do any of those

Does this make sense?

thank you again!

 

Hi @shooob,

Firstly, thanks for purchasing InteractionKit!

Unfortunately that functionality doesn't exist. To keep interactionKit easily cross platform, it uses a single unified interaction trigger (even though you can setup different inputs to control it ).

To achieve what you're aiming for, you could create a small UI that pops up and allows the user to choose between the 3 options. InteractionKit would then be the "interaction" that loads that specific menu. For example, you would create a disabled UI GameObject with the buttons as a child of your chest object and have interaction kit simply show it when a user interacts with the chest.

Hope this makes sense!

- Mel

 

thanks for the reply. It all does make sense. Can't argue against cross platform and unified integrations.

that approach does make a sense as well and a good option. I was going to try to make a "menu" of many small objects containing many integration objects to look at and choose from. All use E, but have different names. keeps the interaction button simple and makes it more "physical."

either way... thanks again. Great tool! Easy, reliable, well organized with clean menus.

 

Hi @shooob,

Happy to help!

- Mel

 

Hi, what's a good way to install the downloadable 3rd Person Demo with the Standard Assets in Unity 2020? Creating a new 3D project in Unity 2020, and importing InteractionKit, and then importing the downloadable 3rd Person Demo unitypackage results in hundreds of missing scripts on Game Objects.

Thanks for any suggestions. All the best,
Dave

p.s. Purchased a few days ago:

 

Hi @davidjcalabrese ,

Firstly, thanks for your interest in InteractionKit! I'm guessing you mean the 3rd Person demo?

Just some background: I had to keep that specific example outside of the main package in order to comply with Unity's rules. Any example scene that uses Unity's "Standard Assets" is not allowed ( Unity updates it every now and then and it causes demos to break, which it has lol ). This is why all the other demos use simplified setups that don't require it.

I've just updated it ( but it now requires Unity 2020.1 to work ). As always, please backup your projects first.

InteractionKit - 3rd Person Demo

I've also updated the demo to use InteractionKit's newer "Local Variables" feature to control dialogs with other characters rather than "PlayerPrefs" as its much easier to understand that way.

Please note that when you import this demo Unity will show some weird messages in the console ( this is because Unity's standard assets will try to do some weird stuff ). Those initial import messages are harmless so just clear the console and the demo should work fine

BTW: If you need any additional info please send me a PM / email (with your invoice ID) and I'll be happy to help!

- Mel

 

INTERACTION KIT v2.0.3 HAS BEEN RELEASED!

Hi everyone, InteractionKit v2.0.3 is now available on my site and soon to be released on the Asset Store!

This is what's new:

• Updated for Unity 2020.1
• Changed Local Variable Ints to use letter names to make them easier to understand.
• The “Activate GameObjects By Name” action now works as expected.
• The Message Canvas script in the demos now exposes its “ShowMessage” method to make it compatible with UnityEvents as well as custom SendMessage actions.

People who have purchased this plugin at my site can download right away. The asset store version is awaiting approval and will hopefully be available soon

IMPORTANT: ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR PROJECTS BEFORE UPDATING!

NOTE: This version of InteractionKit now requires Unity 2020.1. However, for those want the new updates it should be backwards compatible if you copy the scripts manually from 2020.1 to an older project.

Thanks to everyone who has supported InteractionKit so far!

- Mel