Introducing Unity Game Dev Courses: Swords and Shovels - Create your first game!

Just getting started in Unity? We’ve teamed up with Pluralsight, one of the world’s leading technology learning companies, to teach you all the essentials of game development. At the end of these Unity Game Dev Courses, you will have fully built the Swords and Shovels game.

Learn all the core skills needed to create your very first Unity game!

To find out more, please visit the landing page.

 

This looks pretty awesome. Just fyi it's very hard to find the actual page of videos once you sign up. maybe something to improve on.

 

Did you find where to watch the videos?

 

Actually no. after 5 minutes of looking for it my Google search and FAQ pondering only led me to this page and the intro page for Swords and Shovels. I had to run off to do something else so no luck yet.

@aliceingameland shed some light please. This is quite awkward

 

Meanwhile I've gotten a free 10-day subscription from Pluralsight, so you can watch 200 minutes there while this is fixed up. =)

 

where are the videos?

 

maya? 3dsmax? photoshop? no thx Looks like a good course otherwise

 

after subscribed. I can't find how to start this course....

 

You should be able to find the courses on the Pluralsight website, under "Paths". Just search for "Swords and Shovels" and it should come up. Can you confirm if you can see them @D3Duck and @tonifang ?

 

i am having hard time searching them too.
i went to PluralSight and i cannot access these video aside from being "trial"

 

After you sign up on the landing page and purchase a subscription to the course, you should receive an activation email as well as be automatically taken to the Pluralsight account creation page to register your profile -- the course offer code should be automatically applied for you there. Then you should be able to sign in on Pluralsight and see the course overview under Paths like I mention in my previous post.

 

works for me, after clicked that link (which will arrive to your unity account email)

but i feel the promotion page was a little bit misleading,
showing that character in a dungeon being played like a real full game,
but what you actually get is a bunch of separate unity tutorials, on different topics, from different teachers, there is no full course for "lets make this exact game from scratch"..?

didn't see any tutorial about modeling yet in this package either,
while the page says "Learn the basics of content-creation tools like 3ds Max and Maya." ?

*that being said, watched only couple parts so far, so i could be wrong..

 

(Btw got it to work)
I think you're wrong because I skipped through parts of the courses and saw that the game was coming together as a tutorial. I could see though why you would of thought that from the beginning.

 

Yes, I received an email , and do activate the course. Thanks!

 

Looks like I derped on this one. Not using that e-mail acount anymore. I changed my e-mail and clicked 'activate' in 'seats' on my account page. All worked in a few minutes. Thanks.

If you read through the landing page it says there is still 90 hours of stuff to come. This is just the beginning.

And also, you'll for sure have to learn how to put things together yourself. Not saying we shouldn't have a 'mac and cheese - microwave and serve' tutorial but this is way better for learning in my experience.

 

Glad to hear it's working for you all now

 

@aliceingameland Tutorials are working fine, but where are the promised assets? Where do i download the unity_fundamentals package for swordsandshovels? I cannot find it in the assetstore, it is nowhere on pluralsight and i have no email mentioning the assets? Without them it is pretty senseless following the Tutorial...

@D3Duck @mgear Did anyone of you find or get the asset package?

 

Yes I did.
They are on PluralSight and you need to:
Go to the Home page on PluralSight
It should then display the Swords and Shovels menu.
Scroll down until you see "10 Courses".
Click on "Unity Animation Fundamentals
Then go to Excerise Files then download them.

That should be it. I'm not that far yet but follow those steps but click on a different course if you want to download the assets for it.

 

Thank you so much! I found it! So weird, i was really searching Pluralsight a couple times but never landed on that page. Not even once. Doesnt seem to be very userfriendly. Apparently quite a couple other people had my problem too =D

 

> Learn the basics of content-creation tools like 3ds Max and Maya.

Does the class require that I already have these programs? It looks really interesting, but I don't have access to these tools.

 

I haven't looked into that. Are they free? If so I'm assuming you need them, and if they cost a few dollars, I'd get them because they do you interesting and would probably be really useful for making games.

 

Any ETA on when the other parts are coming out? @aliceingameland

 

I'll check with the team if they have an ETA.

Update: Keep in mind this date is tentative, but the next wave of content should be added some time in January 2018.

Also someone mentioned not being able to find a support contact. If you need to contact Pluralsight for any reason, you can reach out to them via email: support@pluralsight.com

 

@aliceingameland I may have made some errors when signing up, but I saw a post here stating the content could be accessed from pluralsight and went ahead and signed up. Then I saw the email from Unity confirming my seat, however at this point I was already in a trial period with Pluralsight. Was the $12 purchase with Unity supposed to give me full access to Pluralsight? Or do I need to spend another 25 with them to get unlimited access?

 

The 12 is only for full access to the Unity content, as per the landing page. I guess you'll have to check the FAQ on Pluralsight or contact them for the other point.

 

I don't really want access to all of Pluralsight, I'm just worried that after 10 days or 200 min of view time I'm locked out of the money I've already spent :/ Also, I've tried downloading the exercise assets but all the materials and textures come out as just black and white. Is that happening to anyone else?

 

The $12 you spent on the Unity Swords and Shovels landing page is for Pluralsight. The $12 is a monthly payment. It is a discount for the normal monthly payment for pluralsight. It gives you access to all the videos and courses for the Swords and Shovels game. If you messed up your account, which I did also, go to Unity and go to your account. Then go to "my seats" and you should see the Swords and Shovels. Then click "access content" and you should be good from there.
Hope this helped

 

Alright... Paying $12/month for this "Swords and Shovels" tutorial...

2nd or 3rd video in, after describing how to navigate EXPLORER ad nauseum, a task that most first graders can perform, the narrator casually says: "Ok so just open your 3ds Max..."--WHICH COSTS MORE THAN $3600, BTW--and then goes on to casually scroll between Maya, Photoshop, etc. etc. etc., all of which cost money.

Do ya wanna... Maybe mention that before hand? Just maybe?

I cannot begin to describe how infuriated I am. I will definitely be asking for a refund, unless these 3rd party programs are somehow free and I'm missing something?

 

They're not free obviously, but the point is that you learn how to use the game engine. It does say on the landing page that these third party programs will be used, and getting and learning Blender, GIMP, etc. easily replaces the ones shown (sure it may not be AS good, but they're free...). If you're not going to use this kind of software then you'll have to buy the assets, in which case you wont need this part of the tutorials anyway.

I'm also annoyed that I can't use 3DS and Maya due to the pricing which is not very hobbyist friendly, but not sure why you're so mad. =/

 

I'm not sure why you're not. Are you a sheep? Do you enjoy being excluded because of your financial circumstances? When someone holds a blatant financial monopoly over you, and exploits it, do you smile, bend over, and say: "Thank you, sir, can I have another?"

The "Swords and Shovels" tutorial is touted as being a step-by-step guide to learning Unity. And yet, almost immediately, AS PART OF THE TUTORIAL LEARNING PROCESS, they incorporate many different 3rd party programs that you need SIMPLY TO FOLLOW ALONG.

The 3rd or 4th video in he starts casually going into great depth about the modeling and design systems of 3ds Max. The following videos even build upon his descriptions of it. There might be a brief sentence somewhere in the "landing page" that mentions 3rd party programs, but NOWHERE is the NECESSITY of the 3rd party programs explained.

Clearly, I'm annoyed. But your casual indifference to obvious financial exploitation galls me even more. I just don't think you're aware that this is an injustice. It is financial exploitation, whether you are aware of the gravity of that or not.

There is a fallacy in this country that with enough hard work and determination, you can accomplish your goals. A fee at the door of over $4000 (and I'm not kidding, 3ds Max alone costs more than $3600), SHATTERS that illusion.

In the very least, Unity NEEDS to be more upfront and honest about these barriers to entry.

 

@Serostasis Okay, you can chill now. I'm just pointing out that if you are not willing to put down the money for it, you can simply use Blender or other open source software which is perfectly able to handle these jobs. You don't need to get into silly attempts to insult me because you don't agree with my opinion.

I looked over the landing page again and your comment about 'Unity not being honest and upfront' is absolutely off. It states several times that these programs are going to be used and are part of the courses. Your comments about how much these programs are being used is also not really correct.Sure they are used, but you don't need to do this if you have game-ready assets. If you don't then you'll need this stuff and the tips are actually very handy and applicable to free software as well.

The fact that Photoshop is better than GIMP and obviously leading the market does not make it a monopoly. That's the whole idea behind open source software - breaking the monopoly and allowing others to have this software as well.

Are Maya, 3ds Max, etc. overpriced? Unless you use them daily or for your job they absolutely are. But good luck convincing the 'authorities' that they should be making a 'Unity hobbyist friendly' price or subscription.

Just as a note. I do understand what you're saying, and I personally have an intense hate for subscriptions for software. I would buy things like the Substance suite in a heartbeat if it had a reasonable price. But now they want you to pay for it every month while I might not even use it (as I spent most time programming anyway). $3K+ for 3D modeling software is insane, no matter how good it is.

This is getting a bit off topic, but thought I'd elaborate a bit.

 

I would definitely double check in your Pluralsight account subscription settings that you cancel the trial in case it automatically charges you afterward -- I'd contact the Pluralsight support (email in this thread above) just to be sure if you are worried about it.

 

I can understand why this is frustrating for you, but please be civil when replying to other users who are merely trying to offer you an alternative solution. Your feedback is welcome and I will pass it on to the team in charge of this program, but consider this a gentle warning. Thank you.

 

I haven't checked out these courses yet, but I'd like to throw my hat in the ring as well. 3DStudio is way over-priced for most of us. Its like owning a brand new Ferrari and all you do is go get groceries with it in your own neighborhood, as in you'll probably never ever use the full potential of the car. I completely understand 3D Studios role as a professional level piece of software used by titans such as Pixar and Disney and some of your bigger game studios, and I don't have any animosity towards it for being out-of-reach expensive because it was never designed to be a newbie tool to make newbie models for newbie games (sorry if that sounds mean, didn't mean for it to sound so harsh, since I'm one of the newbies myself).

Photoshop is the same thing. This is the software that most professional companies use for 2D graphics, because it lets their artists work more efficiently and have more power at their fingertips. Without a doubt Photoshop is way better than GIMP for certain tasks (I love me some Magic Eraser, where as GIMPS color-to-alpha feature just feels hacky and incomplete). One of the reasons Photoshop is so much better than GIMP is the years and years of dedicated development on the software, by paid employees whose sole job it is to add new features and support, who are paid from the money they generate from people purchasing copies of Photoshop. If the employees that worked on Photoshop were all instead volunteers, the software probably wouldn't be as robust and feature rich as it is now.

Also, if Photoshop or 3D Studio is the ONLY way you can succeed for some reason, and if you have a decent credit score, you could get a credit card and buy your software with that and then make monthly payments on it. Sure you'll pay in interest as well, but this is the way I've been able to afford most of the nicer things I own. I personally don't know a single person that has $3600 that they can just spend in one instant on some modeling software without a GUARANTEE that they'll make that money back, and in fairly short order (bills and rent gotta get paid, yo)... but I know plenty of people that can afford $50-$100 or so every month to pay their credit card bill.

All of that being said, I wouldn't mind a Blender and GIMP centered tutorial with a single teacher, because those are the tools I'm using at the moment myself, and I find listening to a bunch of different teachers to be harder to learn from than from a single teacher. In the tutorials that are available on this site (Unity3d) they switch between an American guy and a British guy at random in the tutorials, and I personally can't stand the British accent for long periods of time without wanting to throw some tea into a harbor somewhere (I'm just kidding... please don't hit me!).

 

Hi all,

I was able to get through all the tutorials in a little less than 2 weeks. Even though I do not have a finished game now I do believe the courses were well structured and professional. I'm assuming the 90 additional hours coming in January will cover the remaining parts of building the game. For $12 it is worth every penny. Had these been for free on YouTube I would have had to sit through an additional 2 hours of advertisements. So just for having no ads I would have paid double!

I give the creators of these tutorials a lot of respect because it is not easy to teach this way, especially when there is so much to cover. Please, please, please correct me if I'm wrong, but is the business model behind the tutorials dependent on people staying subscribers? Will the 90 hours of additional video be spread out over a year so it will cost me another $144 to finish?

I'm glad I signed up for a month, and definitely know A LOT more than I did 2 weeks ago, so I have no regrets. But there were times I would say to myself "They shouldn't make it sounds like you will build an entire game for $12" because that is definitely not the case.

Respectfully.

 

I agree. In fact, not building the game directly and having tutorials for aspects of the game is better since you'll probably get a lot more out of it.

 

I'm going to get on this and see how much I can learn, I'm a complete beginner. I went on Autodesk btw and downloaded 3DS Max and Maya for free as a student. Obviously you can only use for educational purposes but that's the whole idea atm right?

 

Yea. I've heard of making an education account but I would steer clear of that if you are a actually making a game out of it. Education would be for learning only, so I wouldn't take advantage of it. Right now I am just going to use free alternatives, such as Blender.
By the way, does Blender have any licenses or is it free to use commercially?

 

After reading the above posts, I'm still not sure....
Can one complete the course without any graphics editing?
I don't mind just watching a few videos of how its done, see how the other half does things etc,
but mostly I'm a programmer.
So can I carry on with the making of the game without actually doing the graphics?

 

Free to use

 

Yes.
There are 10 courses total in the Swords and Shovels course. All of them provide the pre-made character animations and textures for you, which is available on the Pluralsight website. (I said up above how to get to those downloads if you need to see how)
All I believe provide everything you need for them, but I'm not sure about the Unity Animation Course, which you might need autodesk materials but I doubt it.
So the answer is yes, they provide everything for you, but maybe not for the animation course.However if you don't use the animation course, you still get around 20 hours of content.

 

I registered a trial account on Pluralsight, and tried to play videos, and it seems to play only overwiev videos.
Also, excercise files are not available for download - upgrading account required.

I think I will have to upgrade it, as I need similar game with click to move/attack logic, but I have a question.

Do those excercise files include complete game with complete scripts? Because it there are only assets like fbx models plus animations, textures, but no code, I'ld be sad... I want to download complete source code, complete/final project of game...

Also, are excercise files different for different modules/courses?

Till what date this offer (12$/month) will go on?

 

Hi, after finishing the course within 3 weeks of registering I decided to cancel. I couldn't find the cancellation button on PluralSight's account section so I called PluralSight to cancel. They said not to worry, the subscription only goes for 1 month and unless I decide to continue no action is necessary.

I just got charged for another month.

Can someone please go through the steps necessary to cancel the subscription to Swords and Shovels.

1. How to cancel prior to end of month?
2. How to get a refund when charged after subscription ends?

Thanks!

 

@DailyCocoa, I just surfed the site, and found the link:
https://help.pluralsight.com/help/cancel-individual-subscription
please, tell me if this works for you

 

How is this course compared to the Certificate Courseware?
I got both but which one would be the most appropriate to start with?

 

Hello!
To cancel your subscription, go to your account on unity and go to the organization you purchased it under, and you will should see the Swords and Shovels. From there, click on it and you can cancel it form there (I don't remember exactly which tab it is under).
I hope this answered your question!

 

A few questions:
Is anyone here a full-time worker, and had finished this course?
How long does it take?
Do you feel confident to start making a game from scratch now?

Thanks!

 

I am not a full-time worker, but I did do the course, at least most of it. The course is a total of about 23 hours long. I knew little before I did this course, but it was around a month ago I did it. I only did the "main part" of the course, which they helped me a lot. Things I didn't really do were specific topics, such an animations and lighting. I feel that the course is very helpful, and would recommend it to all people. The coding is pretty basic so you should do just fine on it. I am now, about a month or so, after doing the lesson, am working on a game I am planning to release soon. A basic game, but I feel it pretty fun. Overall, the instructor on this course was clear and it was easy to follow along with.

 

Thanks! That's very helpful information! I think I will start learning too!

 

I think I read that - I want to say 80 more hours? - are coming soon. Maybe this month.