Need suggestions for graduation thesis!

Hello! This is my first post in the Unity forums.

Long story short, I've gotten an approval from my professor to use Unity with C# to create something to present as a graduation thesis. The long-term reason I wanted to work with Unity for my thesis is to explore the possibility of making game developing a hobby, or even, if it ever comes to that, something to do for a living. The short-term goal, which is the focus of the post, is to complete the thesis and graduate.

About me:
I have almost zero experience in programming (only some basic C and a tiny bit of java) and unfortunately will have to start from scratch.

Project Requirements:
The project has to be a working game/demo of a game - something completed, worth presenting - doesn't have to be anywhere near the size of a normal game and it has to make decent use of C# scripts. Since this is going to be a project for my thesis, it won't be used commercially, so I presume I can use any piece of art available.

My thoughts:
I was thinking of starting with Tiled to make a top-down 2D game.

What I need:
-Advice on the type of game - greatest priorities of the project being easy/fast (must be a 2D project).
-Your estimation of how much time an easy project will take to be completed considering that I am starting from scratch (e.g. 3h/day for X months).
-Any tutorial links are welcome!
-Any other advice/comments you want to make.

Thank you for your time!

 

https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/topics/scripting
http://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/

How much time do you have though?

For a game, I think (assuming you don't want tetris, snake or arkanoid) something like 1942 clone could be fairly easy to implement.

 

Thanks for your answer!

Indeed I don't want a type of game like those you mentioned. Tetris, snake or even arkanoid might be too simple for the thesis. A 1942 clone seems like a fair choice though!

Heh, even I don't know how much time I will be able to afford in the next few months, but assuming I will be able to work on it 3h/day (including watching tutorials because I am starting from scratch after all), how many months do you think it would take for me to complete it?

 

I don't know. It is pretty much impossible to predict.

Maybe you'll hit just the right kind of tutorial and create something basic in week or two and then spend the rest of the time making art assets.
Or maybe your programming experience will be a slowdown and you'll take a month or two, because of some problem you run into.

Just give it a try and see how it goes.

 

Have you considered a VR game as this is a new field and you can experiment and explore new areas.

 

A... VR game?
I have no idea what this requires, how complex it is, how I would present it :O
The thesis though is only for my diploma - it is not going to be published or anything - I do want a good grade but on the other hand I can't afford to waste too many months on it.

 

Check out the VR tutorials in the learning section, you will probably need high end hardware though, see min. specs for Rift and Vive.

 

Well what do you study? What is going to be your angle? What question are you trying to answer with your thesis? Does it focus on the tech, design, business, art, audio, user experience or other parts of game dev?

I used Unity for my own master thesis. We applied and suggested different pruning techniques to Monte Carlo Tree Search (UCT), in order to use it for convincing/more-human-like bots in a real-time multiplayer environment.
That is something you normally do not use the algorithm for, hence why it was a pretty decent topic for a master thesis. Which is the most important part for a thesis, have a clear goal for why you are making a game. Else you just end up with a game and nothing else.

 

Ah that's only a simple diploma thesis, requirements are much lower than a master thesis and simple demonstration of C# knowledge/efficient use, understanding and presenting what Unity provides as an engine and creating a very simple game with already made assets will suffice.

 

Does it matter if you follow a tutorial? There are some complete projects in the learning section of this site.

 

Err, I am certain that copying a tutorial will get me in trouble... Watching a tutorial of the same type of game (no other choice since I am a newbie) and differentiating my work from it as much as I can, perhaps adding new mechanics, yes.

 

Ah well then go nuts!