Noob ask: How hard could be... And where to start a game

Hi guys.

I'm a noob designer and I have an idea of a sidescroll space shooter. In this game there'll be a fight with a HUGE boss, where the ship will scroll around the boss destroying guns, cannons, turrets and the hull to weaken the boss. The player will progress to the next sector only after destroy the current sector leaving the hardest for last.
My questions are: Since I'm new with everything (I'm currently taking lessons of C# and Unity) I'm wondering how much time will I take to acomplish such a thing. An year it's a resonable amount of time?
Another question: Is there any tool to help on the task (script boss behaviour)?
Bonus question: If I want my boss to drop bonuses after destroyed parts, how do I search this kind function in the Unity documentation? I guess this is my bigest doubt... For example: to make the player navigate the screen we use TRANSLATE. I learned this recently but I had no idea how to start if I was by myself
I posted a simple storyboard frame of the fight to help understanding.

That's it. ANY help will be much appreciated.

Many many many thks to you all.

 

You can go through tutorials at https://unity3d.com/learn
or you can read the manual to discover what you can do and how you do it. Be aware the documentation is split behind the scripting api reference:

https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/index.html

and the manual:

https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/UnityOverview.html

The manual is the place where you should start. The topics are listed on the left, if you go down that list (click on a "+" to expand the tree of sub-topics) and just read all the entries one by one (or at least the ones that seem relevant to your project), then you will expand your knowledge at a tremendous speed, much faster than watching videotutorials. When you then have more explicit questions on how certain commands are used and what they do, then you go to the script reference and read the description and examples there.

You will soon learn that time estimates almost never work out, but I think it's a reasonable scope for a highly motivated beginner and a year is a reasonable timeframe to expect (though you easily can spend many years on any kind of project, and some people knock out a simple side scroller in 2 days, it depends on many things).
Personally I think programming is the easy part on such a project, the sooner you seriously think about gamedesign as it's own set of skills the better imho.

And I almost forget to answer your question more directly:
Physics.Raycast
Physics2D.Raycast
GetComponent<>()
Colliders
Parent/Children relationships in the hierarchy
Transforms
Vector Math
Physics Callbacks (OnCollisionEnter() etc.)

Likely you'll need most of these. And be sure to check out the full scripting reference for the math and vector classes, there are super cool convenience functions like SmoothDamp, that are easy to overlook. I use those a ton:

https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Mathf.html
https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Vector3.html

 

Hello dude =), well Martin said it all. Check the tutorial, you'll find many on how to make 2D shoot them up. You seem motivated so I'm sure you'll make it, but there's a difference between a game and a good game. You could have a playable prototype in a matter of days, but to test it, to work on the sound design, the particles, the menu, the scenario, the rythme etc... Can take you years indeed.
I kinda want to play your game now =)

 

How long it will take is hard to say, because it really depends on the quality level you're going for. Generally how things go is you can get functional mechanics within days. Your game will be playable within the first 1/4 of the total development time. The remaining 3/4 of the total development time is spent on details, polish, changes based on feedback, etc.

 

Thanks everybody for your collaborations. Tks @Martin_H for all the instructions and guys for additional comentaries. I hope I have the beta soon. Any other update I'll keep you informed.
Tks

 

Everything is easy if you are a genius. Everything is difficult if you are a dope. Either way, youll finish the work if you are a winner.

Constantly assess your learning. Know yourself. Then you will know what can be accomplished or not. The qiestion is not of difficulty, but a matter of time and resource management.

 

Always start by asking what does the game boil down to. If you remove absolutely everything and leave only the mechanics, what's left? Forget your ship, it's just an object, forget the boss, it's also just another object. The cannons and turrets both shoot projectiles so you can just consider them projectile spawners with health. You ship can thrust around, fire its own projectiles, and be damaged. That's it.

Do you think you could make this?


If you can make ASTEROIDS, the rest of your game is just art and customization of a few simple components.

 

You can definitely make this. Look at some tutorials, take your time... don't get frustrated. Use some free placeholder art to begin with, plenty of free ships out there. I suggest not worrying about the huge boss just yet, make an "Infinite Runner" that has a set a mount of waves of enemies, maybe a timer... then the boss appears and you can work on his attack pattern from there.

 

@Mr_Ramires - How far have you gotten in the past 2 weeks? If you do not have your core gameplay all ready to go, then you may be lost on the leftward-path. Consider reading this thread. Then reflect that only newbies ask questions about doing something 'in a year' - only to fall off the wagon, never to finish anything of worth.

If you are serious about building games, then here's a different path you may consider. Cut your project by 90%, then cut another 50%, and maybe cut another 50% after that. Get the smallest nugget of your idea into a complete state in 2 weeks, then spend 4 weeks fleshing out the UI, with another 5 weeks for polish. That leaves 1 final week for publishing. That's how you publish a game in 12 weeks. A bolder challenge is to shrink it down to 6 weeks, or even 2.

Fail fast so you can learn early. Or said simpler: Try, refine, repeat.

Gigi.

 

Hi Gigi.

Tks for you to get yourself into this post. My 2 weeks progress are:
- I've learned a lot of new stuff on C# and Unity;
- Started to find my own answers instead of "throwing" them into forums (The "I've searched all Google" kind of post);
- I read your story on the the recommended thread and fits me perfectly;

Anyway, I'm getting more confident as the time passes and I hope I don't die by the shore.

PS: I need a wife to push me like yours. My wife don't participate in my "game dev" life.

Many tks for taking your time to share your wisdom with us.

 

Hi @newjerseyrunner
ASTEROIDS is THE perfect example for every space shotter. I remember been addict to Asteroids in my Atari, years ago.
I'll take your advice seriously.
Tks for helping me on this.

See ya

 

Hi @jasonxtate66

Tks for the words.
It's a hard thing to think in steps when you excited with your game finished. I had to calm down and reduce the scope of things in the last days.
I'm not a game dev, and my expectations need to be the size of my skills.

I'm looking into infinite runner tutorials right now. The amount of thinkgs I've learned in the last days are making me happy and confident.

Tks again

 

That's a load of crap. My wife isn't any kind of interested in what I do in either.
I still do it

 

Don't tell her that (I need a wife to push me) - unless - depending on your location - multiple spouses is acceptable.

If you'd like a spouse to participate find a task they might like, that would be helpful to the end goal. Reviewing publishing terms, looking into genre saturation, market analysis, concept design, audio effects, setting up social media channels for product, voice over, trailer creation, script writing, texture creation, reference material gathering, UVs!! There are a ton of ancillary tasks which could be done by a spouse that would be tremendously helpful, if you could find the right one.