Pure Beginner

Hi. Im James, Im new to Unity. Ive had a look around the software and it looks very complicated, however I am going to give it a shot at creating a game. I have in mind an hidden object game, now I know I need programming.. But, I actually have no programming skills whatsoever. I understand there is a asset called Playmaker which I could use, but for the price. I dont really wanna buy that just yet.

I will be asking alot of questions on here, just to get peoples help on things, and I will help out as much as I can not that I will be any use to anyone. I know I can get alot of pictures and such off the internet, but what would be the best way of doing a scene on an hidden object game..

Draw on paper and scan in?
Grab images from the internet?
Use a USB drawing pad?

If I was to use images from the internet, I would have to change the quality in Photoshop to make it proper game graphics, and not real pictures for the game.

Thanks for your time. I hope to speak to alot of you while Im here.

 

Welcome!

I created a FAQ post some time back, which may answer some other questions you have. But feel free to ask anything else that comes to mind, too.

It is kinda complicated, but then, creating a game is a complicated process. It isn't easy, but if you dedicate yourself to learning, you can do it. Just don't expect to start messing around with it and have anything resembling a complete game in a month or something.

Whether you use a visual scripting tool like Playmaker or not, you still have to understand the fundamentals of programming. Playmaker saves you from having to learn the syntax of writing code, but you still need to know the logic of how things should work. Because of that, I just recommend to everyone to learn how to write code, since it's a transferable skill, it's easier to debug, and it's free.

So, hey... Don't get your pictures off the Internet. Unless you're using a site that provides royalty free images, using photos you find through Google is more than likely stealing someone else's property. A hidden object game should provide plenty of leeway to have your own sort of style, so you should feel free to experiment and create your own art. Plus, when you're starting out, it's a good idea to not get caught up in production-ready art and just use placeholders until you have a working system, then improve the art assets later on. Art can be a big time sink that you end up throwing away anyway because your gameplay changed or the game turned out to not be viable (trust me...).

But anyway, just get started. Do some tutorials and mess around in the editor. Learn some code stuff and experiment. And when you have questions, just ask.

Good luck!

 

You should definitely start in the Learn section on Unity's website
https://unity3d.com/learn

There, you can find helpful introductory tutorials on the Unity interface/editor, as well as scripting stuff.
That will help you a lot to get started. After that, decide if you want some more of those types of learning and/or starting with the tutorials (easiest ones first, and grow from there).

Everything you learn will be useful along the way to making your own game at some later point.

Have fun

 

Hello , i just started out , same idea here starting from scratch, i checked a lot of tutorials and manuals, what i notice when i do tutorials, is that im not really learning a lot from the scripting. What would u say is the best way to learn scripting?

 

tutorials, and also https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/index.html
But don't think "I'll never use this".
You could be checking out an fps tut, and think "I'm doing a hidden object game, I don't need to learn how to create ammo pickups" but then have to go back when you need help creating a screwdriver for a puzzle"
Everything is building blocks for whatever type of game you're trying to make. Learn everything. Even when it's not yet useful.

 

Once you have finished a tutorial, close the video, open a new project, and try and duplicate what the tutorial just showed you. You will either discover you learnt a lot, or you missed a lot. Either way it will help cement the knowledge.

Then try and produce variants of the tutorial. Did the tutorial make a cube turn red? Try making a sphere turn blue instead.

Then try and combine multiple tutorials. You learned how to detect collisions, that great. You learned how to change colors, that's great. Now make a ball that changes color every time it bounces.

Then move on to cloning simple games. Flappy Bird, Space Invaders, Asteroid, Frogger.

Then start making your own simple creations.

 

Just want to expand on the great advice already given...

When you're starting out, don't think "I want to make a game like Harvest Moon; I should find a Harvest Moon game-making tutorial!"

Do any and every quality tutorial you can find, and instead of focusing on genre and themes, look at the principles you're learning. Instantiating objects, handling UI or input events, using particle systems, changing instance variables at runtime... these are all tools you're adding to your toolbox, so that when it comes time to do the specific thing you want to do, you'll have the knowledge to attempt it.

As you get more experience and want to focus on more complex things, you can hunt for tutorials on how to do specific things, like a modular level designer, or an advanced save system... but even then, you're using the tutorial for the lesson it's teaching, the tools it's exposing you to, and the inspiration for adding your own take on what they're doing.

 

It would be cool if there was a stickied post with the most sensible of all of these points for new users asking these questions
It's always, it's almost always the same great information, though

(I could link to it, similar to code tags. )

 

https://forum.unity.com/threads/schneiders-getting-started-faq.486139/

 

Right, I had actually seen & read that before, too, but forgotten Thanks. heh
(sadly, it's not stickied - other than that, a pretty cool post)

 

Another beginner here. I'll take a look at those resources

 

Cool .. welcome to Unity

Enjoy yourself!

 

I'm not a programmer, but I have done most of the unity tutorials. My opinion is that the unity tutorials should NOT be your first intro into programming if you have no experience with computer programming at all. You will be behind from step one and unless your 3/4 of a genius, I doubt you'll really have much applicable knowledge at the end, at least as far as being able to write your own script goes.

I recommend getting to grips with the fundamentals of writing code first with a dedicated newbie tutorial like Microsoft Virtual Academy offers. Learning how computers work and how you use scripting to talk with them -- you don't need a degree in computer science but you need to understand the basics of what is going on -- then when you go back and do the Unity Tutorials, things will start clicking and more of your brain energy can go into learning the Unity specific functions.

 

That's not a bad idea, either. I often suggest the scripting introduction on this site as one of the first things to learn, before the tutorials, because to me it seems so helpful. Sometimes, if people ask specifically for coding starts, I see people recommend other sites that show intros to C#, and that's great.

Just not everyone is always wanting to do that when they first begin. But I do believe that people who stick around a while have a greater chance of learning those basics, as they begin to feel how helpful they can be.

 

I think it's important to keep in mind that nobody is born knowing how to program. And in the long run, learning the syntax of what to type isn't the challenging part of programming... It's rewiring your brain to think in that way. This takes time and practice. When I was learning Javascript at the age of 25 (my first real foray into programming), I felt like I was totally lost. I graduated from college and got an internship as a web developer and still felt like I knew nothing. But you just sorta have to do it for a while before it all comes together.

This may work for some people. I don't think there's any bad way to learn, though. You'll absolutely do things wrong and pick up bad habits, but that can all be unlearned. As long as you're making forward progress, in my opinion, you're doing it right.

 

I'm 5/4 of a genius. So it worked for me.

 

Anybody smarter than me is a GD genius. Anybody slower than me is a moron.

It's just that simple.