[Released] Retro Space Rail Shooter template

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/packs/retro-space-rail-shooter-132618​

Google Play Demo: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=onemanescapeplan.spacerailshooter

A game template inspired by classic games of the 16-bit era. This template provides nearly everything you need to start building a 3D on-rails shooter in a retro style, including code, music, sound effects, models, prefabs, HUD, menu and gameplay scenes, retro-style shaders, and more!

This project is designed for Unity developers of all skill levels. Extensive, well-written documentation will help everyone from rookie coders to expert developers to understand and work with the code, components, and assets.

Not a coder? No problem! Flexible, highly reusable components allow you to quickly build enemies, NPCs, levels, new weapons, and more without needing to write any code.

Features:

- Single-player on-rails shooter gameplay. Steer your ship to aim; shoot down enemies while avoiding obstacles and enemy fire.
- Scoring system
- Player inventory / power-ups system
- Laser cannon and homing missile weapons
- Player lives and respawning
- Several types of AI and movement patterns for enemy / NPC ships
- Retro flat-shaded player spacecraft model with two variants
- 5 retro flat-shaded enemy spacecraft models, plus 1 retro flat-shaded enemy carrier model
- Functional enemy prefabs for each enemy model
- One complete level demonstrating all gameplay features, plus several scenes demonstrating specific concepts and gameplay features
- Menu Main scene
- Settings scene
- Two music tracks and dozens of retro-style sound effects
- Graphical presets to create a more authentic retro look. Quickly set your resolution and framerate to emulate 16-bit, 32-bit, 64-bit, or high-def platforms
- A custom retro shader that gives your models an authentic 16-bit look, with flat-shading and checkered shading inspired by the Super FX chip*

This project also includes my core library, which contains highly reusable code and systems that can be utilized in just about any project! The core library includes:
- Object pooling system
- Many components for simple movements and animations
- Volume and event triggers
- Health and damage system
- A "DrawConnections" system for visualizing script links (such as references and events) between GameObjects in the scene view
- Many other utility components that can simplify your life when building a game!

Retro Space Rail Shooter is a high-quality template developed by a professional software engineer in the U.S. You can expect clean, modular code that is well-written and highly flexible, as well as exceptional documentation written in perfect English. My goal is to give you a solid foundation that lets you focus on building your game, without ever making you bang your head on your desk in frustration!

*This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo.

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This is the first release of this package, so there may be bugs or other issues. Please email me or contact me on Unity Connect if you encounter any bugs, and I'll fix them as fast as possible. This is also my first Asset Store release in general, so your feedback is greatly appreciated in shaping the direction of the project. If anything seems confusing or hard to use, let me know and I'll try to improve this in future updates.

FAQ

• Is this a Star Fox clone?

The visual style and basic gameplay are inspired by Star Fox and other 2D and 3D space shoot-em-ups. However, this is not a Star Fox clone - it does not have all of the same features, such as barrel rolls or wingmen with talking animal heads​

• Is this an emulator?

No. Although it has a similar visual style to some classic 3D games from the 16-bit era, it is not an emulator.​

• Is this a complete game? How many levels are included?

This template includes nearly everything you need to get started building a 3D rail shooter; however, it is not a complete reskin-and-release game. There is one full example level included which demonstrates gameplay and various included features, and the beginnings of a second level to demonstrate additional features. At the minimum, you will need to build your own levels.​

• Does it support controllers?

I have included basic controls for Xbox 360-compatible controllers. The template currently does not have a screen where players can adjust button mappings. You may wish to use another Asset Store package for customizable controller input.​

• Is mobile supported?

The template currently does not include official mobile support. However, I have tested it on Android 6 and Android 8 and all of the features appear to be working correctly, with the following caveats:

• The template does not include touch-screen controls for the player's spacecraft, but all you would need to add would be a virtual joystick and a couple of Fire buttons to the HUD. Unity's Standard Assets package includes a virtual joystick, and there are many other packages on the Asset Store for touch-screen input (the Google Play demo uses the Standard Assets virtual joystick, which is not included in the template).

​

 

This looks amazing. Do you have a video of it playing. Would love to see it in action.

Does it support boss fights ?

 

Thanks Roachie! I just added a video to the first post. The template does not include boss fights right now, but I may add support for them in the future.

 

Thanks for the video. Looks great, will definitely consider picking it up soon.

 

I've released an update (1.1.2) for the Retro Space Rail Shooter package

• Improved "Retro Checkered Shader" and "Retro Greyscale Checkered Shader". The shaders now automatically adjust checker size based on render resolution. Improved overall behavior of greyscale shader, and changed some of the included settings.
• Reorganized retro shaders into new "Retro 3D Shaders" folder and added demo scenes and documentation for those shaders
• Fixed compiler error when the Unity Postprocessing stack was not included in the project
• Updated to Unity 2018.3.1f1
• Temporary introductory discounted price of $30 ends on January 24th due to limitations on personal sales which I missed. The price will return to $60 on January 24th. Sorry for the confusion!

Since I'm new to Asset Store publishing, I am not sure how Unity handles files getting moved when you update a package. Existing users who are updating from 1.1.1 may need to remove the old versions of the Retro scripts from OneManEscapePlan/SpaceRailShooter/Shaders after updating to 1.1.2.

 

Just bought the pack, first impression is very good, I will be making a mobile game with it, will let you know how it goes

 

One question can you add an easy way to allow for different paths? so the player can steer for example inside a star field and it will trigger a right path, that will end up in a different branch when completed.

a bit like the 3 options in in this image

 

Hi Lars, thanks for purchasing the template, and thanks for your feedback! I do not want to make the template too similar to Star Fox - please see the section "Why doesn't it have [some feature]?" in the documentation (found in

Assets/OneManEscapePlan/SpaceRailShooter/Documentation

). However, the documentation does briefly cover what changes you would need to make in order to add a branching level progression system - see the section "Branching Paths" under the heading "Level Progression".

As far as having multiple paths inside a single level, this currently isn't supported and would be tricky due to the way I coded the camera movement, but I'll try to add support for this in one of the next few updates.

Let me know if you have any other questions, and happy developing!

 

yes multiple inside a level, thats what I'm looking for! Thanks

the multiple braching at the end of a level I think I can manage myself with the help of playmaker

 

One more suggestion, free roaming flight mode, for example some area could activate free control to the player and he can move in all directions and after exiting this area the path would take control again,

this would be really nice for progressing part where the player needs to collect a certain item or fight a bos, and after competing that task you can fly out of the area or a gate opens, or anytime before the player has completed the task he can also exit but he won't get maximum score, something along those lines.

basicly requesting two flight modes path and free with a way to transition between them, really hope this is possible with the way its set up.

thanks

 

and one final mode, trigger a landing spot so when the player get close to a planet surface you could land or dock the plane. this I could use for transitioning to other kind of game play, for example walking with a character. Or going into another plane.

 

http://www.gallantgames.com/pages/incontrol-touch-controls

I'm trying to integrate InControl for touch controls on mobile, perhaps you can give me a few pointers as where I should look for the controls in the player scripts?

 

Thanks for the suggestions! Some of your ideas are too far outside of the current scope of the template, but I'll keep them in mind for the future.

All input is handled in

Assets/OneManEscapePlan/SpaceRailShooter/Scripts/Input/PlayerInputHandler.cs

. If the InControl touch controls you are using work with Unity's standard Input system, you should not need to make any changes to PlayerInputHandler in order for the virtual input to work - just select the proper axes from project Input settings.

 

Thanks I had to change the input system as its not using unity's default one.

Now I got it to work on iPhone 7 with virtual joystick ( graphics metal )
I'm still thinking of how to implement tilt controls, but I will try some things first.

Sorry about the many requests, Its just excitement of what this makes possible, thanks for considering. ( free roaming being on the top of my list )

 

Thanks Lars, I'm glad you're excited about the possibilities of the template! I have been putting together a new system that allows you to change the player's heading, which can be used for alternate paths through levels. The same system could probably be adapted to create a free-roam mode. I'll try to release an update early next week.

 

Great thats good to hear

I have one warning in the editor on my Mac with metal

Metal: Error creating pipeline state (Custom/AdditiveBillboardSpriteShader): Vertex attribute Color0(2) is missing from the vertex descriptor
(null)

and this suggestion

Shader warning in 'Custom/BillboardSpriteShader': Use of UNITY_MATRIX_MV is detected. To transform a vertex into view space, consider using UnityObjectToViewPos for better performance.

Do you know if its something easy to fix?


EDIT: I changed the material shader to sprites default seems to work.

 

and there is one script missing on the main camera in level 1, I don't know which one that could be, ( after import clean from asset store )

 

Thanks for reporting those issues, Lars! The missing script would be "Post-Processing Behaviour" from the "Unity Post-Processing Stack" package on the Asset Store. I had originally planned to include the Post-Processing Stack with the template, since it is a free package, but it seemed like the Asset Store team didn't want me to do that, so I made the Post-Processing Stack optional. When installed, it is used to add post-process antialiasing to the 64-bit setting (which was inspired loosely by the N64's horizontal-blur filter, although the post-processing filter looks better than the N64's filter.

I regret integrating the Post-Processing Stack at all at this point, as it keeps causing headaches. If you do choose to install the Post-Processing Stack, please read the "Known Issues" section of the original post for instructions on how to fix an error in its code. Or, you can skip the Post-Processing Stack, since the only thing it adds is the anti-aliasing filter to the 64-bit setting.

Regarding the shader: that shader works fine on my Windows PC, but it doesn't render on mobile, probably due to the same issue you're seeing on your Mac. I'll load the project on my Mac and fix the shader.

Thanks again, and I hope to have an update ready early next week.

 

If anyone is interested in purchasing the retro shaders by themselves, I have released them as a separate package: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/vfx/shaders/retro-3d-shaders-136828 Owners of Retro Space Rail Shooter do not need to purchase the shader pack, as the shader pack is included in the template.

 

cool, the shaders are nice!
I would like to see one variant of the checkered shader where the checkers are fading in and out smoothly, now they are popping. probably it was like that back in the days. but it seems like fading the checkered would still result in a classic look but easier on the eyes in a busy scene.

 

Whoops, just realized most of the feature-demo scenes are broken. I will fix this in the next update.

 

by the way the shader seems fine, It was just on the video that it looked a bit odd

 

About te input system, where do I assign the buttons for the shooting and missiles?
Is it in a script or in a prefab?

 

I've released an update with support for changing the player's heading. This is now demonstrated in ExampleLevel2. Fly through one of the rings to change heading. I also fixed the additive billboard shader that didn't render correctly on some platforms, fixed the broken demo scenes, and expanded the documentation.

See the PlayerInputHandler script on Ray Dagger. The button names correspond to Unity's Input manager.

 

Ok thanks I got input working how I want.
Now I know there is no barrel rol, but could you make two controller input that rotate the plane when pressed
( like L and R button on a controller )

L would roll the plane left and R the plane right, I think this would help very much the level design so the plane can go though small vertical spaces.

 

I'm trying to run my game at 60 fps and I see some stuttering in the camera and player, It makes me wonder if all settings are correct for 60 fps what would I need to look at?

I come across this article while researching
http://www.kinematicsoup.com/news/2016/8/9/rrypp5tkubynjwxhxjzd42s3o034o8


and also this one
https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/2odahu/unity_developers_change_your_fixed_timestep_to/

EDIT:
I put the fixed tilmestep at
0.00833333 which is 120fps and the game runs like butter at 60 FPS on my iPhone 7 plus.

 

Shader question, where is the checker size determent?
I'm not using the pixel camera script because it does not work with the post effects that I'm using, https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/vfx/shaders/fullscreen-camera-effects/colorful-fx-44845

It has its own pixel camera filter that work together with post effect, but now the checkered shader is not scaling well, and it looks off.

Is there a way to make this camera pixel script work with post fx?

 

Do you know ReZ and Panzer dragoon?

Where you can hold the fire button and it selects multiple enemies, and after you let go of the button it fires a tracer missile to each one of thenselected targets.

That would be one request I would love to see in this template. thanks !

 

In Star Fox 64, and some of the later entries, they have the ability to go into "All Range Mode." Is something like this already integrated in this package?

The reason I ask is because I'm trying to create my own version of the "All Range Mode" behavior, but am getting a bit stuck.

 

I will probably add that in the future.

On the PlayerSpacecraftMat and EnemySpacecraftMat materials.

It works fine with the Unity Post-Processing Stack, which is the officially supported method for this template. I do not have plans to support other post-processing packages at this time.

I am not planning to add an "All Range Mode", because I do not want to make the template too similar to Star Fox. However, using version 1.2.0 or later, you could create a similar free-roam mode by writing a new input handler that would steer the "Player Container" object (rather than steering the player around within the player container).




​

 

Here you see what I mean with the tracer missiles while keeping button pressed, hope this is something you can add

 

about the post processing stack, do you recommend version 1 or version 2?

By the way I got my post fx working, the pixel camera had to be at the last place in the camera then it works.

 

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I'm not currently using your asset, due to budget constraints, but I have managed to get my own version up and running and working with both on rails and free range now.

The end rotation animation looks a little janky in Free Range mode right now, but I should be able to fiddle with it a little bit.

 

Thanks for the suggestion! For now I think this is outside the scope of the template.

The version that is currently on the Asset Store, although you will need to fix the compiler error in one class of their code; this is described in the "Known Issues" section above, and in the documentation.
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With my template, you get a large amount of reusable code, along with 3D models, textures, sound effects, music, and more. This could save you dozens or even hundreds of hours of development time, so I feel that it is a very good value. But if you don't have the funds, then I suppose that doesn't matter. Either way, good luck with your game!

 

Any chance of chucking up a playable demo?

 

I don't have a website to host a demo at the moment. My schedule is hectic right now but I may put a demo onto Google Play in the next few weeks. Sorry for not being able to get to it more quickly!

 

I have published a demo to Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=onemanescapeplan.spacerailshooter

The demo contains mobile controls which aren't included in the template, and a slightly different HUD layout. I implemented the mobile controls using Unity's Standard Assets package; I am reluctant to add them to the template, because this creates another dependency, and dealing with the Post-Processing Stack has been enough of a headache (I think nearly every person who has purchased the template has messaged or emailed me with questions about installing or using the Post-Processing Stack).

I may eventually add my own custom virtual joystick to the template, but for now I recommend using Standard Assets or other virtual input packages from the Asset Store if you want a quick-and-easy way to add mobile controls.

 

I think the reason for postprocessing questions is: there are different versions.

most people use version 2. since it the latest compatible with new unity versions.
and its only available with package manager. verson 1 is only available on the asset store. ( and its the one used in this package )

 

This looks great ! Right now, I am busy with work and have a project on Unity(while relearning, as I didnt use the engine since more than 3 years now...)
But once I am finish, I will dive deeply in this assets, as I have a certain amount of ideas for this gameplay type for a while...

 

I thought version 2 was only available on GitHub; that's what it says in the Asset Store description for version 1. I'll have to look into that later.

 

I've released an update (1.2.1) for the Retro Space Rail Shooter package:

• Moved "OpenMindedText" script into "OneManEscapePlan/Scripts/UI". You may need to remove the old copy from "OneManEscapePlan/SpaceRailShooter/Scripts/UI"
• Updated Retro 3D Shaders package
  • Added "Retro Checkered Cutout Shader"
  • Fixed shadow bug with "Retro Checkered Shader"
• Fixed HUD appearing above Settings panel
• Fixed "Invert Y-axis" setting not applying immediately (and associated bugs with the PlayerPrefsProperty classes)
• Code cleanup
• Updated to Unity 2018.3.5f1

 

when do you set the next discount ? i need your asset

 

Sorry, I don't have any discounts planned in the near future. Thanks for your interest, and happy developing!

 

The google play link is dead, but I've managed to get the apk from some other source. Looks really nice, and this pack is something I could use - I wouldn't really need the shaders tho, I go with a different aesthetics (outrun), I'll buy this for the mechanics alone, would you consider lowering the price in the near future? Also I would like to ask if you plan any updates & features in the future? Last update was in May.

 

Looks good and despite bit higher price than competing kits makes me lean towards buying -though I have several questions:

1) it there way to add any terrain with colliders?
2) Starfox style in-cocpkit swichable view would be great
3) any expisting or planned features like turrets etc not only flying enemies?

 

Looking through the documentation, there is a Follow Curve pattern that allows enemies to follow a spline. Would it be possible to hook up the PlayerContainer to follow a spline instead of using trigger zones to call ChangePlayerHeading?

 

Retro Space Rail Shooter is 30% off in the current Unity sale!

Sorry for the slow reply, I missed the notifications about responses to this thread! The price is a bit higher because I'm a professional software developer in the U.S. and put in a lot of time to make a quality product that is easy to use and learn from. Many packages on the Asset Store are made by overseas developers without a formal education in computer science. They often have terrible coding and engineering practices and badly translated documentation that is difficult to read.

1) Yes, that's easy to do. The reference scenes have some obstacles with colliders.
2) I don't want to make it too much like Starfox since that's a copyrighted product. I don't think it would be too difficult for you to add a cockpit-view feature.
3) I'm not planning any new features at the moment. My freelance work has me very busy, and in my spare time I'm working on a few new packages.

 

That's a very interesting idea - I wish I'd thought of it! I just tried it and it works! For a basic setup, you need to do the following to the PlayerContainer object:

1. Remove or disable the "Player Container" component
2. Add the Waypoint component
3. Add and configure the "Follow Curve By Speed Pattern" component
4. Add and configure the "Move Towards Waypoint" component



However, I think that setup is going to keep moving along the path even if the player dies, so you might need to add a new component that shuts off the new components when the player dies and re-enables them when the player respawns.

 

Last chance to grab Retro Space Rail Shooter on discount before the sale ends! Thanks to those of you who have already picked up a copy, and happy developing!

 

Just finished some testing to get a better idea of things out of the box for my team, figured I'd share my findings

1. Everything in the demo uses a solid collider, running head on into a collider pushes the player ship closer to the camera, will need some script to move the player and camera back into position if that ever happens. This is especially noticeable when the carrier warps in and releases hundreds of fighters, it is possible to knock the camera to face straight down by running into multiple enemies in a row.
   
2. Setting the colliders on the enemies and space junk to "trigger volume" doesn't appear to break anything, it solves the above problem while still allowing you to kill enemies.
3. Ground/Wall colliders half work. They prevent the player from flying through them, but since damage is only set to OnTriggerEnter the player will only take damage once, and can continue plowing through the ground forever if they want.
4. This can be fixed either by forcing the player away from the object after taking damage, or setting damage to OnTriggerStay to provide constant damage and adding mercy invincibility so the player isn't taking damage every frame.

In summery, anything the player can run headlong into should be using trigger volumes, anything else should be safe to use solid colliders though may need some extra love.