[Tutorial] Making and uploading Unity game to Facebook from scratch

I recently made a video to completely cover wide range of questions on how to set up Unity game with newest Facebook SDK 7.x, upload to dropbox and publish on Facebook within the single go. Here is the result:

I noticed that due to fast changes in online content, tutorials like this one or any other guides can get outdated very fast.
Another thing is that due to more and more features added over time, development becomes more challenging.
So thought it could be an interesting point to bring a discussion on how you guys are handling these kind of questions?

 

I haven't watched your video, but just from what I've seen, the content that becomes outdated are the specialized tools that are prone to tweaking. So videos that focus on the operation of these specific tools will become outdated. However, i suppose you could lessen the impact of a sudden update by focusing more on the methods involved, than how to operate the actual tools. If someone knows the general methodology, then they can utilize the tools they need to achieve their goal.

Just a question about your work; is development of Facebook games still relevant? I know they were popular maybe 5 years ago, but interest, and the opinion of facebook games, seems to have dropped sharply since then.

 

An hour is a long time for the tasks you describe. I haven't watched the video, but its worth cutting it down as much as possible. By their nature, video tutorials are one of the slowest mediums for passing information. Anything you can do to mitigate this will help you get views.

 

[To Cryosphere] Thanks for interesting comments. I guess Facebook is still the place where you meet your friends, share daily impressions and if these things are implemented into the game it should make perfect medium to play with your friends.

Now about interests to Facebook games - is it properly known why they dropped sharply in recent 5 years? I was wondering if this drop couldn't be something like "cleaning" from people who don't know what they really want and settling down the situation to the point where remains people, who really like they way how Facebook games are being played? If that's the case, most of the places, where games are popular today could drop popularity in upcoming years, leaving only players bound to these games and platforms, who found what they were looking for. Do I miss something here?

[To BoredMormon] Yes, I agree, shortening up (especially dividing into sections) the video helps. You said that video tutorials are one of the slowest channels to pass information. So what could be faster and more efficient ways?

 

Facebook itself has stepped out of the casual games business. Sure there are token gestures around, but facebook is not really attempting to actively draw developers in. Facebooks business model is all about being part of how we connect. Hence the focus on getting a Facebook login button on every single website and ap. But the casual gamer has moved from Facebook to mobile and tablet devices.

Text documentation is normally faster. For experienced developers anyway. There is no practical way to scrub through a video efficiently. Of course good text tutorials are harder to produce, have a smaller market, and earn less revenue.

I'm not saying get out of video at all. I'm still very much into producing video tutorials as well. Its a nice little revenue stream. I'm just saying know the strengths and the weaknesses of your medium. And one of the big weaknesses of video tutorials is the tendency to waste your audiences time.

 

Oh, that's interesting thought, I didn't thought that way. However, I don't see now it to be contradicting - the game can be made for mobile and shipped into Apple Store or Google Play, but inside that game can be made Facebook login button to access Facebook functionalities, like shares, scores, etc. Just thought it might be interesting to make some series of tutorials to guide through this Facebook-mobile approach

Oh, text is horrible for me - it never worked properly, always losing motivation when starting to write :/

By the way, is YouTube still the best place for video tutorials?

 

Yes. Emphatically yes.

There are smaller paid markets as well, like Udemy. But you have to have something on YouTube.

 

You might not like doing text - but it is best for your audience. Isnt teaching #1 goal to teach the student and deliver to the students in the best possible delivery method for the students?
Not many will sit through a 1 hour long video. Less than 50% of people who are interested in learning the process.

 

I always thought the goal of tutorial is to represent the problem and give the answer to it - the solution, which works. When talking about text, it also never worked for me when I reading other people text tutorials or take much longer than just to watch the video.

Yes, I agree - the 1 hour video is a bit too long - especially if person is re-making the progress in video with pausing it. Just thought this one could be split into 3-5 parts and wrapped into a playlist.

 

No

Again no.

A tutorial is a transaction between the teacher and student. Its trading something the student values (in this case learning how to use unity with facebook) for something the teacher values (normally time in front of monetized ads, but sometimes its prestige).

A good tutorial is one that maximizes the value to both the student and the teacher. And that's not always as straight forward as it sounds.

 

Bookmarked, thanks for the effort, and about the tutorial, stick to what works for you unless you plan on doing tutorials for $$, then you could start measuring what's more redituable and change towards it.

 

Are we talking about the most suitable delivery method for retention of the information or is this strictly related to internet youtube tutorial teaching?
I'm not an expert on the subject so this might be just what I remember (artists sometimes have blinders on that restrict information that do not have supporting visual queues)
From being around young adult and adult learning for over 10 years and seeing all the effort and studies on how to best deliver content to multiple 'types' of people who learn at different speeds and retain information delivered in different formats - I've never heard anything about maximizing the value to the teacher. It's always about the students, the best methods to deliver the content to them in a structured format so they can retain the information and pass the class/test/course - graduate.
As far as I know (which might be not far) no instructional design models consider the teacher in any of the common equations. http://www.instructionaldesigncentral.com/htm/IDC_instructionaldesignmodels.htm
I'm open to corrective modernizing about this - since I'm frequently the person in the room attempting to (add a little visual stimulation) stretch the rigid rules of Instructional Designers who have to explain away the simple logic that - if these rules are strict and unbending - the student will fall asleep of boredom and not retain any information - and fail the course.

I thought we were talking about how best to deliver content to the audience

Not how best to monetize the audience.

I like this simplified description, and this works for most A-Z step by step methods where there is no creativity involved.
Good point - Splitting into parts and wrapping in a playlist is a great idea for longer videos like this.

 

Splitting looks good, but I guess in each part there should be a short few seconds introduction and a short summary at the end as there might be people who are watching not from the first part, but want to get the idea at one particular part.

I would probably never monetise tutorials directly. But they might be good to get more people attracted by highlighting the problem and what possible solutions could be. It's also the way to "tell the world the truth" - the story you see in your eyes, the elements, which hasn't been present in previously made tutorials or any other sources. In this particular case with Facebook there were multiple questions how to outcome the new Facebook SDK 7.x changes, and current situation with hybrid web games deployment, where chrome players could use WebGL and old browser players could play the same game in WebPlayer.

 

I'm talking about teaching in general.

If there is no value for the students, then the students won't return. This is all your standard educational theory. This is also things like keeping the timelines appropriate. It's keeping your audience engaged.

In standard education systems the teacher gets paid directly. Thus providing value to the teacher. So standard educational models don't really consider this side. The value to the teacher is implicit in the system. In an very simplified way, the more of their students that learn well, the better they will be paid.

With free internet tutorials it's a little different. The teacher gets no up front payment. So the value comes from monetising or donations. Or it comes as prestige. Or some inherent reward of altruism.

When I started my YouTube channel the main value I expected to see was a reduction of some of the noise questions on Unity Answers. So the value isn't always straight forward. But it's always worth considering.

Anyway, that's enough off topic rambling. I've hijacked the thread, so the least I can do now is watch the video.

 

Good point.

Ha- I thought that was me.

This could be a short 5 second text display noting this is part 3 of 5 of a Unity2fb Playlist with one of those embedded video buttons to the playlist.

 

Very helpful tutorial. Thanks. I just want to know is it compulsory to use facebook sdk ? I don't want to use facebook login, share any data etc...

I just want to simple port and publish game on fb for testing.

I followed all your steps except using facebook sdk. I am facing this issue http://prntscr.com/bsaij6

However game is working fine on dropbox url.

Thanks

 

I think it is not needed to use Facebook SDK in order to make an app. Just try to make the app creation and upload sections and you should be able to set the game there. Facebook SDK is optional and is on the top of your game to use login, sharing and scores features there.

 

Then what do you think so what i am doing wrong its working fine here https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21457883/pk cargo truck/pk cargo web.html/

i using same link in Secure Canvas URL section.

 

Did you tried to avoid spaces when making file and folder names? http addresses never likes spaces and some other symbols very much :/

 

Hi,

I resolved that issue by deactivating unity web player install flow http://prntscr.com/bsoojp

Now my game taking too much time to load its 33MB in size. What should be the ideal size for fb game ?

2nd i want to add unity loading screen. so when user come on page he can see that game is loading. how i can add that ?

3rd which add network support fb ?

Do you have any template code for add which i can add in html to show ads and tracking so i know how many people visited my page.

Thanks

 

Hi, interesting. Hmm, I don't know if deactivating unity web player install flow can really affect the loading time. But what I suspect that the game could be quite large. Did you checked firstly with a very basic game, like the one in the tutorial if it's loading time is still large? Did you compared if loading time through facebook is really longer than directly from your dropbox?

Well, you need to design loading screen yourself, here is no magic. I would start playing by using UI system. If it's simple, you just want to have it enabled when game starts and disable when all Awake(), Start() functions and coroutines which launches inside them finishes their work - then it's the moment when initial load is over. At this moment you can just disable your loading screen. If you want to add progress bar, it's not so simple. It's easier to trace progress from coroutines, where are waiting statements and you can refresh your progress bar from there. When it runs functions like Awake() or Start(), they are kind of "monolithic", i.e. it takes the whole computer power until they finishes.

I never used ads in my games, so don't know anything about them, but there should be plenty of other threads to search how to get started. As when tracing numbers on facebook, if you go to Dashboard and scroll down, you will find Facebook login statistics plots. But if you do not use Facebook login, there is probably nothing traced there.

 

Hi, Thanks for detailed response. Well web flow didn't effect loading time. it resolved this error http://prntscr.com/bsoojp.

Loading time on dropbox and facebook are same. i checked with your demo and that load very fast. i think so due to large size it take that much time. I will try to optimize it.

As for as loading screen is concern, i got it.

I dont want to show ads inside game. i want to show ads outsize game like other games on facebook. e.g right, left top and bottom banner. I think so i need to put ads code in .html file and specific ads location.

Did you uploaded web player and web gl games on other online gaming platforms. If yes what are those platforms ?

Thanks

 

The questions are starting to be not well related to the tutorial or the topic. However.. if loading times are the same from Facebook and directly from dropbox, then the right thing to do is to look how to optimise the project. I am not sure about these ads, which are displayed around the app, maybe there are some other tutorials which covers it. And I only used WebGL and WebPlayer for Facebook only. Would be interesting to hear if there are more popular ways, where people are publishing web platform games online.