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UniKnowledge

Discussion in 'Made With Unity' started by Armagon, Jul 16, 2009.

  1. Armagon

    Armagon

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    http://www.unifycommunity.com/wiki/index.php?title=UniKnowledge

    After chatting some time on the #unity3d IRC channel about the sample projects provided by Unity Tech, and discussing that they should release more projects with less media, and that simple primitives would be enough to show us how things work... "dock" had the idea of a community-driven contest, in order to choose the best sample project.

    Then, i decided to organize and promote UniKnowledge. This contest consists of, basically, building an easy-to-understand and well-documented sample game project for Unity users. You don't need to worry about media, you can just use primitives. The important thing is that you create the prototype and teach well: from brainstorming, to game logic and programming.

    How it works
    As i said before, you don't have to worry about media. We are focusing on game logic and structure here. The objective here is to develop the best sample project, not the best game. This means that you have to:
    • Focus on the gameplay structure of the project
    • Make it playable. Play the prototype yourself and see if it plays good, smoothly
    • Explain everything you did, and how to reproduce that
    • You can use everything to aid the teaching process: videos, presentations, images, etc.
    • Comment your code!
    • Explain how and why things work

    The best projects will be voted by the community (poll on Unity Forums), and the criteria must be:
    • How well the project was presented
    • How well the projects plays
    • How documented the project is
    • How accessible the information is
    • How easy to use, understand and learn from, the sample is
    Dealine Delivery
    Entries, when finished, must be posted on this thread. People interested in joining the contest must submit their project until October 14.

    Prizes
    We are still looking for sponsors, so this list might be updated soon with more prizes.

    1st Place:
    o Unity Pro OR iPhone Advanced Add-on OR a rebate coupon good for the equivalent value on Unity3d.com web shop
    o One Cheetah3D license
    o One custom 3D model made by Stefan Mensen
    o $150 coupon for the Frogames store
    o 12 month subscription to a 3D Total magazine
    o $500 coupon for 3DRT.com store
    2nd Place:
    o Unity iPhone Basic Add-On OR a rebate coupon good for the equivalent value on Unity3d.com web shop
    o $100 coupon for the Frogames store
    o 6 month subscription to a 3D Total magazine
    o $300 coupon for 3DRT.com store
    3rd Place:
    o Unity Indie OR rebate coupon good for the equivalent value on Unity3d.com web shop
    o $50 coupon for the Frogames store
    o 3 month subscription to a 3D Total magazine
    o $200 coupon for 3DRT.com store

    And, as a participation prize, everyone who submits an eligible entry will get a free issue of one of a 3D Total magazine.

    Sponsors
    This contest was only made possible because of our sponsors. They donated the prizes and it would be nice if you guys could visit their websites and check their products. Thank you!






     
  2. Discord

    Discord

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    I really like the initiative here!

    If I have time I will definitely submit something.

    EDIT: What if the first place winner if a windows user?
     
  3. Armagon

    Armagon

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    Well, he can donate his license... or run another contest! Both would be great for the community.
     
  4. Armagon

    Armagon

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    New prizes added, thanks to the Frogames donation! Thanks Christopher! 8)
     
  5. Armagon

    Armagon

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    The contest is now being sponsored by Unity Technologies and new prizes have been added. It's not everytime that you guys get the chance to win Unity Pro, iPhone and Indie licenses + a lot of other prizes! :D
     
  6. Discord

    Discord

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    :O

    That first prize is unbelievable. I may have to start this now.

    Is the tutorial just supposed to teach something in a well organized and documented manner?
     
  7. Digitalos

    Digitalos

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    Killer prizes. :eek:

    I'm considering this now, I have something I've recently worked on that could really help I think. *ponders*
     
  8. stefmen

    stefmen

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    great contest!!
    hopefully it will boost up the unity learning content
     
  9. Armagon

    Armagon

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    Yes. Along with the sample project, you must teach how you created it. This can be done through videos, text, images and text, etc.

    And i also would like to announce that we have more prizes! 3DRT.com is now sponsoring the contest and donated 3 prizes for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. UniKnowledge is now the biggest community-driven Unity contest! :D
     
  10. Digitalos

    Digitalos

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    Ok I'm down, started work on mine today. :)
     
  11. Armagon

    Armagon

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    That's great Digitalos. C'mon guys, let's spread the word about the contest! :wink:

    By the way... more prizes! Stefan Mensen just donated a custom 3D model for the 1st place!
     
  12. MeRuud

    MeRuud

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    Sounds good, I'm thinking about entering the contest :)..

    Also, is it possible to donate something yourself? (for the prizes?)
     
  13. runevision

    runevision

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    Where? I look under sponsors in the top message in the thread but don't see the Unity logo among them...? <hint, hint> ;)

    Rune
     
  14. CosmoKing

    CosmoKing

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    They are giving Unity license prizes. He just ommited the logo.
     
  15. Discord

    Discord

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    I think Rune is trying to say that the unity logo should be next to all the other logos of sponsors.
     
  16. Armagon

    Armagon

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    Logo added. Sorry for that mistake, guys.

    Also, yes, you can donate prizes to the contest. Just like Stefan Mensen donated his work.
     
  17. HiggyB

    HiggyB

    Unity Product Evangelist

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    I hope you don't mind but I edited your post to point to a slightly better version. The one used here on the forums is old and is soon to be replaced, I pointed to a proper version that I posted for you. :)
     
  18. fallingbrickwork

    fallingbrickwork

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    This is exciting, with great prizes too.

    Have started on an entry today.

    Matt.
     
  19. Armagon

    Armagon

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    Bumping the thread! :D
     
  20. GargerathSunman

    GargerathSunman

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    I can't believe I missed this..... I should read the showcase more often, but it tends to be a giant glut of old topics with lots of posts.

    Anyway, I think I'll post the sample project that I'll be using as my IGF entry. Movies detailing each step of the process and a few extra additions will be in order........

    What's the maximum entry size in MBs? Explaining how to make a full-featured and polished game would probably take at least an hour or four of footage, after all.
     
  21. Armagon

    Armagon

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    No maximum size, Gargerath. :wink:
     
  22. nickavv

    nickavv

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    I'd love to join. I'll get started right away... after I move my entire workstation and stuff to a different floor of the house that needs to be cleared out first.

    >.> But it'll be sweet when I'm done man, I tell you.
     
  23. Armagon

    Armagon

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    The contest is getting hot! I'm eager to see the entries on October 1st!
     
  24. JonManatee

    JonManatee

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    Is collaboration allowed? We would split up the prizes ourselves. There's a designer that wanted to do a project with me and this could be a good one for him considering he's relatively new to Unity. If not thats fine too, I can keep it solo.
     
  25. matthewminer

    matthewminer

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    Great initiative, the community could definitely benefit from more sample projects. I'm considering working on an editor tools tutorial to get people up-to-speed with creating custom editor windows, if such a thing would be in demand.
     
  26. dock

    dock

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    Armagon, amazing work on organising this!! This was something of a pipe-dream when I proposed it, but rather cheesily this seems to be the place where dreams come true!

    Thank-you to Unity HQ for the support of this initiative! I'm sure we'll all benefit greatly from the efforts.
     
  27. Lab013

    Lab013

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    Looks like it will be some fun! :D

    Are we allowed to do multiple entries?
     
  28. HiggyB

    HiggyB

    Unity Product Evangelist

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  29. Armagon

    Armagon

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    I can't speak for all contributors, so, it's better to keep it solo. Some may not want to have their prizes shared, some might don't care... If you want, however, i can ask them.

    That would be great! However, remember that this contest is for sample projects only.

    You had the idea, dude. One hell of an idea, in fact. I'm really excited about the project and with the fact the it might prove our little theory: Sample projects with simple prototype media can help new users, and they are simple and fast to produce... and fun too.

    Only one entry per person.
     
  30. matthewminer

    matthewminer

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    To clarify: this contest is for sample games as opposed to, say, a tutorial on how to write custom shaders or specific tools like the head look controller? I'm looking at Unity's example projects for inspiration, and among others I see an editor tool, a C++ plugin, and animation samples. Are you looking for something more along the lines of the tutorials?
     
  31. Armagon

    Armagon

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    The goal is to create documented sample projects for people to assimilate and understand the process of developing the game designed by the sample author. This means that the objective of this contest is, in short terms, to create a tetris clone, and tell people how to do it.

    We want to make people understand better how things work, and how they should think and act, in order to make their ideas a reality. The 2D/3D platformer tutorials from Unity Technologies are great, but they have too much focus on media/etc. This contest is about focusing on programming the game structure, it's logic, without thinking about media or etc. The contest winner might be a project that tells people how to create a tennis game, using just untextured primitives, as long as the author knows how to teach correctly.

    Again, i shall emphasize: focus on creating a great, fun and fluid gameplay. Then focus on explaining how you did that, step by step. Don't even think about models, textures, sound, etc.
     
  32. matthewminer

    matthewminer

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    That makes sense, thanks for clarifying.
     
  33. rawrman2381238

    rawrman2381238

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    How about making one for iphone... it could be used as both, but its purpose is iphone.. is that ok?
     
  34. Armagon

    Armagon

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    Yes, you can focus on iPhone. And a tip: maybe you can teach people how to convert controllers from iPhone to PC. For example, i never understood how to convert the controller from the Star Trooper iphone example to PC.
     
  35. chips

    chips

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    This seems to be a great idea Armagon!

    Is the contest focused on creating great solutions or explaining for newbies how unity works?

    Anyway that's a dream coming true for the new users of unity! Congrats, for those who had this idea and those who are supporting it! :D
     
  36. Armagon

    Armagon

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    The winner will be selected based on the quality of his sample project and how well he tried to explain or teach what he did. It doesn't matter if you're explaining simple gameplay logic with a Space Invaders sample, or a complex AI system with a RTS sample.

    You guys can focus your sample projects on anything you want, as long as you have a game finished with prototyped media, and that you explain how you did everything. :wink:

    So, you're free to teach newbies, intermediate users, or even advanced people. The goal is to create a game and teach how you did stuff. And please, remember, don't use "rich media". Primitives are enough for teaching stuff!
     
  37. Lab013

    Lab013

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    Is there a maximum amount of contestants?
     
  38. Armagon

    Armagon

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    No. :wink:
     
  39. Veli

    Veli

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    I decided to give this a go as well. Basically it will be an FPS Multiplayer tutorial for intermediate users (since multiplayer is bit though in its own).

    Around 50% of the code written and documented at this point. Here is a sneak peak :)
    http://i30.tinypic.com/352i6g1.png
     
  40. Armagon

    Armagon

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    New prizes! :D

    UnityTutorials.com will be giving away $50 for the 1st place, and $25 for the 2nd and 3rd places.
     
  41. fiori

    fiori

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    Hi everyone!
    Can I use the trial version to make the sample project?
    Thanks in advance!
     
  42. Dreamora

    Dreamora

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    I doubt that you will be able to create a project that can compete with the others if you are a totally new user.
    But generally, I don't see a reason why not.
     
  43. Armagon

    Armagon

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    Yes, you can use the trial version. Hurry up, though!
     
  44. fiori

    fiori

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    Thanks a lot Armagon!
     
  45. Lab013

    Lab013

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    Ok, finished up my project, Bubble Burster :D

    Here is a demo video of my Multiplayer Networked game, Bubble Burster: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c42GdVO42Pk
    (FPS/quality is of course higher in real life.)

    Here is the Download link (The forum kept on giving me a error when trying to upload, so I used the wiki).
    http://www.unifycommunity.com/wiki/images/f/f1/Bubble_Burster.zip


    I made this for anyone who wants to learn how to do networking, although a large amount of the content is meant for intermediate Unity-users to advanced Unity-users, I have tried to put things in that most beginners will be able to follow up on. Assuming you have a basic understanding of scripting, you should be able to learn something.

    Contained in this project is a Multiplayer Networked Game with items, scoring, a chat system, missiles, a custom controller for our player, and a master server list for connecting to different servers. The learning material consists of:
    2 PDF's (A outline of all components in Bubble Burster, and an introduction to networking.)
    Well commented code.
    Youtube videos covering every component (you can find the channel at http://www.youtube.com/BubbleBurster101).

    I wrote all but 2 scripts here, the MouseLook, and the Shield shader, I would like to give special thanks to the folks at Unity for the great engine and standard assets, also I would like to give thanks to Omar Rojo who wrote the Shield shader.

    Feel free to use the code contained in this project in any way you would like.

    Also if you have any questions, you can contact me at iphone.MDMstudios@gmail.com

    Enjoy!

    EDIT: If you have problems with seeing text, reload the "Fonts" folder in Assets/Misc.
     
  46. MikeHergaarden

    MikeHergaarden

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    I've also started my Uniknowledge entry, with the working title: Unity networking zero to hero.

    Unlike the two other previously mentioned networking tutorials my tutorial will be for all (beginning) users and not just those of intermediate/advanced skill level. So there's no conflict there.

    Since I want my tutorial be the perfect fit for all new unity networking users, please tell me what networking parts you are struggling with(or want more information about) in my forum post.

    A question about the contest: My entry does have a unity project, but will concentrate on the pdf documentation which will guide you trough the projects examples. Is this OK? (The description of the contest only names projects, no off-code real documentation)
     
  47. Lab013

    Lab013

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    I would just like to add in that on top of the e-mail, you can ask me questions through twitter (my account is www.twitter.com/MDMstudios)
     
  48. Armagon

    Armagon

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    Very good, mate!

    Yes. You can use any method of teaching you want. If your method is good or bad, that's a decision of the community users that will review and vote! :wink:
     
  49. Veli

    Veli

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    Here is a working sample of my project:

    http://veli.ws/fps/fps.html

    Just need to see how well I do with the high quality competition on in networking field ;)
     
  50. Armagon

    Armagon

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    Great work, guys! But i want to see some variety going on in this contest. What about sample projects of less-common games, like 2D puzzle games (great for starters), sports (tennis, volley, minigolf), racing (good for explaining basic AI, physics, even networking!), etc.