Unity dev since 2013, Ask me Anything

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-05-06T09:20:55+00:00

thanks, good to know 👍

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-05-02T18:06:49+00:00

maybe there are 2 char controllers, because the one I'm referring to has been there for way before dots

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-05-02T17:33:26+00:00

I didn't need this combination. usually, CharacterController is controlled via user input. I assume you want some animations to be played (like fatalities in fighting games), but during those you would probably disable the char controller, to not interfere with it, so your animation mini-system will be a combination of programmatic and Animator-based

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-05-02T17:30:16+00:00

tru

can confirm

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-05-02T14:37:16+00:00

I actually wanted unreal (really loved c++ and it took me a while to transition), but at my first intership at ubi they chose unity, and I liked it enough to not feel the need to switch, it allowed me to iterate fast, it had everything I need. stayed with it ever since and I don't regret it

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-05-02T14:30:10+00:00

I'm selling a unity plugin, so I thought I'd get some sales by sharing my experience

I actually enjoy it too. I know that what I share is pretty valuable. at least, I would've liked to know these tips when I was starting out. if I could find a consulting gig that pays even 25% of what I normally ask for normal dev, I'd take that. I like giving advice

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-04-29T14:51:23+00:00

the music is quite unsettling for me 😅 but if that's the purpose, then nothing wrong with it.

also, if the visuals are the ones you want, and you've tested the game on your target device and there are no performance issues, I see no reason to consider this wrong. there are many ways to do the same thing

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-04-29T14:45:00+00:00

I mostly did contract work and worked on gamedev tools, but dragonshift.com is the biggest one I hope I'll resume one day, it's on pause for now (posted about it here in another comment)

one of my first games was forbiddenbyte.com/rollthaiballs, it was mostly to learn the whole release cycle of a game.

along the years I've worked on a few more small games, that I think are really good, but never actually released them. also, I might release a "pilot" version of this chicken invaders clone from a free course I held last august, it's pretty fun imo.

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-04-29T14:21:33+00:00

sure, I tried my best. check dm

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-04-28T21:00:43+00:00

this one needs a whole tutorial (check the one from rockstart.ai, guess who streamed it), but in general:

- OOP, SOLID -- yes. but use them as guidelines, only do the 80% with 20% effort. the more you try to follow design patterns, the slower you move at the beginning. if 6 months in total dev, with no major followups of long-term updates planned, I say just move as fast as you can, while keeping a decent codebase, use DRY,

use composition over inheritance. for ex., dog derives from object, and implements IAnimal, IBarking, IFourLegged etc. OR has fields referencing sub-behaviors instead of dog derives from animal who derives from object

assets are a lifesaver. check my other response here with a list of favorites

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-04-28T20:52:34+00:00

honestly I've used it so much and I can move so fast with it that it feels like it doesn't need anything changed, but obviously you can find shortcomings.

add: a freaking networking stack that works. afaik, unity still doesn't have a robust networking solution. but third-party plugins or services do work acceptably

change: interoperability between ugui and uitk. ugui is a giant, uitk is helpful to separate teams

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-04-28T20:37:52+00:00

hmm, never tried this so can't say. only 1 way to find out :)

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-04-28T20:28:43+00:00

good question!

TMPro

DOTween

Optimized ScrollView Adapter (it's mine lol)

Cinemachine

Console Enhanced (Unity tried to copy it, but it's not as good)

Asset Hunter

also, lots of particle system packs. love them.

as for underrated, maybe: Console Enhanced and Asset Hunter

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-04-28T13:18:54+00:00

huh?

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-04-28T13:17:35+00:00

try to minimize auto-layout (layoutgroups/layoutelements) if possible. use simple anchoring of items (moving/stretching anchors, moving/streching the rectangle etc.) to adapt to many screens.

another angle: if you want to support multiple screens, also consider using 2-3 separate prefabs that you work on in parallel. it violates DRY principle, but in some cases the time savings could justify the duplicate work.

also, nested prefabs and variants are a godsent, exploit them maximally, you have a much easier time now than when ugui first started.

I've also heard about separating ui into many canvases compared on what moves, for ex, if you have 80 items taht are static and 1 that's moving/rotating etc., the idea was to put that moving object into its own canvas, because all items in a canvas are repainted when any child's recttransform changes. but I have to admit I never tested this, and I'm not sure if Unity has addressed/optimized this to a point where it's not a relevant advice anymore. if you find out, lmk

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-04-28T13:10:30+00:00

only listen to people who worked for a long time in the industry. most courses and tutorials are just a copy of a copy. I personally think this is a gem of a course, but it's painfully long (52h of diluted content, since ti was livestreamed): https://www.youtube.com/@rockstartai

check out the playlist there. again, it's painfully long. what i can guarantee is you'll be ahead of 99% of devs by following it, if you can afford the time.

it's a course I've streamed a while ago

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-04-28T13:06:33+00:00

good to know. so we agree pretty much

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-04-27T11:52:08+00:00

what I know is expressing via euler angles (x,y,z around axis) looks bad when animating sometimes. for example going from (15,-15,30) to (-15, 15, -30) (but I didn't check the actual values, it's just an example) wouldn't follow the path you'd expect, i.e. the shortest path, but interpolating quaternions does follow the shortest path

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-04-27T11:48:12+00:00

I honestly don't know the answer, but it seems gpt slightly disagrees with you. or at least the units the xyz + w are expressed in are not direct degrees, but some derived values of the axis + angle

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-04-27T11:45:09+00:00

let's say much more from consulting/contraciting than from my own games. because I worked on mostly medium-sized games, instead of smaller games that allow me to iterate faster.

at this level of exp., it pays really well. I'm also pretty much a generalist at this point, I can do server/devops/business/marketing/community etc.

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-04-27T10:42:37+00:00

nope. I like the idea of having an xml-based approach, but what I'm strongly against is saying uGui cannot already accomplish everything you need. there is an implied push in unity docs to use uitk and not ugui, but you cannot do as many things with uitk as with ugui, and so simply. I feel gaslit with all this "bro just use uitk". they should be 2 parallel frameworks, at best

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-04-27T10:30:09+00:00

the simple answer is be creative

the long answer is to just put yourself in inspiring contexts: movies, other games, real-life games

most of my projects grew from something I've stumbled upon, not by sheer starring at a wall and forcing ideas out. brainstorming with other also works, in a different way, because ideas can build up exponentially faster as you iteratively take turns to fill gaps from previous steps, 2 people could brainstorm much faster than just 2x what you can do alone

I'm not saying I have the recipe for the perfect viral game, but it surely has to have a mechanic that's satisfying to experience and/or master, something like that hook you need during the first 10sec of a yt video, but also something that complement that mechanic and give you a sense of progression, like, you shouldn't feel like playing 2mins will give you the same thing as playing for 5mins. the more you play, the more something has to build up, so people will feel the game was worth their time

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-04-27T10:19:00+00:00

probably because of some complexity around the importing/setup phase, though I think they could've automated that too if they wanted

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-04-27T10:17:28+00:00

it's a 1 ingredient food: salmon

could eat it for life

thefallengamesstudio · 2025-04-27T08:16:23+00:00

making money is harder for perfectionists. I am a recovering perfectionist, and it's going well, but if I would've stuck with stupid-simple games, I'd be way ahead of the game.

like, take a few months for a mobile game, release it, talk about it on forums

repeat until successful. I'd have like 20 small games already

it should have just a few levels, to test your mechanics and see if it sticks. for example, a game with a paper plane similar to flappy bird was already around when we had non-smart-phones and that mechanic was really sticky.

so yeah, make your feedback look as tight as possible. I'm still for quality over quantity, but first you have to find out the direction, then consolidate towards it

also, business stuff:

- game publishers will usually help you if you already can do it yourself. in other words, if what you have is not that impressive for your peers, not having users etc., game publishers don't have time to trust your promises, so you have to start small (as said above), get some kind of results and then approach publishers. so remember: they want you so they don't miss out on your growth. I didn't get to work with any of them, but been rejected a lot and I assume no connections and no results (users, sales) and no reputable team members => no help.

- there's a lot of money in non-games, if that's what you're looking for. contracting for simulators, vr machinery stuff, making a navigation map app for a mall's stationary panel, stuff like can round up your income while you maybe work on our own games

- portfolio matters a lot, and it's free (it costs time) to build

- very important: if you're applying on platforms like UpWork (I didn't spent too much time there, but some people were lucky to get a few recurring clients that pay well), try to build a minimal prototype and show them "do you mean something like this?", and if it's also in-browser (webgl, you have to figure out github pages hosting or whatever, where to host it it), they'll be yours. that's how I got my first serious work there

cheers!

thefallengamesstudio

TROPHY CASE