Creating a small game project for Asset Store

Epilogue

Our studio had free time, because the work on the main project 3d MMORPG for mobile platforms, in terms of content, was completed.

While the programmers continue to write code for the main project, we and the rest of the team decided to make a mini-game in the style of 3D FPS Tower Defense, with a lot of reusable objects, and the code itself, that is, in fact, the Third-Person Shooter KIT . Stuck for developers which can be used as a Starter template with a code, or just use separate objects for your project or game. For development, as many possibly understood from the name, we used Unity3d .

Production

The idea appeared on 12/07/2012 , and according to the plan all the content and code took 2-3 weeks. Looking ahead to say that we almost met.
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For a start, we came up with a mini-plot. It turned out quite simply, the main character discourages the city from the onslaught of zombies, or rather not the city, but the booth of the seller of hot dogs, and not zombies, but rather monsters, which ultimately was not very important.

The first problem was the choice of style and graphics, it was decided to make brighter colors, decorate everything in Toon style, but without Toon-shading and other newfangled things. The number of polygons is 1000-1500 per model, which seems to be suitable for mobile platforms and indie projects, as well as for prototypes.

The result was quite funny and vivid characters, two kinds of each: Zombie, Big-Mutant and Mutant more like a zergling dinosaur than a mutant.



The main character was chosen from two options: a bull with big biceps and a tank top as Serious-Sam and a second version of the Ranger in a raincoat, in the style of Fallout New Vegas: Ranger, Postal: Main Hero. As a result, we stopped at the second version, and made it more cartoony.



We thought about the name, it was clear that he was not a victim, it means a hunter, so the name Hunter appeared, the prefix X was added later, we just didn’t know what his name might be. Mr. X was the most obvious. So the name HunterX –Third-Person Zombie Shooter appeared .

UI work hung on one programmer as he still writes code for the main project. On the second programmer, there was work on the rest of AI, Path-finding, Animation Parser, Particle Collision, Targeting, Behaviors, Wave manager, Spawn Manager, Scores, Animation and Sound, synchronization using the Event System, and of course optimizing it all.
Of course, there were optimization problems and difficulties in using very convenient popular modules, and for cleanliness we wrote a mini UI management system, which, although it eats more draw call, is an independent module. We also wrote animation parsers and so on, which helped a lot when importing models and the project as a whole.

From myself I’ll add that for the UI it would certainly be wiser to use NGUI , but since we are selling Asset KIT, and not a game, it was decided to use our solution.

For AI, Path-finding, the free Assets from AngryAnt - Path , Behave were used, and the entire system of movement and search for monsters was developed for them. Of course, in the Pro version of Unity3d there is a more convenient NavigationMesh , but our targeting was for a wider audience, we wanted our project to support Unity3d Free .

In parallel, there was a creation of all the content, and this is almost:
-Buildings
-Monsters
-The main character
-Automobiles
- Road surface, sidewalks and curbs
-Guns
- as well as many small things - signs, storm drains, trash bins, etc.
-Animations and UV
-Particle Effects and Sounds
-Ui + font

Hurray, release!

The first fully working build under Unity3d 3.5 appeared just on 12/29/2012, with a working, though a bit crooked code and a couple of sleepless nights, but unfortunately or fortunately we got a reject. As the project was not compiled under Unity3d 4.0 .
Urgently had to fix the bugs, but the project stubbornly did not want to be suitable for Unity3d 3.5 + 4.0 at the same time, as a result, a willful decision was made to publish on Unity3d 4.0 . What we successfully did, it took several weeks, and the day before yesterday, that is, on January 17 , 2013, we received a long-awaited appruv. By this time, we have already made a newer version, where we carried out a complete optimization of the code with comments, by the way, it will be available in the next update.

Afterword

From myself I want to add that the toy turned out pretty funny, the monsters are strong and do not allow to relax, the gameplay is clear and easy.
Several types of weapons: fists, katana, shotgun, ak47. Constantly Pruszcz monsters who attack the stall with a hot dog or the main character, which, by the way, depends on the actions of the main character, and not quite bad content.
All this happened in a team of 6 people in four full working weeks. Honestly, it seemed unreal to me, but it turns out that Unity3d and the right working workflow, as well as a well-coordinated team can work wonders. For people who will buy this KIT, it may be easier to learn some things in Unity3d or create something of your own on this platform.
Thanks for attention. I will gladly answer your questions in the comments.

PS: After much deliberation, we finally decided to release the game, so besides an asset, a full-fledged game based on it will soon appear.