My first experience in the development of 2D-games (5 tips)
I want to share a little experience that I gained when creating my first game for Andriod. I will say right away, at the time of the development, my programming experience was average (1C and a little C #), and the experience in the game maiden was zero. Unity3D 4.6 was chosen as a development tool, attracted multiplatform and the presence of a large number of video lessons. Since I grew up on the games of the 80s, it was decided to try to make a remake of the cult game Prehistorik 2, in the end we got a 2D arcade called Prehistoric Story. It all started as a hobby, and then turned into a big project, thanks to which many people gained valuable experience and practical skills. Next will be 5 valuable tips based on my personal experience.
Tip # 1: Carefully choose a tool for developing
Unity is good for beginners - everything is simple, convenient and done in a couple of clicks, but the APK files are huge! Plus, the free version has many limitations, for example, the lack of dynamic loading of scenes. In this case, I had to limit myself to displaying a static image.
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Tip # 2: The artist should be one, with good pay and clear deadlines
Considering that I don’t know how to draw at all, I had to ask for the help of enthusiastic artists on a famous art forum. I did not have money to pay for the work of artists, and there was a lot of material for drawing for one person, so 9 people took to draw. Someone drew a couple of little animals, and someone - several locations, and I, in turn, needed to keep everyone within the same design. All this work in the absence of a budget took about 6 months.
Tip number 3: Never cut the possibilities of your game at the design stage
When I started designing my game, I got rid of the possibility of destroying opponents, finding it difficult to develop. Later, when experience was gained and about a dozen levels were placed, I wanted to introduce this opportunity, but for this I would have to rewrite the entire character engine and re-arrange the levels taking this opportunity into account. As a result, for the sake of diversity, the ability to fly a hang glider at some levels was added.
Tip # 4: Use sprite animation and large textures only in the most extreme cases.
At first, the animation with sprites seemed to me a great solution, but exactly before the optimization stage. For some animals, a series of 4096px sprites were used, which greatly affected the size of the game. If I learned about the animation of body parts in time, the size of the game could be half as much. Also, the size was strongly affected by a variety of textures of surfaces, of which there were a lot of different sizes and types.
Tip number 5: Learn all the details of the publication and prepare materials for advertising the game in advance
On the day of publication, I found out that placing applications on Google Play larger than 50 MB is impossible. To do this, you need to compile the application divided into 2 files: apk and obb cache file. Plus, it was necessary to sign the application with the key provided in the Google Play Developer Console. Next, it was necessary to prepare screenshots and a description of the game, which, believe me, takes considerable time.
Conclusion
Total for the development of the game was spent 0 rubles, 9 months of slow development and some nerves when publishing, but I got valuable experience in game development and met interesting and creative people. I really hope that my new hobby someday grows into a profitable business.
Tip # 1: Carefully choose a tool for developing
Unity is good for beginners - everything is simple, convenient and done in a couple of clicks, but the APK files are huge! Plus, the free version has many limitations, for example, the lack of dynamic loading of scenes. In this case, I had to limit myself to displaying a static image.
')
Tip # 2: The artist should be one, with good pay and clear deadlines
Considering that I don’t know how to draw at all, I had to ask for the help of enthusiastic artists on a famous art forum. I did not have money to pay for the work of artists, and there was a lot of material for drawing for one person, so 9 people took to draw. Someone drew a couple of little animals, and someone - several locations, and I, in turn, needed to keep everyone within the same design. All this work in the absence of a budget took about 6 months.
Tip number 3: Never cut the possibilities of your game at the design stage
When I started designing my game, I got rid of the possibility of destroying opponents, finding it difficult to develop. Later, when experience was gained and about a dozen levels were placed, I wanted to introduce this opportunity, but for this I would have to rewrite the entire character engine and re-arrange the levels taking this opportunity into account. As a result, for the sake of diversity, the ability to fly a hang glider at some levels was added.
Tip # 4: Use sprite animation and large textures only in the most extreme cases.
At first, the animation with sprites seemed to me a great solution, but exactly before the optimization stage. For some animals, a series of 4096px sprites were used, which greatly affected the size of the game. If I learned about the animation of body parts in time, the size of the game could be half as much. Also, the size was strongly affected by a variety of textures of surfaces, of which there were a lot of different sizes and types.
Tip number 5: Learn all the details of the publication and prepare materials for advertising the game in advance
On the day of publication, I found out that placing applications on Google Play larger than 50 MB is impossible. To do this, you need to compile the application divided into 2 files: apk and obb cache file. Plus, it was necessary to sign the application with the key provided in the Google Play Developer Console. Next, it was necessary to prepare screenshots and a description of the game, which, believe me, takes considerable time.
Conclusion
Total for the development of the game was spent 0 rubles, 9 months of slow development and some nerves when publishing, but I got valuable experience in game development and met interesting and creative people. I really hope that my new hobby someday grows into a profitable business.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/263461/
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