Game objective

In this article by Alan Thorn, author of the book Mastering Unity 5.x, we will see what the game objective is and asset preparation.

Every game (except for experimental and experiential games) need an objective for the player; something they must strive to do, not just within specific levels, but across the game overall. This objective is important not just for the player (to make the game fun), but also for the developer, for deciding how challenge, diversity and interest can be added to the mix. Before starting development, have a clearly stated and identified objective in mind.

Challenges are introduced primarily as obstacles to the objective, and bonuses are 'things' that facilitate the objective; that make it possible and easier to achieve. For Dead Keys, the primary objective is to survive and reach the level end. Zombies threaten that objective by attacking and damaging the player, and bonuses exist along the way to make things more interesting.

I highly recommend using project management and team collaboration tools to chart, document and time-track tasks within your project. And you can do this for free too. Some online tools for this include Trello (https://trello.com), Bitrix 24 (https://www.bitrix24.com), BaseCamp (https://basecamp.com), FreedCamp (https://freedcamp.com), UnFuddle (https://unfuddle.com), BitBucket (https://bitbucket.org), Microsoft Visual Studio Team Services (https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/products/visual-studio-team-services-vs.aspx), Concord Contract Management (http://www.concordnow.com).

Asset preparation

When you've reached a clear decision on initial concept and design, you're ready to prototype! This means building a Unity project demonstrating the core mechanic and game rules in action; as a playable sample. After this, you typically refine the design more, and repeat prototyping until arriving at an artefact you want to pursue. From here, the art team must produce assets (meshes and textures) based on concept art, the game design, and photographic references. When producing meshes and textures for Unity, some important guidelines should be followed to achieve optimal graphical performance in-game. This is about structuring and building assets in a smart way, so they export cleanly and easily from their originating software, and can then be imported with minimal fuss, performing as best as they can at run-time. Let's see some of these guidelines for meshes and textures.

Meshes - work only with good topology

Good mesh topology consists in all polygons having only three or four sides in the model (not more). Additionally, Edge Loops should flow in an ordered, regular way along the contours of the model, defining its shape and form.

Clean Topology

Unity automatically converts, on import, any NGons (Polygons with more than four sides) into triangles, if the mesh has any. But, it's better to build meshes without NGons, as opposed to relying on Unity's automated methods. Not only does this cultivate good habits at the modelling phase, but it avoids any automatic and unpredictable retopology of the mesh, which affects how it's shaded and animated.

Meshes - minimize polygon count

Every polygon in a mesh entails a rendering performance hit insofar as a GPU needs time to process and render each polygon. Consequently, it's sensible to minimize the number of a polygons in a mesh, even though modern graphics hardware is adept at working with many polygons. It's good practice to minimize polygons where possible and to the degree that it doesn't detract from your central artistic vision and style.

High-Poly Meshes! (Try reducing polygons where possible)

There are many techniques available for reducing polygon counts. Most 3D applications (like 3DS Max, Maya and Blender) offer automated tools that decimate polygons in a mesh while retaining its basic shape and outline. However, these methods frequently make a mess of topology; leaving you with faces and edge loops leading in all directions. Even so, this can still be useful for reducing polygons in static meshes (Meshes that never animate), like statues or houses or chairs. However, it's typically bad for animated meshes where topology is especially important.

Reducing Mesh Polygons with Automated Methods can produce messy topology!

If you want to know the total vertex and face count of a mesh, you can use your 3D Software statistics. Blender, Maya, 3DS Max, and most 3D software, let you see vertex and face counts of selected meshes directly from the viewport. However, this information should only be considered a rough guide! This is because, after importing a mesh into Unity, the vertex count frequently turns out higher than expected! There are many reasons for this, explained in more depth online, here: http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/OptimizingGraphicsPerformance.html In short, use the Unity Vertex Count as the final word on the actual Vertex Count of your mesh. To view the vertex-count for an imported mesh in Unity, click the right-arrow on the mesh thumbnail in the Project Panel. This shows the Internal Mesh asset. Select this asset, and then view the Vertex Count from the Preview Pane in the Object Inspector.

Viewing the Vertex and Face Count for meshes in Unity

Summary

In this article, we've learned about what are game objectives and about asset preparation.