Blog Archives

Taking in the Scenery

7/28/2021

Game Demo 50%,
Overall Game 10%,
Unity , Terrain

The terrain for the demo portion of the game is 100% complete!
Ok, that's not completely correct. There is a term called "borrowed scenery" that I particularly like. Borrowed scenery, in the context of a video game, are areas that you can see in the background, but can't approach with the player character. Objects like far away buildings or city skylines can be borrowed scenery. In Message in a Bottle, borrowed scenery are things like distant mountains, islands and flying saucers.

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The Thief of Un-Important Items

7/22/2021

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Sketched on toned Canson pastel paper with Prismacolor and Derwent colored pencils. Construction and animations made in Blender 3D.

This creature goes by the name MeGuana. He likes lounging in the sun and also bright shiny objects. He won't think twice about steeling your earrings or sun-glasses, so watch out!

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Traditional or Visual Scripting? A (Not-So) Tough Decision.

7/15/2021

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Game Demo 50% complete,
Game Overall 10%,
Unity, Bolt Visual Scripting

A few weeks ago I hit a road-block in game construction. I needed to add some actual functionality. Running around a pretty environment is great, but that alone doesn't make a game (Okay, there're some games where you only run).

My choices were to learn traditional scripting, or visual scripting. Here's the difference, as I see it:

Traditional scripting is like learning a new language, complete with new syntax, context and grammar. And you have to be so accurate. Every line has a function and every word on that line has to be spelled, cased and spaced correctly. Otherwise you have errors. Here is what it looks like:
"using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.SceneManagement;
public class menu : MonoBehaviour
{
public void PlayGame ()
{
SceneManager.LoadScene(SceneManager.GetActiveScene().buildIndex + 1);
}
public void QuitGame()
{
Debug.Log("Quit!");
Application.Quit();
}
}"
That was the first and only code I ever scripted. All it really says is when to load the game and when to exit.

Visual scripting, on the other hand seems to be perfectly made for people who have a visual arts background, like myself. Here's what it looks like:

This example does the same exact thing as the other example.
I put them together here so you can see the comparison, but keep in mind that you wouldn't put game start and game quit side by side as you see them here. They should be in separate bolt flow charts, attached to different UI or buttons.

Obviously I am biased toward Visual Scripting. If you're just starting out with coding and have no problem learning new languages, then you probably should give traditional scripting a go. Otherwise, I recommend visual scripting.

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Unity Tutorial: Trigger a Timeline with Bolt Visual Scripting

7/11/2021

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Beginner Tutorial
Unity 19.4+, Bolt Visual Scripting 1.4.15+

* This tutorial assumes you have a basic understanding of Unity, Bolt Visual Scripting and know how to make a Timeline.

If you're not a programmer and you're just learning Unity or Bolt, everything can seem pretty daunting. This isn't one of those daunting things, though. Let me walk you through the steps.

Setting things up:
1. Choose your Timeline in the Hierarchy. Then set it to Play On Awake. Next, make the Timeline Inactive by unchecking the box at the top of the Inspector.

2. Then, attach a Collider to an object in your scene that you want to be the trigger for the timeline, and check the box that says Is Trigger.

The Bolt Visual Scripting Component:
3. Next, add the Flow Machine component to the same object that your Collider resides in and click the New button save it as a macro into your project files.
4. Make an Object Variable and set the Type to Game Object. Drag your Timeline from the Hierarchy into the Variable's Value Field.
5. Drag that Variable you just created into the Flow Graph and use the Fuzzy Finder to add an On Trigger Enter and a Set Active Game Object (check the Boolean to True).
6. Hook all those nodes up the way you see in the picture, and that's it. Good job! Now when your player character-or-whatever runs into the collider, your timeline will trigger.

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Building Robots

7/9/2021

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A sketch is always a good place to start construction. I don't always do that, though :/
Sketch on Canson Pastel Paper with Prismacolor and Derwent colored pencils, Construction and animations in Blender 3D.

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Taking in the Scenery

The Thief of Un-Important Items

Traditional or Visual Scripting? A (Not-So) Tough Decision.

Unity Tutorial: Trigger a Timeline with Bolt Visual Scripting

Building Robots

DevLog

Kris Chavez

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