Friday, June 16, 2017

Day 62: End of Year Post

Well, I made it. Sixty-nine posts total, including monthly posts, and the odd "side-post". I've probably learned more in this course that I will use, than I did in my chemistry class.

I've learned the basics of Unity such as camera controls, adding/manipulating objects, and using the child/parent system. Then I learned some more complicated stuff such as colliders, and using them in a script, as shown in my first (Roll-a-Ball) project. Later, I learned some more complicated scripting that included different variables such as strings and bool, and also included raycasting, and using raycasts to access variables in another game object. Finally, I took all that I learned (along with a dozen help pages and tutorials) and used it to start making a game (Audio-Only). One of the big things I learned from making it was how to use sound in Unity. I could probably compact it down by making it a function, but I decided to keep it expanded just so I know what's going on.

Now, next year there will probably be more people taking the independent course. So here's some advice for them, if they decide to learn Unity.

1) Start small.
Many people may be tempted to jump right in to a big project. DO NOT DO THIS. You will lose interest extremely fast. 90% of your time will be spent looking up tutorials and asking questions on the forums. Do the official Unity tutorials before you take on a project of any size.

2) Learn how the code works.
While doing the tutorials, don't just type it in without figuring out how it works. That's not the point of learning. If the tutorial doesn't explain it in enough detail, do some experimenting. Find out what works.

3) Use the Asset Store
Most of the assets cost money, but there are many free objects and tools that are decent quality. If it's a script, learn how it works.

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