First blog post… And first steps!

Written By Lauren Hepburn

After spending most of my free time in April, finally finished Unity’s Create with Code 2 course! I have a main game that I want to work on, however I want to get some practice games out of the way to both practice and demonstrate coding skills.

The next steps I want to learn are pixel art and animation, following both a top down 2D tutorial and a 2D platformer tutorial. After that will be Blender 3D for both 3D modelling and animation, followed by Unity’s Creative Core learning pathway. I’ve also already started working on Unity’s Design and Publish Your Original Game: Unity USC Games Unlocked. It’s more of a guideline of the process of creating games rather than a tutorial. I know I listed those in a list, however I’ll be working on them simultaneously. If you’re interested in any of them, I’ll leave a list at the end of this blog post. Some of them I have already completed but I’ll include them anyways.

For practice for my first game, I’m making a game called Empire of Bees. It’s essentially going to be an AFK game, where your bees passively collect you honey and you use that honey to gain more bees and upgrade them. Real simple concept, but has a lot of room for future growth and expansion. This is just to practice the basics of what I’ve “relearned” so far.

What have I done so far?

I’ve started the GDD, as well as a prototype. Set up the project and got it saved on GitHub. I also started an asset list. None of these things are complete though. I filled out the essentials to get started on the prototype, which was the main thing I wanted to focus on. Also paperwork is incredibly boring when you have an idea in your head and it’s all for practice in the end with Unity. The documents are important too, but I can always come back to it as well. Maybe one day when I need to just brain-dump.

If you’re interested in reading the Concept/GDD you can find it here.

If you’re interested in the asset list or what that looks like, you can find it here.

What is next?

Practice, practice, practice. Learn, learn, learn. Those will never end, however at this moment it’s important so I don’t have bad habits when coding or doing art. My actual list includes populating the backlog of the Asana project I made with all the Empire of Bees to do, updating some of the 3 month goals that I set for myself and figuring out an actual schedule for all the things I want to learn. This includes writing out a breakdown of all the SkillShare courses (listed below), and then putting all of those in a timeline that involves the deadline of when to complete.

List of Courses on SkillShare

Pixel Art & Animation

  • Make Pixel Art with Aseprite by Simon Sanchez

  • Introduction to Pixel Art by Simon Sanchez

  • Make a Topdown Pixel Art Interior by Simon Sanchez

  • Make a Topdown Pixel Art Videogame by Simon Sanchez

  • Make a Sideview Pixel Art Mockup by Simon Sanchez

  • Making an Item Set in Pixel Art by Simon Sanchez

  • The Beginners Guide to Aseprite by Parker Pierce

  • Pixel Art Coloring by Parker Pierce

  • Animate an Explosion in Pixel Art by Simon Sanchez

  • Learn Pixel Art Animation for Game Characters in Photoshop by ToonGag Entertainment

  • Master Pixel Art in Aseprite : Pixel Art for Video Games by Incomemass

  • Pixel Art Master Course - Beginner to Expert/Freelance level - for Video games - PART 1 (Beginner) by Mislav Majdandžić

  • Pixel Art Master Course - Beginner to Expert/Freelance level - Game Perspectives (Part 2) by Mislav Majdandžić

  • Pixel Perfect: Mastering the Art of Pixel Art 101 by Mostafa Nassar

  • Tilesets For Pixel Art by Parker Pierce

Unity Games

  • How to Make a Top Down 2D Action RPG in Unity 2022 by Christopher Navarre

  • How to Make a 2D Platformer Game in Unity 2022 from Scratch by Christopher Navarre

Blender 3D

  • Blender 3D: Deep Dive Into Modeling by SouthernShotty3D

  • Into Animation: Blender 3D Essentials for Animators by John Knowles

  • Animating in Blender 3D: Your First Character Rig by SouthernShotty3D

  • Blender 3D: Your First 3D Animation by SouthernShotty3D

  • Blender 3D: Your First 3D Character by SouthernShotty3D

  • Blender 3D for Beginners: Create a Cartoon Bumblebee Animation by Harry Helps

Lauren Hepburn
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Too many goals!