Introduction to Mobile Gaming

Course Description

This 1-day course will introduce beginners to Unity and its suite of 2D mobile features. Students will build a 2D mobile game from the ground up and learn how to implement the following: sprites, animation, game mechanics, analytics, monetization, and publishing. By the end, students will have built characters, scenes, animations, and game mechanics for mobile deployment of their game.

Who Should Attend

Anyone looking to develop games for mobile platforms.

Prerequisites

• Practical working knowledge of computers and basic Mac OS X or Windows skills.

Course Outline

Note: The curricula below consists of activities typically covered in a class at this skill level. The instructor may, at his/her discretion, adjust the lesson plan to meet the needs of the class.

Lesson 1: Setting Up a Project for Mobile Games

• Distinguish features that enable mobile development versus other platforms
• Identify the platforms the Unity Engine can deploy to plan building content once and deploy across platforms
• Identify trade offs made for mobile deployment versus PC/Console deployment
• Identify optimization considerations to the provided assets and why they were made for the 2D mobile game project
• Effectively navigate the Unity Editor to create a simple mobile game
• Identify the different Editor windows and their purposes
• Use common hotkeys and shortcuts to navigate in the Editor
• Configure a Unity Project for 2D Development

Lesson 2: Creating Animations and Players

• Use the Unity 2D toolset to set up characters and scenes
• Use the Sprite Editor to slice Sprite Sheets for use in the Scene
• Apply 2D colliders for Physics interactions
• Configure Prefabs for use throughout the Scene
• Use Tilemap to build multi-layered Sprite based Scenes
• Use Scriptable Tiles to Adjust Sprite Z-positioning to create a parallax effect
• Create in-editor animations to generate animations for scene elements and the character
• Import character sprite sheet animations
• Create keyframe animations to create smooth transitions for the character animations
• Enable the control of multiple animation sequences with the Animator
• Enable the Sprite Packer to automate and optimize textures applied to Sprites
• Create Scriptable brushes for the platforms

Lesson 3: Creating Game Mechanics

• Build 2D game mechanics that enable mobile gameplay
• Use scripts to implement gameplay
• Configure a Cinemachine camera to create a follow camera
• Apply and configure mobile gestures (touch, tap, and swipes) to implement Player controller
• Build a simple UI to display gameplay behavior

Lesson 4: Finalizing the Game

• Plan for using services to improve long term game play and build mobile monetization and business strategies
• Identify monetization services for mobile games
• Identify retention services for mobile games
• Identify Google Cloud save for storing information for multiple devices
• Create a basic plan for implementing services for future 2D mobile game development

Lesson 5: Unity Services for Mobile Games

• Prepare for mobile deployment
• Publish the completed 2D Game to Android and iOS