Tag Archives: Unity

Hour of Code @ Reston VA

By Shahed C on December 11, 2015

On December 9, 2015, I had the opportunity to teach an Hour of Code session at South Lakes High School in Reston VA. Mr. Selwyn Lawrence was gracious enough to invite me to a classroom of students, ranging from Grades 9 through 12.

Hour of Code

Mr. Selwyn Lawrence on the left, with his students. I am seated in the middle.

We started with a mid-sized classroom of about 25 students, and also got some help from a colleague of Mr. Lawrence. The vice principal even stopped by to check on our class!

 

We followed the Star Wars tutorial from code.org:

Source: code.org

Source: code.org

Students were given the option to start with a beginner tutorial involving visually dragging and dropping blocks to learn programming concepts. An intermediate tutorial was also suggested, with the option of dragging JavaScript blocks or writing JavaScript code. Finally, some advanced material was suggested for more adventurous students to try at home, namely my Rollerball tutorial in Unity 5.

Thanks to Mr. Lawrence and South Lakes High School for making this happen, and I look forward to doing more in 2016!

Unity Game Development at Gallaudet University

By Shahed C on December 4, 2015

Recently, I had the opportunity to teach game development at Gallaudet University with Unity 5 and C# as the programming language. From their website, “Gallaudet University is the world leader in liberal education and career development for deaf and hard of hearing students“.

gallaudet-logo

We started with a small classroom of about 10 people, including teachers and students. The faculty members graciously arranged 2 interpreters for the class, who did a great job in using ASL while I spoke.

Setting up...

Setting up…

We followed my Rollerball tutorial, which is a step-by-step version of Unity’s own Roll-a-ball video tutorial. You may view/download the material below.

As we wrapped up, I demonstrated how you can use Kinect to detect human bodies and provide new ways of interacting by NUI (Natural User Interface). I demonstrated a Unity sample using Kinect v2 and also used my Speech Bubbles for Kinect app within Visual Studio to take some pictures with some volunteers.

Posing for Speech Bubbles with Kinect!

Posing for Speech Bubbles with Kinect!

My tutorial is split up into 2 PowerPoint PPTX files.

 Part 1 of 2: Download PPTX or view slideshow below

 Download project files for Part 1

SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/shahedC3000/rollerball-1-of-2

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Asset Game Challenge

By Shahed C on October 19, 2015

#AssetGameChallenge

Need some motivation to build and publish an indie game? It’s time for the #AssetGameChallenge!

Looking for great game dev communities? Join one of these on Facebook, or suggest your own in the comments below!

How to Participate

  • check-icon Nov 10, 2015 – start building an asset (graphics, game components, game templates, etc)… for your own game, for the community, for an asset store, etc. Announce it on your website, on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Use the hashtag #AssetGameChallenge
  • check-icon Dec 10, 2015 – Pencils down! Your asset should now be ready for public consumption. In case you weren’t able to publish it to a official Asset Store just yet (e.g. Scirra, Unity), you should publish it to your website or make it available for download via Dropbox, etc. Make sure you announce it on social media using the hashtag #AssetGameChallenge.
  • check-icon Jan 10, 2016 – It’s time! Your game should now be ready, at least as a playable demo or a published game that includes a free/trial/freemium/F2P version. In case you weren’t able to publish it to a game store (e.g. Windows Store, Apple App Store, Google Play, Amazon App Store) yet, you should at least publish a web export to your website.  (for security reasons, no executables please!)

Need Help Publishing? Check out these step-by-step guides!

Badge-Prize-icon How do you win? Are are there any prizes?

  • Within the Construct 2 and Unity Indie Devs groups, we could use an online poll to determine the top games for each community.
  • Participants will be encouraged to offer free game codes for prior published games or downloadable assets. If you offer a code, game or asset, you must be the developer/publisher, and you can choose how many you would like to offer.
  • If you decide to run the #AssetGameChallenge contest in your own communities, feel free to offer your own prizes.

Help-icon Questions and Answers

Can u make a mini game or just assets for a game?
There are 2 phases, one for assets, one for a playable game. You can participate in either or both. For the first phase, just build an asset… any asset that people can use freely. For the second phase, build a playable game… it can be a minigame or a playable demo, free trial, etc. There just has to be some component of it that is playable without having to pay up front.

I already have a prototype of my game. Can’t I just give the link to you?
The point of this initiative is to promote a new game project through social channels. You can wait until each milestone and then post a link in this group with the proper #AssetGameChallenge hashtag. To be fair, you should start a new project instead of using a game/prototype that you’ve already built. (It can be derived from an existing game, but the submitted game has to be a new game)

I’ve already done a lot of work on this over the past month. Would I be eligible? 
If you build something new on top of an existing asset/game, that counts too. If you blog/tweet/post about it, make sure you mention what was already developed in the past month and what’s new.

Is there a limit of team members?
Nope, just mention the dev/team name and (if you wish) the team size.

(more will be added soon)

Leave your comments below or send a tweet to @shahedC with the hashtag #AssetGameChallenge

Thanks for participating!
Shahed Chowdhuri 🙂
founder/admin of unofficial Construct 2 Devs and Unity Indie Devs groups

 

Indie Game Development at Game Developer Symposium 3.0

By Shahed C on October 14, 2015

Presentation material for Indie Game Development presentation at Game Developer Symposium 3.0

Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/shahedC3000/indie-game-development-53942292

Download PPTX: https://wakeupandcode.com/public_downloads/GameDevPanel-ShahedChowdhuri-2015-10-14.pptx

 Useful Links:

* Win10 development: http://dev.windows.com
* Publish Win10 game with Construct 2: Guide: http://wakeupandcode.com/publish-a-windows-10-game-with-construct-2
* Publish Win10 game with Unity 5: https://wakeupandcode.com/publish-a-windows-10-game-with-unity-5
* Apply to ID@Xbox: http://xbox.com/id
* Apply to HoloLens: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us/development-edition

 

Facebook groups:
* Construct 2 Devs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/construct2devs
* Unity Indie Devs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/UnityIndieDevs
* Xbox One Indie Devs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XboxOneIndieDevs
* HoloLens Indie Devs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/HoloLensIndieDevs

 

 

Unity 5 First-Person Tutorial

By Shahed C on August 20, 2015

New to Unity 5? Start with my “Rollerball” tutorial first:

Ready to build a 3D first-person game in Unity? The following presentation material was put together for a live audience for my in-person presentations, but you can also follow along online with the detailed screenshots and instructions.

  Download PPTX or view slideshow below

SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/shahedC3000/unity-5-firstperson-tutorial

 

Credit: Weapon assets obtained from Unity Technologies.