Easy UI Styles for Unity

So like many of us when in the middle of the project it’s easy to get distracted and start building tools that probably take longer to create than the time the saved by the tool. And what do you know, a few years back I created Easy UI Styles…

I was finding it hard to iterate on my UI designs. I’d change a color here and it would look better, but then I’d need to change it 7 other places and then it was a tad or dark. Or a tad to light. Oh and then I wanted the font a bit smaller.

Ugh.

So Easy UI Styles let me define a style in a custom editor and then apply it object by object in the scene.

A little while back I started switching my project from UGUI text to Text Mesh Pro (holy crap it looks better) and Easy UI Styles didn’t support it. So down the rabbit hole I went! Several hours later the asset now supports 99% of the setting for Easy UI Styles - seemly there are 2 settings that can’t be set by an external script.

While I was at it I created a new video for the asset as well as a cut down free version of the asset. You can get the “Lite” version on the asset store once it’s accepted or until then you can download it here. The full paid version is free for my Patrons (wink wink).

9th Grade Math to the Rescue

With summer here and my day job being a teacher I have a lot more time on my hands all of a sudden.

Nobody has told me to show up for work, so I haven’t gone for a while.

I’ve also intentionally taken a little break from cranking out YouTube videos. Lets be honest the $8 a month I’m pulling in on ads isn’t paying the bills or a reason to flirt with burnout.

This is letting me spend more time working on my personal project. Right now the game is functional, or rather it fluctuates between functional and broken as I write more code, but that’s a not the story I want to share.

At the moment, I’m in the middle of iteration 2 of 37 in terms of polishing and refining the game mechanics. I’ve been squashing bugs left and right while making bits smoother and easier to use.

As part of those iterations, I’ve been working on the UI. Trying to make it less ugly, which is very different from trying to make it look good, and adding “juice” where I can. The ugliest of all the UI at the moment and roughest in terms of functionality is the “combat selection” panel. I want the player to be able to click on a “tournament” and have that tournament be centered in a scrollRect (Unity). So, I did a little playing on my own and it “worked.”

I sure am liking quotes today…

But reaching for a slightly higher standard than just “working”, I decided to use the google and see if other folks had a slick way to make it work. I found posts and discussions, but it all seemed overly complicated. Why is this hard?

Okay yes, Unity’s UGUI system can be pretty opaque at times… but again that’s not the point. Stop distracting me.

And then! Just like each morning during the school year… I remembered that I teach math. And this is just a math problem! I also teach physics. So I figured I’d gather some data and model the situation

9th grade math to the rescue!

Whoa! A real life use of a linear equation.

The complex problem quickly showed itself to be just a linear equation, the position is based on the number of children (tournaments) in the scrollrect, which is fixed, and the index of the child I wanted to center. This is of course based on the children all being the same size (width in my case).

For those following along, yes, I have three variables so no it’s not “linear” but lets not get too picky. Nobody likes to sit next to that guy at the party so don’t be that guy.

And yes, it’s very ugly, but it works. That’s good enough to call it a win!

Such beauty!

This was a good reminder, that as helpful as the interwebs can be sometimes the solution you find is a hammer and your problem isn’t a nail. A couple deep breaths, a few trips pacing around the living room like a crazy person and you can often find a simple(r) solution to your problem. I’ve found that showering and pooping also work, but I didn’t need the big guns this time around.

Introducing My Next Game (Video DevLog)

After my last game project was shelved, I started working on prototypes for a new game. Having learned the lessons of not just making prototypes but meshing those prototypes together early I built up the core mechanics of my next game over the span of a few weeks (just a few hours a week).

This was many times faster than my previous project.

I had the basics functioning and even better the prototypes were playing nice together. Seemly the next step was to starting building out content with, of course, lots of iterations of redesigning and refining.

As I made progress I could see that the amount of content that I needed to create could easily get overwhelming and potentially stick me back in a spot I didn’t want to be in. Designing and balancing content with little to no feedback seems like a poor choice and one that I want to avoid it if at all possible.

Learning from past mistakes, I knew that I needed to trim the game down. I needed to focus the game. I needed to get something playable and testable ASAP.

I’m looking at you my ugly ass combat system.

As I worked on the basic combat structures and mechanics I started to see that if the combat was refined it could do a lot for the game as a whole. If the combat is interesting and holds the players attention that would in some ways that take pressure off the other mechanics. Or more optimistically it could keep players engaged and maybe give the rest of the game time to mature as I build out content.

To take this one step further I saw that the combat alone could possibly make an entire game. Or at least a “mini game.” So I decided to take a horizontal slice of the game, just the combat, and do my best to polish and turn it into (potentially) a stand alone game. It seemed like a good idea and several months later it still does.

So enough typing, here’s my first DevLog video introducing the main idea of the game and the (very) rough prototype scenes.

Programming Challenges

Without doubt and maybe not for the better my focus has shifted from working on my game every night to trying to edit a video. Work on the game continues just slower than before… My fledgling YouTube channel continues to grow albeit at a limited pace. I’ve seemly snatched the “Bolt” niche on YouTube for the time being, but that’s a limited population and is likely to stay that way.

It’s time for something new.

With one part “hey this is cool” and one part “maybe this will expand my audience” I’ve launched Programming Challenges that can be completed in any programming environment or language used in Unity. This is something that I did with my students this year to help get over the significant learning curve of Bolt - and by most accounts it really helped. So why not bring it to a larger audience? If nothing else maybe it’ll help me refine my the challenges for my students.

The goal is to give short programming challenges that can be done in an evening or certainly without a huge time commitment over a weekend. The target audience is beginner to intermediate programmers and likely folks who are picking up Unity as a hobby and want to learn more.

But isn’t that what game jams are for?

For sure! But a lot of us can’t devote huge hours to a game jam on any sort of regular basis. And for those at the beginning of their game development journey creating an entire game (even in a month) can be intimidating.

Now I’m quite sure that there will never be the “perfect” challenge. Some will find a challenge far too hard or so easy that it’s not worth the time to fire up Unity. All the same this seems like a niche that is unfilled on the greater interwebs and continues the larger goal of giving back to the community that I learned from.

With that said, this last weekend, I launched the first challenge. The challenge is to create a dynamic grid of objects. It’s not a game and its not intended to be, but the programming used to “solve” this challenge is something that could easily be used in a game.

I’d love to hear feedback on the idea or this particular challenge. If you’ve got a suggestion for a challenge I want to hear that too.

Something New - Asking "What Can I Learn?"

I’ve continued to make progress on my game, but admittedly my YouTube channel is taking up a significant chunk of my time. The channel continues to be a fun and rewarding, but the growth has slowed. I’m not sure why…

Did I do something wrong? Did I change something? Did YT’s algorithm just decide to spread the love to other channels? Or maybe I’ve captured the Bolt niche and it just isn’t that big?

It’s probably a little of all of that.

So I decided to try something new. Something that I’ve had in the back of my head for a good long chunk of time. That being trying my hand at game analysis. Not game reviews. Not creating “Let’s Play” videos. Much more of asking the question, “What can I learn from a particular game?”

For my first attempt, I choose the game Equilinox. A game I found the thanks to YouTube suggesting one of the devlogs. It’s a “small” and “simple” game - and I mean that in a good way. So enough typing, here’s my video…

Did you make it past the video? I’d love to hear feedback and thoughts!