From HOW TO: Use Game Mechanics to Power Your Business.
Interesting read, but I mostly just wanted to post this image – a great chart summarizing the everyday challenge of gameplay balance for game designers.
And this is what perfect Game Mechanic Zen looks like: 
Posted via email from Brandon Wu’s Road to Where He Wants to Be
All scripts that are compiled in this step have access to all scripts in the first group ("Standard Assets", "Pro Standard Assets" or "Plugins"). This allows you to let different scripting languages interoperate. For example, if you want to create a Javascript that uses a C# script: place the C# script in the "Standard Assets" folder and the Javascript outside of the "Standard Assets" folder. The Javascript can now reference the C# script directly.Best,
Posted via email from Brandon Wu’s Road to Where He Wants to Be
//this script changes the guiText color of the object and should be attached to an guiText object//from http://www.plinan.com
var TextColor : Color = Color.white; // define the color for this guiText object
function Start () {
guiText.material.color = TextColor;
}
Description
If you've ever wanted to get at the auto-generated font bitmap that Unity creates when importing vector fonts, now's your chance. SaveFontTexture saves that bitmap as a .png file so you can edit it, add whatever whizbang effects you want to it, and then use it as a colored font, using the TexturedFont shader and a GUIText object.
Script Setup
You must place the script in a folder named Editor in your project's Assets folder for it to work properly. When this is done, you will then have a Save Font Texture menu item in the Assets menu. Find the TrueType font you want in Unity and open the root, which reveals the auto-generated material and texture. Click once on the texture (called "font Texture") and select the Save Font Texture menu item. Choose a file name and location in the file dialog, and hit save. (Technically this script will work for any texture in Alpha8 format, if for some reason you wanted to save it as a .png file.)
Customizing and Using Font Textures
1. Get the TrueType font that you want to modify in Unity at the desired Font Size (so that you can use Pixel Correct in the GUI_Text object that will use it for crisp rendering).
2. Use this script (installed as described above) to save the texture Unity generates automatically for the font.
3. Edit that texture file in Photoshop to use in your project.
4. Create a new Material in Unity.
5. Set the texture of the material to the modified texture.
6. Set the shader of the material to the TexturedFont Shader.
7. In any scene GUI_Text objects that will use the custom font, apply the original font to the object then change its material to the custom material created in steps 4-6.
-Brandon Wu
—–Posted via email from Brandon Wu’s Road to Where He Wants to Be
“Nothing is guaranteed, or goes as planned, but if you keep yourself grounded in what you’re trying to do – which is make a piece of artwork that people would love to watch, it touches them. And that’s the same thing that Blizzard and Bioware do – they’re making games that, when you turn the computer off, you’re still thinking about the game. There’s an important place for that.”
And that’s what keeps Pixar and Blizzard ahead of other studios – Passion for Perfection.
Posted via email from Brandon Wu’s Road to Where He Wants to Be
“If you are moving a GameObject through its Transform component but you want to receive Collision/Trigger messages, you must attach a Rigidbody to the object that is moving.”
From unity3d.com – Unity Reference Document: Rigidbody
This might seem obvious. The rigidbody component is used when you want your game object to have physics applied on it. Unity has Ageia (now part of Nvidia) physX engine built-in, so you can easily make a game with physics in it – stuff like gravity, realistic collisions, forces, and torque. It can create some very impressive and natural-looking effect. (similar to Little Big Planet or this Unity-powered gem Cordy)
But what if you don’t want the fancy physics? You can simply remove the rigidbody component in your game. However if you have any collision or trigger messages in your game, that is, if you use any OnCollision or OnTrigger functions, they will no longer work. As stated at the bottom on the Rigidbody reference page, “If you are moving a GameObject through its Transform component but you want to receive Collision/Trigger messages, you must attach a Rigidbody to the object that is moving.”
So the bottom line is, if you don’t want to use physics for the objects in your game but need to have collisions and triggering events, keep the rigidbody component on the objects and Enable “Is Kinematic” – which disabled the object from having physics applied to it.
Posted via email from Brandon Wu’s Road to Where He Wants to Be
Tilt-shifting, also known as Miniature Faking, is “a process in which a photograph of a life-size location or object is made to look like a photograph of a miniature scale model” basically by blurring the top and bottom of a picture and adjust the color saturation of the photo. It can create some amazing images.
I love the way they look, and would love even more if we can see a game with this kind of visual!
More at Design Float.
Posted via email from Brandon Wu’s Road to Where He Wants to Be
Imagine channel surfing on your couch with a remote game controller and play different games as you like. That’s how I imagine these streaming game services to be like (probably not initially but hopefully in the future). With these streaming game services, you no longer need to worry about having the latest console to play games, or having to buy/rent a physical copy of the game. It’ll be like YouTube – search and play, with no waiting in between.
Is this going to make consoles obsolete? No, not now at least. Consoles are always going to push the technology – be it graphics, 3D technology, or motion control. But streaming services will be a great way for people to easily become a gamer without having to worry about hardware by making games much more accessible – think Facebook games but with amazing production quality.
I can’t wait.
:)
Posted via email from Brandon Wu’s Road to Where He Wants to Be
Posted via email from Brandon Wu’s Road to Where He Wants to Be
I discovered Grow Island a few days ago and was intrigued by the simple play mechanism and the degree of “Omoshiroi“ness. (aka interestingness). The player is presented on screen an island and a few buttons that represent different technologies. The player’s mission is to find out the optimal order in which to click these buttons in order to maximize all the technological advancement and see the “special ending”. Think of it as Civilization in the simplest form (with only the technology tree gameplay left).
What do I like most about the game?
1. Instant gratification. Something interesting and different always happens right after when you click on a button.
2. Fun animation sequences. The designer has a wacky sense of humor and it’s captured in his animations.
3. Easy to pick up and play, and has enough depth and different endings for players to come back for more.
Each session is short and it’s quite perfect for a little break in the middle of the day. Try it and let me know if you like it! ;)
Posted via email from Brandon Wu’s Road to Where He Wants to Be
Is video game art? Can it ever be art? I’d say yes to both of these questions, what do you think?
Good article on Salon on gaming as art.
Posted via email from Brandon Wu’s Road to Where He Wants to Be
via artatm.com I spent hours finding a great font two weeks ago. If only I saw this list earlier! There are some really great looking fonts here. I ...
via macdoninri.deviantart.com The Greatest Game Ever, based on the cutting-edge social-ready free-to-free True Imagination Engine. from Don Dimanlig Posted via email from Brandon Wu’s Road to Where He ...
Have you heard? Monkey Island 2 is the greatest game ever made. via untoldentertainment.com Full article at Untold Entertainment. Here are six of the most commonly used ways ...
via mashable.com From HOW TO: Use Game Mechanics to Power Your Business. Interesting read, but I mostly just wanted to post this image – a great chart summarizing ...
I ran into this problem when I tried to access a function in a class/script that I've downloaded from the wiki from another script that I wrote. I ...
Plinan
definitely one of the top must have tools for Unity developers IMO. Can't wait for the next version! :)
Bob Berkebile
I'm glad you guys are digging it! I can't wait until I get version 2.0 finished and can unleash
Mani
I have been meaning to sit down and spend more time with iTween. I also posted a list on
Stuart
I couldn't agree more. We used it for a simple recoil action on our first game and absolutely loved how
Plinan
Thanks! next step is to improve our CTRs! :)