Holistic Mobile Game Development with Unity Aesthetics and

Holistic Mobile Game Development with Unity Aesthetics and Visual Literacy @ 2015 Taylor & Francis. All rights Reserved. 1

Introduction The most important features of computer games for players are; playability, graphics, online gaming, the interface, and sound. � Effort spent on programming is all for nothing if the game doesn’t engage with the player. � The majority of very successful mobile games have vibrant graphics, brilliant sounds, and awesome animations that grab the player’s attention. � A variety of visual aesthetics and optimization techniques can be used in mobile games for as much visual impact from the device hardware as possible. � @ 2015 Taylor & Francis. All rights Reserved. 2

Third-Party Assets � Cost effective � Consistency � Licensing of models � Unity Asset Store @ 2015 Taylor & Francis. All rights Reserved. 3

The Anatomy of a 3 D Polygon Quadrangles and Triangles � Face normal � Vertex normals � Lighting and shading � @ 2015 Taylor & Francis. All rights Reserved. 4

Textures and Shaders � Texture � Tactile surface characteristic and appearance � Communicate non-verbal messages about virtual objects � Shader � Applies colour and tactility � Bump mapping, Normal mapping, Displacement map @ 2015 Taylor & Francis. All rights Reserved. 5

Textures and Shaders � Shaders and Textures in Unity � Built it: ○ Diffuse � Bumped diffuse � Bumped specular � 2 D: ○ Unlit/Transparent ○ Unlit/Texture @ 2015 Taylor & Francis. All rights Reserved. 6

Textures and Shaders � Texels � Non Power of 2 � Generate Mipmaps � Wrap mode � Rendered pixels @ 2015 Taylor & Francis. All rights Reserved. 7

Investigating Graphics Processing � Drawcalls @ 2015 Taylor & Francis. All rights Reserved. 8

Sprites � Billboards � 2 D plane with an image � Camera orientation � Terrain editor @ 2015 Taylor & Francis. All rights Reserved. 9

UV Mapping � Allocating 2 D image coordinates to 3 D vertices of a polygon Tiling – repeat � Offset - proportion � @ 2015 Taylor & Francis. All rights Reserved. 10

Texture Atlases Combine images into one big image � 3 D modeling package � � Maya @ 2015 Taylor & Francis. All rights Reserved. 11

Particles Mass creation of animated sprites � Unity not optimized for mobile devices � Animated sprites to fake a particle system � @ 2015 Taylor & Francis. All rights Reserved. 12

Animations � Disney � Pixar � Dream. Works � Fundamental @ 2015 Taylor & Francis. All rights Reserved. Animation Principles 13

Animations � Squash and Stretch �Deformation of objects related to the laws of physics � Anticipation �Hints: animations, sound, lighting @ 2015 Taylor & Francis. All rights Reserved. 14

Animations � Staging �Presentation of an idea � Follow-Through and Overlapping Action �Secondary objects �Multiple activities @ 2015 Taylor & Francis. All rights Reserved. 15

Animations � Arcs �Curved paths � Secondary Actions �Support principal animation @ 2015 Taylor & Francis. All rights Reserved. 16

Animations � Slow In and Out � Natural move in change of direction @ 2015 Taylor & Francis. All rights Reserved. � Timing � Speed of action for establishing mood and realism 17

Animations � Exaggeration � Tweaking the laws of physics � coyotus interruptus @ 2015 Taylor & Francis. All rights Reserved. 18

The Little Things � Blob Shadows � Shadows: baked and dynamic � Projectors or black fuzzy ball @ 2015 Taylor & Francis. All rights Reserved. � Audio and Visual Feedback on Actions � Cues ○ Animations ○ Floating text messages ○ Sounds 19

The Little Things � Music Control � Continuous Music � Fade In and Out of Scene Loads � Cover a pause ○ Enable in main scene ○ Test � Volume and Muting @ 2015 Taylor & Francis. All rights Reserved. 20

Aesthetics and Visual Literacy Summary � � � Before you can consider the visual elements of your game environment, you need to understand how a virtual world is constructed and what is possible. Designers and developers have to push the envelope and come up with little tricks to get the best visuals and game experience with limited CPU and GPU capabilities. The nature of 2 D and 3 D games with respect to creating the visuals for both types in a 3 D game engine. While moving virtual objects are key components in a game, several techniques are linked to the principles of animation. Optimization techniques to assist in assessing the suitability of designs for the mobile platform. @ 2015 Taylor & Francis. All rights Reserved. 21