In my next set of modifications, I created particle effects that would occur during player deaths, as well as a music-changer.

In Unity, it is easy to represent solid objects such as characters and props through use of colliders and rigidbodies. However, other entities, such as liquids and flames, are fluid and intangible, and thus, cannot be portrayed through meshes or sprites. However, I was able to create two particle systems, one for a flame effect and another for smoke, to display special effects in my game, thus simulating an explosion (guide). I adjusted the settings of my particle systems to account for the particles’ lifetime, emission rate, and size, among other properties, and by adding a script to my Main Camera, I was able to instantiate a particle effect each time a player died.

Next, in order to implement a music-changer into my game, I had to first create a GUI button. In addition, I applied the same concept that I used in my BackgroundChanger script to a new Music script, in which I was able to switch between the music soundtracks that I have in my game.

After completing and filming my final milestone, I decided that I wanted to make further modifications to my game. In an update, I included a background-changer to my game, as well as an immunity power-up.

I was able to make the background-changer button by adding multiple backgrounds (link) as quads, and then creating a BackgroundChanger class with a GUI button. If the button was pressed, I would use GameObject.activeSelf to check if there was only one background active. Then, it would turn off that background, and activate the next one, and this process would continue before eventually looping back to the first one.

Since player deaths in my game revolve around the enemy/obstacle scripts detecting that a Game Object with a player tag has collided with them, the immunity power-up temporarily sets the player’s tag to “Immune”. In addition, it would set the player tag above the player’s head to “Immune”, thus telling the player that they are in an immune state and cannot be killed by enemies. I then used an Invoke function to call a method that would reset the player’s tag and name tag after 10 seconds have passed.

The third and final milestone for my Unity project is creating a second version of my game, complete with a two-player mode as well as new in-game features. Since my second milestone, I was able to add a second player with a different set of controls, a button that would display a warning about how the bombs work, new enemies and obstacles, a background picture, and music. In addition, I was able to fix several bugs and add other visual details to my game since my last version.

In order to create a fully-functioning second player, I not only had to create a complete duplicate of my first player, but I also had to change up how the scoreboard would work and points are calculated, as well as creating a separate RobotController script. An extra player, as it turns out, also results in extra problems! Since I wanted the game to continue even when one player died, I had to change up the if-statements in my Pancam class, which was what kept the game moving along and what ended the game. I was having trouble getting my second player to move, and when I was eventually able to do so using a Transform function, its movements were, unlike that of the first player, rather stiff and robotic. In the Input Manager settings of my project, I realized that I could change the controls and game actions regarding my project. As a result, I had to create a new set of input axes with the “W-A-D” controls instead of the arrow keys, which would result in two separate controls that would create the same movements within two players: an offline multiplayer game.

Next, I was able to add in new enemies and obstacles, the sprites of which I got from an online tutorial. As a result, I had to create new scripts for these components. In the Update method of my MoveScript (which I have attached to an enemy character), I have added a movement to the character using two Vectors representing speed and direction. In my void OnTriggerEnter2D method, I have the enemy check to see if the Game Object colliding with it is a player, and if so, destroy the player. I used this same script and similar version of it for other obstacles as well.

Since I was unable to fix my previous problem regarding how the bombs that dropped would have an explosion that looked off-center, I realized that I could add a warning to the player about the surprises that were to come. Thus, I ended up creating a GUI button that would turn the visibility of a Canvas Panel on and off. This canvas contained two images regarding how the bombs worked, and the button would display these in-game.

In order to create a background picture for my game, I had to first make a 2D Quad (quadrilateral surface used to represent flat surfaces). I then added the background image I wanted (link) as a Shader to the Quad, and afterwards I simply adjusted the scale of the image to fit the resolution and size of my game screen.

Finally, I was able to implement music into my game through the use of AudioSource. In Unity, AudioSource can be attached to a Game Object for playing music/sounds in a 3D environment, which can be done by attaching an AudioListener to the camera. Thus, I was able to successfully add music to my game, which plays as the game progresses.

The second milestone for my Unity project is having a completed game that is user-friendly and has no bugs. Since my first milestone, I was able to add a loading screen and gameover screen to my game, as well as complete my bomb spawners, platform spawners, and bonus-point spawners. In addition, I was able to fix my previous infinite-jump problem that would result in my player being able to “fly”. Finally, I was able to fix a bug that resulted in my character being stuck in the ground occasionally while moving.

I was able to make these changes by adding several scripts to my game. In the Spawn method of my BombSpawner class, I used Random.Range to get a random number between 0 and 1000. If the random number is larger than 700, then I instantiate the gameobject with this script at the transform position of the bombspawner and with no quaternion rotation (represented with quaternion.identity). This BombSpawner class is also used for spawning platforms (represented with a series of doodles) and bonus-point pickups. In my BonusPoints class, I use “void OnTriggerEnter2D” which will trigger when another object enters a trigger collider attached to this object (in this case, the bonus-point pickup). If the player is the one who did so, then the score of the player will increase by 100, and the object will be destroyed. In my GameOver class, I start by retrieving the score of my player. On my separate GameOver scene, I have a GUI Text component which displays this score, as well as two GUI buttons for “Retry” and “Quit”. The retry button takes the player back to the game scene, and the quit button takes them to the loading screen scene. Similarly, in my loading screen scene, I have a SceneLoader class with a “Play” and “Quit” button, as well as one that leads to the Instructables website. Furthermore, I added a title to my game, an acknowledgment to the creator (me) and the original maker of this game (fjordcarver), as well as some visual details. Since I was unable to fix my groundcheck function in my RobotController class, I settled with making a delay between each jump. I did this by using Time.time, which is a float representing the time that has elapsed since a method/function was called, which creates a delay of 1.75 seconds between every jump of the player, regardless of whether they are in the air or on the ground. Finally, I was able to solve the ground-glitch problem by changing the position of my groundcheck circle collider, which was attached to the base of my character. I moved this circle collider a bit closer to the body of my character, which resulted in the collider not getting stuck in the nooks and crannies of the pencilline, thus fixing the problem.

The first milestone for my Unity project is having my character be able to move and jump. Currently, I have a character who can be controlled using the arrow keys and the space-bar, but there is a problem in my code that is causing my character to be able to jump infinitely, even when not on the ground.

I was able to make these controls work by writing a script for my player (Robot Controller script). In my script, there are several main methods that I use to control my character. First of all, I have everything but the player object set as “Ground”. Next, I have a 2D Circle Collider attached to the ball of my robot character’s foot. In my code, I use the Physics 2D Overlap Circle function to check if the Circle Collider is tangent to the ground. I then use this information in an if-statement, resulting in the robot jumping when the spacebar is pressed, with the additional parameter that it is currently grounded. All of this is in an Update method, which is continuously called every frame.

In addition, I use the Animator Set Float function, as well as another if-statement to check if the character is moving left but not facing left, or if they’re moving right, but not facing right. If this is the case, then a flip method will be called, which is used to change the direction that the character is facing, as well as the direction in which they are moving. This allows the character to move with the arrow keys.