Indie Game Development Pipeline Volume 1 – 9

Includes:

Indie Game Development Pipeline Volume 1: Visual Development

The Indie Game Development Pipeline is geared towards indie game developers and will take you through the entire creative pipeline to develop a boss battle level that's comprised of a vibrant 2D environment with 3D characters. We'll begin this process by introducing you to the visual development stage, where we'll lay the foundation of our entire project by producing concepts and ideas for the game's hero, boss, and environment. In this phase of production, we'll discuss the importance of the creative team's input and collaboration to create fun and appealing game assets that all fit together in the same world. Along the way, we'll be sharing with you the feedback on these concepts, in addition to how the 2D environment can be realized and managed across layers in Photoshop. Following this training, you'll continue on through the production pipeline with a series of courses involving the development of our game. You'll learn everything from prototyping the character's movement, interaction, and functionality in Unity, along with how our final concepts of the hero and boss can be modeled, sculpted and textured using Maya LT and Z-Brush. In addition, we'll see them spring to life as we learn how to rig and create stunning animations in Maya LT that will be incorporated into the final game. Finally, you'll learn how to use Unity to assemble our game's 2D and 3D assets for a fun and magical gaming experience. After watching this entire pipeline process, you'll have the knowledge needed to take your own indie game to the next level

Indie Game Development Pipeline Volume 2: Character Prototyping

In this volume of the Indie Game Development Pipeline, we'll begin prototyping the functionality of our game character using the powerful Unity game engine. We'll begin by analyzing the character concept and set up the character game object based on our specific needs. Then we'll set up our level assets that will fit our needs based on the level sketches. Once we have our basic assets built, we'll dive into bringing our character to life through the power of scripting. We'll tackle how to make the character move, jump, double jump, and attack. After scripting the character movement, we'll look at how to create a unique health system and a classic camera setup. Software required: Unity 4.3.

Indie Game Development Pipeline Volume 3: Game Boss Prototyping

In this series of tutorials, we'll go through the process of prototyping the main functionality of a game boss you might see in a 2D side-scroller.If you started the Indie Game Development Pipeline with Volume 1, you've had the chance to work on your game concept art and even work on prototyping the player character. In this volume, we'll begin prototyping the functionality of our game boss using the powerful Unity game engine. We'll begin by discussing the design of our boss battle. This will help us stay on task and identify any holes in our logic. Once we have a solid understanding of our gameplay design, we'll begin to configure the assets for the game boss and the battle environment. After that, we'll begin scripting each phase of the boss battle. We'll begin with small tasks, but before long we'll have an entire system that will become more and more powerful. Once you've completed this volume, you can move on to Volume 4, where we'll go through the process of modeling and texturing the main character. Then you can continue on with the subsequent volumes on modeling and texturing the game boss, rigging, animation, and final game assembly. These tutorials move step-by-step and use our particular concepts, but we really encourage you to have some fun and make it your own. Software required: Unity 4.3.

Indie Game Development Pipeline Volume 4: Hero Character Modeling and Texturing

In this series of tutorials, we'll go through the process of modeling and texturing the hero character for our indie game project. If you started the Indie Game Development Pipeline with Volume 1, you've had a chance to work on your game concept art and begin creating the actual game functionality. In this volume, we'll build the 3D geometry for our hero character, a ghostly knight, using Maya LT. We'll begin by looking at the concept art and then jump into modeling the character's helmet. We'll look at a variety of polygon modeling tools as well as how we can integrate NURBS into our game modeling workflow. Once our geometry is built, we'll spend some time creating a UV layout in preparation for texturing. Then we'll use Photoshop and Mudbox to create a texture for the Ghost Knight. Once you've completed this volume, you can move on to Volume 5, where we'll go through the process of building up the rock monster boss for our game using Maya LT and ZBrush. Then you can continue on with subsequent volumes on rigging, animation, and final game assembly. These tutorials move step-by-step and use our particular concepts, but we really encourage you to have some fun and make it your own. Software required: Maya LT 2015, Photoshop CS5, Mudbox 2014.

Indie Game Development Pipeline Volume 5: Boss Character Modeling and Texturing

If you started the Indie Game Development Pipeline with Volume 1, you've had a chance to work on your game concept art, begin creating the actual game functionality, and work on the hero model. In this volume, we'll build the geometry for our boss character, a giant cyclops rock-monster using ZBrush and Maya LT. We'll begin by looking at the concept art and then jumping into ZBrush to work up a quick armature. We'll take that rough geometry into Maya LT, where we'll use polygon-modeling tools to modify the basic structure. Back in ZBrush, we'll use several techniques to sculpt stylized, rocky detail into our model and add any necessary pieces. We'll continue the process by painting all of our objects. Finally, we'll use ZBrush and Maya LT to create a cohesive UV layout and output normal and color maps for the objects. Then we'll bring everything together in Maya LT to preview it. Once you've completed this volume, you can move on to Volume 6, where you'll go through the process of rigging and animating the hero character using Maya LT. Then you can continue on with volumes on rigging and animating the boss and final game assembly. These tutorials move step by step through our particular concepts, but we really encourage you to have some fun and make it your own. Software required: ZBrush 4R6, Maya LT 2015, Photoshop CS5.

Indie Game Development Pipeline Volume 6: Hero Character Rigging and Animation

In this volume of the Indie Game Development Pipeline, we'll learn about the process used to create animated assets for Unity with the help of Maya LT, a version of Maya specifically geared towards artists that would like to build their own games. In this series, we'll focus on the rigging and animation process of the hero character. We'll learn how to approach building skeletons and control systems. We'll also cover skinning techniques for polished deformations. Once the rig is finished, we'll then jump into animation and learn how to create appealing performances with time-saving techniques that really work. By the end of this training, you'll have the understanding you need to rigging and animate your own hero models.

Indie Game Development Pipeline Volume 7: Boss Character Rigging and Animation

In this volume of the Indie Game Development Pipeline, we'll learn about the process used to create animated assets for Unity with the help of Maya LT, a version of Maya specifically geared towards artists that would like to build their own games. In this series, we'll focus on the rigging and animation process of the boss character. We'll learn how to approach building skeletons and control systems. We'll also cover skinning techniques for polished deformations. Once the rig is finished, we'll jump right into animation and learn how to create appealing performances with time-saving techniques that really work. By the end of this volume, you'll have the understanding you need to rig and animate boss models of your own. Software required: Autodesk Maya LT 2015.

Indie Game Development Pipeline Volume 8: Finished Asset Integration

In this series of tutorials, we will take our finished game assets and integrate them into our project. We'll start out by creating texture atlases from the final environment composition that was created in Volume 1. Then we'll integrate the final character and game boss that was modeled, rigged, and animated in Volumes 4, 5, 6 and 7. From here, we'll look at how to set up all of their animations to work in Unity, all the while reestablishing all of the scripts that were created in Volume 3 and 4. Software required: Unity 4.3, Photoshop CS4, Maya LT 2015.

Indie Game Development Pipeline Volume 9: Final Gameplay and Publication

In this series of tutorials, we will take what we've accomplished from Volume 1 to Volume 8 and create the final version of our game. We'll start ours by setting up a multi-camera setup that will make our character feel truly immersed into the environment. Then we'll begin the work of adding the final details that will make our game feel polished. These details include particles, sound, manipulating materials, and fixing any holes in our logic found in the testing phase. Then, to wrap up this series we'll learn how to publish our game to our desired platform so anyone can play it. Software required: Unity 4.3.