Parry Wizard
A small 3D bullet hell
Lower difficulties
Higher difficulties
What ?
Parry Wizard is a small 3D bullet hell. The goal of the game is to survive the longest while dodging fireballs, and sometimes being able to block them with a shield !
How ?
By using the knowledge I learned throughout the course, and a lot of internet and tutorials, I was able to achieve my project from A to Z. It was very pleasant to discover and apply new things nearly everyday. Even though the project is far from perfect, it made me learn a lot more than i could ever hope for.
Softwares used :
Unity : Game software / Illustrator : UI Blender : 3D models, texturing / BeepBox : Music
Who ?
It was a solo project, I did the code, the 3D modeling and texturing of all the assets, the UI, the game design and the music. It is my first ever full game made from scratch, and it was a real challenge.
Why ?
The goal of the project, following the Unity Learn code pathway, was to make a game using everything we learned throughout the course. I loved the idea, but wanted to do more and accomplish more. So I challenged myself to solo dev the game, using tutorials for code, modelling, texturing... I learned a lot, and that was the point. I can now display it as one of my complete projects !
Parry Wizard on Itch.io
The Process
The beginning
As said earlier, the whole project started thanks to the "Unity Learn junior programmer course". I first had to learn the basics of coding overall to be able to learn C# afterwards. I found a course on YouTube by "Vegetarian zombie" that helped me a lot to get into the coding world, curing me from a long-lasting fear.
The switch
That fifth step is "Swapping out your assets", where they teach about free assets on the internet, or on the asset store of Unity. Parry Wizard at that time was just a functioning game with placeholder capsules and spheres. I could have just go for the free assets, but that's not what I wanted, my project would not have been personal enough for me.
The texture nodes
I found a lot of resources, but the best tutorials for learning texture nodes in blender were clearly "Ryan King Art"'s ones. It is very satisfying to make believable textures without the use of painting or modelling, only the nodes. Just like that, I made my own lava, fireball, and rock textures for the project. I also textured the wizard, but much more simply.
Approaching the end
After everything was integrated, some friends playtested the game. The feedback was very explicit, it is fun. Many of them did 4-5 runs to try to get a better time. However, the controls and the perspective of the camera is a problem, of course, I was aware of this issue since the start. Nevertheless, it was the goal of the game to be "different" and not just a simple 3x3 flat designed bullet hell. It was a bit hard facing those critics but i think the playtests will be useful for future projects.
The core
After feeling more confident about coding, I started the Unity course, and followed it up to step 5, when all the code was already done on the project. Parry wizard is the result of the side project requested by the course, using the knowledge acquired to make a game similar to the fundamentals I learned.
The blender part
I had already used blender in the past to make a house and a spacecraft corridor, so I used it for all the 3D models. I did the rock platform, but i was very disappointed with the look of it. It needed good textures, that I would need to make myself of course.
The UI
Every asset of the game was finally done. The wizard, the shield, the lava, the rock, the fireballs, even the flowing lava was there ! It just had to be polished by the UI. I did a font research and created some backgrounds for the buttons and difficulty.
The release
I published the project on itch.io, to make it concrete, and validate all the work I put into it. It released later than expected, but it still ended up exactly like what I intended from the start ! The project started mid-June, and ended the 1st of august.
Thanks for reading !