The Bombs Bursting in Air

Remember Thomas? He works with instructor Mike M. as part of Game-U’s Accelerate program. Thomas got the virtual reality bug some time ago, and he’s now busy building a VR shooter game with the professional-level gaming engine, Unity.

When Thomas last checked in, his shooter game had no missiles, no sound, no environment except the boring default one, and just a basic gun and bullet with a cube for a target. The game looks very different now! Thomas tinkered with his project’s “skybox” (the environment), as well as its lighting settings (light brightness, light angle, etc.) to create the perfect scene for his shooter – a field, on a bright sunny day. Thomas and Mike M. also dug into Unity’s sound effects and particle systems. Hear the retort when the gun fires? See the explosion of particles that follows a hit? By linking sound effects and particle explosions to different events, like the button press that fires the gun, or the successful contact of the bullet with the missile, Thomas added realism to his game and made it easier to play. Now that the player can associate actions with sounds, tracking game progress becomes nearly effortless.

Cool work, Thomas! Your VR shooter gets better and better every time we hear from you. Keep stunning us with your improvements! Oh, and definitely don’t forget to let us know when we can give this game a try for ourselves.