The Great (Dungeon) Escape

Meet Marco! He works with instructors Mike M. and Clint as part of Game-U’s New York Accelerate program. Marco spends a lot of time in Unity, the professional gaming engine, and he decided to get in on the Game-U Voyagers’ fun by building his own 3D dungeon crawler. See how he, Mike, and Clint made it happen!

To learn more about how Unity works, Marco began the crawler’s development with a pre-made package of assets prepared by instructor Mike M. Functionally, assets resemble Lego bricks, with each “brick” representing a self-contained unit – a wall section, a torch, a door, or an enemy – that can join with other units to create custom, functioning games. Using these assets, Marco assembled his game’s first level, taking time to plan the appearance and layout of the dungeon’s architecture. He also tweaked Unity’s lighting settings to create a reddish, foggy atmosphere. (Red warns the player to be cautious!) The goal of Marco’s game is to successfully navigate the dungeon maze to reach the victory room. Various types of enemies make this a challenge, however. Marco attached action-specific scripts (scripts are files of lightweight coding instructions that the computer executes as-needed) to the enemy assets to control their behavior. Some scripts cause characters to fly, some provide shooting powers, and some give enemies the ability to damage the player on contact. Depending on which scripts Marco assigns to which enemy, he can create a wide range of obstacles for his player to overcome! Marco’s also working to add a key for the player to collect. The key will unlock the door seen at the end of the video, giving the player access to previously restricted spaces.

Well done, Marco! Mike or Clint only have to show you something once before you can take it and run with it. This game is the perfect example of the high standards to which you consistently hold your work. You’ve created a polished, elegant, but dangerous-looking dungeon crawler complete with enemies, wrong turns, locked doors, and torches. Thanks for sharing it with us! We’re excited to see what you do next.