Creating Games with Unity and Visual Studio

>> You know Visual Studio Toolbox,
it's all fun and games.
We always have fun.
Today, we're going to
see with Visual Studio in Unity.
That you can build
games like this.
Hi, welcome to Visual Studio
Toolbox. I'm your host
Robert Greene, and
joining me today is
Arturo Núñez. Hey Arturo.
>> Hey Robert, how are you?
>> Good. Arturo works with Unity,
and so we're going to talk today
a little bit about gaming.
>> Yes.
>> Unity and Visual Studio have
gotten along very well
together for quite some time.
It only gets better.
>> Yeah.
>> So, you're going
to show us some of
the new things in the latest
version in Unity,
latest version Visual Studio,
you're going to turn me
into a game writer in
less than 20 minutes. This
is going to be awesome.
>> Possible, yeah.
>> Cool.
>> Yeah.
>> So, let me talk to
you about Unity first.
>> Okay.
>> So, of the audience who
doesn't know what Unity is.
Unity, it started
as a game engine.
But now, we call it
a creation engine.
Basically, you can
create games but you can
also create interactive
applications for VR,
AR in 3D, 2D.
>> Right.
>> So, that's what we are doing.
>> So, if you do
HoloLens, there's Unity.
If you do mixed reality
there's Unity.
>> Right. So, we support
30 plus platforms.
So, basically, if you want to
deploy your project to
any platform that's out there,
you can with Unity.
>> Yeah.
>> Cool.
>> Yeah. So, the tool
is pretty easy to use.
So, if you're an artist,
you can grab Unity,
you can create something cool
without having to program.
If you're a programmer, you have
complete control over
what you want to do.
Like, if you want to
program the graphics,
you can do that.
If you want to program
the behavior of
your characters or the
things that's there,
you can absolutely
do that using C#.
>> Right.
>> As a language we support.
>> So, you create the graphics,
the UI if you will in Unity.
>> Yeah.
>> Which has its own IDE,
and then in Visual Studio,
you do the scripting.
>> Right.
>> You can do in C#
and other languages
to actually control what happens.
>> Right. So, Unity takes care of
everything like the rendering,
the audio, all of
those things for you.
So, you just need to focus
on the behavior specific
for your project.
>> Okay.
>> That's how it works.
It's C#, we support
other languages
but the best experience
is, it's using C#.
>> Right.
>> Yeah, that's what Unity is.
Yeah. So, let me show you.
>> All right.
>> A demo using Unity.
So, this example is
called AngryBots,
something like six years ago,
at the same demo, now with
the new newest features of Unity,
we're showing the same project
but with a newest
graphics addition.
>> Okay,.
>> This is how Unity works.
It's an editor, it's software,
so you can basically drag
and drop stuff into your project.
So, in this case, I created
these spider robot
in another program.
These are 3D models, the textures
were made in another program.
I bring those into Unity,
and I simply can position them
whenever, whatever I want.
>> So, you need to have this
type of graphics capability?
I need to be able to
draw floors and robots?
>> That's a good question.
Usually, you can you if
you have the ability
to make them.
However, we have something
called the Asset Store.
>> Okay.
>> So basically, if you
just want to focus on
the coding part,
you can go there,
grab some stuff
that it's premade,
some animations are premade,
and just use them
for your project.
>> Right, and then you can
edit those if you want to?
>> Yeah, absolutely.
>> Okay.
>> If you like this spider
but you want another color.
>> Right.
>> Or are you trying to
make some more changes,.
>> More legs or fewer legs.
>> Right, that's possible.
>> Okay.
>> So, that's how
you create your-
>> Okay.
>> - world. You can have
a 2D or 3D project
and the only thing you
have to do is simply,
click "Play" to start
the simulation of
your project and you can
start playing right away.
>> Okay.
>> So, Unity also takes
care of all the input.
So, if you're playing
on a PC or an Xbox One,
or whatever Unity will
translate that input
into whatever you
were working on.
So, it's a really simple game,
a shooter, that space marine.
We have a lot of tools inside
Unity to create these things.
However, the powerful thing
here is that you,
as a programmer,
can add behavior on
top of everything that
Unity offers you,
either on the runtime
or on the editor.
Unity is fully extensible.
So, if there is something
that Unity doesn't
have right now,
you could go there and
extend the Unity Editor.
So, yeah that's in
a nutshell what Unity is.
>> So, the creatures that
bought the space marine
that comes with
some built-in behaviors,
like the ability to go
forwards and backwards,
and left and right
and jump, et cetera?
>> Yeah.
>> Then, you program
additional stuff?
>> Right. So, some
of these objects already
come with built-in behavior.
>> Okay.
>> So, if you want to start
prototyping or doing
some of those things,
we offer you a collection of
assets that you can
simply drag and drop,
and start having something
like a camera that moves around.
>> Okay.
>> Or a character
that walks around.
But as you progress
during your development,
maybe you want to
code the specifics
for that project you want.
>> Okay.
>> That's where.
>> Because I think that if
you're just starting out,
you'd want to reuse stuff
that's already made.
>> Yeah.
>> You get the feel
for how it works.
>> Yes.
>> Then, get better and
better in terms of creating
your own assets, et cetera.
>> Right. So, yeah.
That's the idea that used to get,
started using Unity real quick.
But if you are an advanced user,
you can do whatever you want.
>> Okay.
>> Yeah, that's it.
So, this is the editor of Unity
and the best idea ID for
editing your C# code,
and I'm saying these
truly, it's Visual Studio.
>> Yeah.
>> I've been using
Visual Studio for forever.
Every time, we are working
closely with Microsoft,
so the experience gets
better and better.
>> All right.
>> So, now, we have
the ability to
debug your Unity projects
in Visual Studio
and the workflow,
it's so clean, it's so fast.
That's one of the things
that I'm super excited.
>> Cool.
>> So, yeah. This is a
basic C# script for Unity.
Basically, if you want to respond
to Unity's built-in messages,
you need to extend
MonoBehavior class.
>> Okay.
>> But you already know C#,
I will say, you are
like on the other side.
>> Right.
>> You already know most of
the things you need
to do to start.
>> So, it brings up
an interesting question.
Unity is on the Mono runtime.
>> Yes.
>> Right? So, what version of C#,
what version or equivalent
version of .NET if
I come in here?
>> Yeah.
>> How much of what I'm used to,
would I be able to
actually run inside here?
>> Right. So, we're
revamping that.
A couple of years
ago, we were still
using old versions
of C# and Mono.
Right now, we offer support
for the equivalent of 4.2.
>> Okay.
>> 4.X runtime.
C#, currently we support C# 6.
>> Okay.
>> But with the newest
version of Unity,
we're going to
support C# 7 feature.
>> Okay,.
>> So, we're trying to get there
to provide the latest tools
that are out there.
>> Right.
>> Yeah.
>> Then, that gives
you the ability not
only to do basic C#,
but call into
various frameworks stuff,
talk to Azure if you want to
store information up on
the cloud or whatever.
>> Yeah.
>> Because it's.NET.
>> Yeah.
>> Right.
>> Absolutely.
>> Cool.
>> So, yeah. That's something
that you can absolutely do.
Also on the performance side,
now with these upgrades
of the runtimes,
recurring performance boosts,
also some bugs have
been fixed now.
>> Yeah.
>> So, it's pretty.
>> Okay.
>> Yeah. So, yeah,
I just want to show you.
>> Yeah.
>> A couple of things of
how the workflow works.
If you are using
Visual Studio and
Unity, so for instance,
as you have seen here,
Unity comes with
a project window.
>> Right.
>> So, this part of window
has all the assets
in your project.
So, from textures, sounds,
scripts, videos, everything.
If you're a programmer,
you might not
necessarily care
about these assets.
You just want the code,
you just want to have
the scripts somewhere at hand.
So, with Visual Studio,
if you go to "View" window,
there is a new "Unity
Project Explorer",
and this tool allows you just
to see the scripts
in your project.
>> Okay.
>> So, if I'm just focusing
on programming right now,
I don't need to worry about
clicking other assets
that I don't care about.
Another cool thing, and this is
if you know already C# but
you don't necessarily know
the specifics of the Unity API.
>> Right.
>> You can go to the documentation,
do things like that.
But if you just want to to
get up to speed with this,
there's an awesome feature.
>> Then, I see the screwdriver.
There, you see your full
support for Roslyn.
>> Yeah. So, yeah.
>> Or at least, much support.
>> Yeah. So, yeah.
>> All right.
>> So, there's an option if
you click "Ctrl+Shift+M",
the Implement Unity
Messages option appears.
So, all the messages
you can see here
are messages that
any MonoBehavior
can be seen from the engine.
So, every time you click "Play",
Unity calls start on
all the objects that
are on the scene.
So yeah, sometimes, we
have a lot of them.
>>Yeah.
>> So, maybe you don't
know all of them,
this feature, it's pretty useful.
So, in case I want to say,
"I'm pleased Visual Studio."
Define sorry- The "On Trigger"
enter message, right?
If I want to listen to
whenever two objects
collide with each other,
then Unity is going to notify me.
Okay, something collided here.
I didn't have to go to
a browser to search
how it's their correct signature
for this method,
so it's pretty quick.
I also want to show you
how easy it is to debug.
This is very important because in
the previous IDE Unity used
or what's it shipping with;
it was hard to do the bombing.
So, developers ended up just
printing everything
to the console.
It's difficult to do that.
That's not the best tool to that.
Within Visual Studio, you can
simply add your breakpoints,
as you do if you already know
how to use Visual Studio.
In this case, this
breakpoint will be called
every time I shoot a projectile.
>> Okay.
>> Within Unity, I can simply
"Attach to Unity and Play".
So, I don't need to be switching
between Unity and Visual Studio
so I can simply say,
Visual Studio, launch Unity,
while you connect
to that process.
So, I can now start
debugging my project here.
So, as soon as I shoot,
Visual Studio
captures that event,
and I can inspect as you
already do in Visual Studio.
>> Very cool.
>> Yeah, it's pretty cool
tools for developers.
Also important because Unity
is now used by
the other industries.
People making interactive
applications, so yeah,
most people are new to
programming so having
these tools at hand,
Visual studio is very
important for us.
>> So, new to programming.
What if you've been doing
.NET for a while, C#,
web apps, line of business apps,
and now you want to
try it here at gaming?
>> Yes.
>> So, the part where you write
C# code in Visual Studio
is pretty familiar.
You can go to
the asset store and get
a bunch of assets, but
how hard is it for somebody
that's just used to
writing regular line of
business apps to come over and
learn the world of gaming and-
>> Right, and the graphics
and things like that.
>> -and graphics?
>> Yeah. So, there are a lot of
resources on the web
on how to learn
using Unity either by
the community but we also
have official documentation.
I think it's fun
to work on these,
because if you are trying
to follow a tutorial,
you're making a game, right?
>> Right.
>> So, you get excited
about shooting a star,
about collecting points
and things like that.
So, there's a lot of
documentation on that.
One thing I always recommend
people on doing is at
least knowing the basics
of graphics or math.
It's not required, but I
think you can have
more fun if you do.
>> Right. Yeah. Well, you have
to understand
the underlying platform.
Like if you say alarms,
use Xamarin and
write mobile apps,
because Xamarin is just C#.
>> Right.
>> You get over there and
the code you write is similar,
but if you don't
really understand
the iOS runtime or
the Android runtime,
how great an app can you write?
If you come over
into Unity and you
know C# and you know
a few things we don't
really understand what
that engine is doing,
how great a game can you write?
So, you do ultimately
need to get pretty good
at that kind of stuff.
>> Yeah, absolutely.
Another thing that is-
>> But you don't want
to have to wait to
master that before you can
create your first game
where somebody runs
backwards and forwards
and jumps, right?
>> Yeah. So, yeah,
definitely you do need to know
the underlying platform
you're running,
the hardware you're
running because
you're writing a mobile game.
But it's too process intensive,
it's going to drain the battery
in a couple of minutes, right?
So, you don't want
that experience for your user.
One thing that Unity
already takes care of is
trying to write
the optimized code
for each platform
towards port two.
However, you still need to know,
as you said, the underlying
platform you're targeting.
>> So, how does that part work?
You want this game to
run on PCs, on Macs,
on various phones, obviously
the code behind is the same-
>> Yes.
>> -any has the ability to
compile into those platforms,
but you have to do
the UI differently?
>> That's an interesting
question. You don't.
We provide you tools,
you define your UI,
for instance, in a certain way,
and then Unity will
take care of scaling,
and managing all those things.
As you said the code that
you write is the same,
Unity will take care of compiling
to the specific platform.
The only thing you
need to do basically
most of the time is
just tell Unity;
Okay, I want you to build
two Xbox One, for instance.
>> Okay.
>> In this case, I don't
have the component loaded.
I need to go to the Internet
and install it, okay?
>> Okay.
>> But it's super
simple to do that.
>> Okay. Cool. Then you
may decide that your game is too
busy for smaller form factor-
Yeah.
>> -and then you might
have to adjust it that
way if the scaling doesn't
take care of it for you.
>> Yeah. Another thing is given
the hardware differences between
devices like if I'm burning here,
I might not care about
my computer draining the battery
because I can plug in,
but if I'm on
the cell phone, I am. So-
>> Sure.
>> -yeah, you need to take
care of those things.
There are a lot of
other components that
you can understand if you want,
if you're interested into that,
but some of the other things
you don't have to.
You just want to have
a lighting source,
you put a light
there, it will work,
and you don't have to worry
about that. So, yeah.
>> Cool.
>> So, you can grab Unity for
free, if you're starting.
There is a personal edition
if you want to try it out.
Everything is unlocked, meaning
that you can do whatever,
that engine is not locked
with any features for
pro customers or anything
so that you can just
play around with that.
Also, I know the audience
it's interested
in like open source platforms,
or open source projects.
Unity itself is not open source.
However, we are opening
many of Unity's components.
So, the UI is open source,
the networking is open source,
many of Uniti's components
are open source.
>> Cool.
>> You can collaborate, you can
receive what's
underlying the platform.
>> Right.
>> That's possible.
>> If you wanted to you could use
Visual Studio Code to do
the scripting as well, obviously?
>> Yeah, you could.
>> You just don't get
the nice tie in from IDE to IDE.
>> Right. So, yeah. Those
are our C# scripts, so-
>> Right.
>> -you can edit them anywhere.
>> Okay, cool.
>> But If you want to have
all the speed of development.
>> Right.
>> That's it. Unity is
available on Mac for-
>> Okay.
>> -for authoring. So, if you
have Visual Studio on the Mac,
the experience is
going to be the same.
>> Okay. So,
Visual Studio for Mac
also ties in just as nice.
>> Yeah, it works great.
So, it's important because
before if you were
developing on PC and then
you had to switch to
Mac to do iOS development
or something,
you had to switch
your environment,
but now you can have
the same stuff running
on both platforms.
>> Awesome.
>> Yeah. So, also we're
announcing this partnership
with Unity and Visual Studio.
There's going to be
a bundle out there,
so you can save a couple of
$100 if you get Unity
and Visual Studio.
>> Okay. So, if you already have
Visual Studio you can just get
Unity user for free
and then at some point
you have to pay,
probably if you're now
selling games and whatnot,
I would imagine, right?
>> Yeah. Well, so, our licensing
it's pretty good I think.
You don't have to pay
us anything if you make
less than $100,000 per year.
>> Oh, okay.
>> You can even make money
out of your projects,
you don't have to pay after
you passed that amount,
you have to-
>> We get to the point where I'm
making six figures on a game,
I'm probably pretty happy to pay.
>> Yeah.
>> I think it's fair.
>> Yeah, correct.
>> No danger of that
happening any time soon.
>> Yeah, we don't
charge royalties.
>> Okay.
>> So, if you become
a super millionaire out
of Unity of your game,
you just pay your license-
>> Okay.
>> -and you don't have to
pay us every now and then.
>> Okay.
>> I think it's important.
>> And then the bundle
is the ability to buy
Visual Studio and Unity?
>> Yes.
>> Okay.
>> That's the bundle.
That's what you save.
>> Cool. All right.
So we'll have links to
that in the show notes.
We'll put some links to
some tutorials and
some getting started.
Earlier today, you did
some getting started videos
is really good stuff
on the Unity website,
for how you might get
started doing this.
Like anything, start small.
>> Right.
>> Do something simple and
then learn bit by bit.
But there's a lot of fun and-
>> It is. It is a lot of fun.
>> It can be a nice change
of pace from writing,
the same old desktop
and web apps.
>> Yeah, definitely.
It's a fun world.
>> Cool.
>> Yeah.
>> Thanks for coming
and showing that to us.
>> Thank you very much.
>> All right. Hope enjoyed that,
and we will see you next time
on Visual Studio Toolbox.