Since the new year is there, I have started to work on my first game for #OneGameAMonth. Which means I have (finally) started learning Unity. I have always been very interested in Unity, but had held off on learning to use it because it did not offer an option to export to Linux. Being a Linux user myself, I require that my game should at least be available for that platform. But with the release of Unity 4, that is no longer a problem, so here I am.

On January 1st, I installed Unity and got to work, discovering just how brilliant it is. For once I felt like a was making a game instead of simply coding ‘technical’ stuff. So sure, there will be a fair bit of coding to do, and a new language to learn, but the fact is I could really start working towards the vision I had right away. Well, I did get distracted and added terrain, trees and the likes, but since then I have gone back and actually gone forward with my original plan.

Said plan is very simple, and is meant as a learning tool for me, as well as hopefully guaranteeing I can release on time. The gist of the idea is that it will be a timed first-person platformer where you need to climb towers or other structures as fast as you can. And after less than ten hours, I have a proof of concept running.

Hop to the top is the name of the game.

So yeah, it is pretty crude, and not all that interesting, but it is working in far less time (while being much more pleasing to look at) than it would have taken me in an engine like Panda3D, even if it is Python and I am pretty familiar with it already. As this prototype has all the gameplay elements in place, and is midly fun for one minute, I will build on it. If you want to know what I am planning, I have set up a workflowy task list that is shared and which you can view here. This will probably be the place where I will put all my roadmaps and most of my design thoughts and decisions throughout the year, so you are welcomed to save the link.

Without further ado, I am going to get back to work, but not without letting you download a first build of that prototype for feedback. It is available for Windows and Linux, or you can play it directly in your web browser, let me know what you think (and if some of you want a Mac OS version too) in the comments! (And my best score was something like 2.59 seconds, for your information.)