Development Of A First-Person Shooter Game Using Unity Game Engine

Acknowledgements

All appreciation goes to the Almighty God for His grace and mercy during the course of this project. I also want to thank Doctor Itunu Isewon, my project supervisor, who guided me with various advices during the course of this project. Thanks also goes to the Head of the Department of Computer and Information Sciences and all the lecturers in the department.

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to create a first-person shooter game using Unity game engine. The aim is to look at how a first-person shooter game is developed in Unity, a 3D game engine which has become not only popular but a standard in the gaming industry. It also describes how the interface in Unity is used to quickly generate game environments, how scripts are used for logic, game interaction and other game mechanics. Furthermore, it shows how various Artificial Intelligence algorithms can be used to control the Non-Playable Characters (NPC) and also the environment. Using Unity3D, and Visual Studio 2015, I was able to create the 3D game environment and the script to control various components. C# (CSharp) programming language was implemented for the scripting.

Introduction

Background Information

Game development can be said to be the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game to facilitate interaction between player for entertainment, healthful, educational or simulation purpose. Game design/development can be the act of deciding how a game should be (Schell, 2015). The gaming industry today is one of the most thriving industries in the world. Games are becoming more popular and getting the interest of many, this is possible as a result of introduction and invention of new technology for example improved graphics card quality and faster processors. (Sarve & Khatri, 2014) This led to the creation of 3D games, when compared to 2D games presents a robust graphics and a vast environment to the end user. In the recent times 3D shooter game have gained popularity. In making of games there some skills required to be a topnotch game developer. Listed below are many but a few essential skills and they are not al IT-related.

• Good IT Skills (Programming, video graphics and hardware): It is important to have a vast knowledge of software design and programming in other to be successful in the field of video game design. And it is also required to have a fair for code. As graphics and animation is a major part in video games and the UI design.
• Problem-Solving Skills: Game developers are constantly overcoming challenges and resolving technical glitches in their everyday life. And there are some needed virtues like grit and patience required to approach challenges or debugging codes and also the ability to see things from different perspectives.
• Creativity: In other to muster an original and unique game idea and create incredible and aesthetics virtual world it is important to have a touch of creativity.
• Time Management skills: Video games are getting more and more complex with multiple components and it often require multiple teams with professional artistic and technical skill set for build various pieces to be but put together.
• Staying au courant of industry developments: It is crucial that to be abreast with the happening in the game industry in other not to lag behind in industry standards.

There are mainly two types of shooter games genre and they are, First-Person Shooter (FPS) and Third Person Shooter. In the First-Person Shooter the user plays the game in the first-person perspective, that is to say the user controls a virtual character/avatar that is in a 3D virtual environment, and experiences the game through the eye view of that character e. g. Call of Duty: WWII, Battlefield 1, Far Cry, Halo etc. while in third person shooter the avatar can be seen interacting with the virtual environment. There are many other game genres that appeal to various users: Simulation, Strategy, Role-playing, Logic, Casual etc. and they all satisfy the need of the users.

Statement Of The Problem

Most game developer start developing First Person Shooter games by building the game engine from scratch, this is tedious and retards the development process of the game. In addition, the game engines built my not be cross-platform. With the availability of advance open source and third-party game engine, these can be taken advantage of in other to reduce development time.

Aim And Objectives Of Study

The aim of this project is to develop a first-person shooter game using an existing game engine. The objectives of this study include:

1. Study the approaches usually employed in the development of a First-Person Shooter games in order to identify limitations.
2. Evaluate and pick a suitable game engine for actualize a First-Person Shooter game.
3. Model and animate characters for the game.
4. Develop codes for the game and publish the game.

Research Methodology

Research methodology goes further to explain the best method intended to achieve the stated objectives.

Objective 1: Study the approaches usually employed in the development of a First-Person

Shooter games in order to identify limitationsIn order to gather requirements for the development of this project a research on existing First-Person Shooter games was conducted, and thorough study of what they did, how they did it, their flaws and their merits.

Objective 2: Evaluate and pick a suitable game engine for actualize a First-Person Shooter game

The different game engines that have been used in the past in developing games will be reviewed and evaluated to determine the suitable one to use in the course of the project. Some of the engines which will be reviewed will be Unity3D, Unreal engine and Cry engine.

Objective 3: Model and animate characters for the game

After successfully determining which game engine is suitable for the development of the game, the game development will start with modelling. The first thing to do is environment using blender then props followed by the characters for the game.

Objective 4: Develop codes for the game and publish the game

The models will be imported into the game engine to be employed, then the remaining design will be done in the engine. C# (CSharp) will the programming language to be used for scripting. Finally, the game will be published across various platforms after series of test.

Significance Of The Study

The result of this study is to showcase how easy and flexible it is to develop aesthetic and visually appealing 3D games using revolutionary game engines. Off the shelf game engine have already dealt with rigorous and complex processes, allowing games to be made with ease and reduce the delivery time.

Limitation Of Study

When modification is to be done without having any knowledge of the code base, that can pose as a challenge. So, it is important to be familiar with the code in other not to avoid having errors. Due to the fact that third-party game engines are not specifically made for anyone, therefore there might be some cons to using the engine and it might be less efficient than the code written specifically for a game.

Project Outline

The rest of this project will be organized as follows: Chapter two discusses relevant literatures so as to elicit requirements for the proposed game system. Chapter three models the requirement for the proposed game system using the unified modeling language. Chapter four discusses the implementation of the life cycle of game development. Chapter five summarizes the work and gives recommendation for future work.