Introduction

Welcome to Assignment #1 of Introduction to Unity for Programmers. The objective of this assignment is building your own version of the classic arcade game “Space Invaders”. You are encouraged to view the video tutorials that accompany this assignment to both aid you in this task and to get a better understanding of what is expected of you.

When you’ve completed the assignment to your satisfaction, you can upload the final build of your game for testing and review by Game Institute staff. You will be awarded a certificate of completion if your work meets all of the assignment criteria (see Game Requirements).

Video Tutorials

This assignment comes with over 10 hours of supplemental video instruction. Your instructor, Gary Simmons, will take you step-by-step through the entire process of building his Space Invaders clone (called Invasion Earth). Invasion Earth is an example of what we consider to be a game that represents successful completion of this assignment.

Please be sure to watch these videos -- all the help you should need is in there. There are five main lessons in total, and all are are accessible from your Unity training area.

Game Requirements

You will be assessed primarily on your resourcefulness as a single developer to turn in a respectable looking game. This means do not use placeholder assets like cubes for aliens, submit a game with no sound, etc. Half-hearted or lazy efforts will not be successful. Below is a list of features your game must implement.

• The game must show a reasonable attempt by the developer to incorporate graphics and sound that are at least on par with the original arcade game. You are certainly free to go far beyond the original quality for your graphics and sound if you feel so inclined.

• Your game must have an animated Title Screen/Main Menu Screen. A still image alone is unacceptable.

• Your game must manage, maintain, and display a high-score table.

• Your game must have multiple levels with increasing difficulty.

• Your game must have an animated Closing Credits sequence. The type of animation is not important as long as it is not simply a still image.

• Your game must support the ability for the player to earn an extra life.

• Your game should implement the approximate gameplay of the original Space Invaders game. It doesn't have to be exactly the same of course, but should be a fair copy/clone of the original game ideas.

• The player should only ever be allowed to have one projectile active on screen at a time.

• The aliens should be allowed to fire multiple projectiles at the player simultaneously.

Project Upload

On project completion you should submit the final build of your project to use for review. We DO NOT require that you submit your source project for this assignment. This assignment is all about seeing if you can get the job done; not grading your coding expertise.

As the image below shows, the link to open the project uploader tool can be found in the following location in your Training area:

• Unity Tab◦ Introduction to Unity

▪ Bonus Lessons / Assignments – Invasion Earth• Lesson 5 : The High Score and Closing Credit Scenes

◦ Click Here to Upload

Review Process

You will be notified when your project has been graded. In the case of success, you will be able to view your certificate from your training area. Please note that it may take up to several weeks before your project is able to be reviewed, depending on the current volume of projects being submitted.

Assignment Success

If your project meets the assignment criteria, you will be awarded a certificate of completion. As the above image demonstrates, you can view/print your certificate from the 'Enrollment Details' section of your Introduction to Unity training area.

Assignment Failure

If your assignment fails to meet the indicated criteria, we will suggest changes that you should make to your game to make it compliant. You can then re-submit your game for another review.

Instructor Help

This assignment represents a test of your current game development ability and assumes that you’ve worked your way through the entirety of our Introduction to Unity training, including the supplemental Invasion Earth videos. Under no circumstances are you to ask your instructor (or any Game Institute employee) for help with this assignment. Many hours of video training have been provided to help you complete this assignment, and that is all the help you will get -- you MUST go the rest of the way by yourself.

Community Help

It is acceptable for you to solicit high-level help and/or suggestions from the community while working on this assignment. Of course, you’ll need to be careful here with your approach. Getting another member of the community to essentially write your code for you or using somebody else’s code/scripts in their entirety will be seen as a cause for immediate disqualification.

Good Luck :)