The Ultimate Guide to making a 2D strategy game in Unity (Udemy.com)

Game development & Game art/animation. Create a 2D turn by turn strategy game using Unity 2019, C# and Ps/Gimp.

( 91 Reviews )

Created by: Noa Calice (aka Blackthornprod)

Produced in 2019

What you will learn

Create a local multiplayer 2D strategy game in Unity
Understand on a deeper level the C# fundamentals
Create 2D game art
Animate 2D characters in Unity
Make UI and sound effects
Code tile based movement
Code an attack/defense system
Code a turn by turn system
Buy & place units on a battlefield

Quality Score

Content Quality

Video Quality

Qualified Instructor

Course Pace

Course Depth & Coverage

Overall Score : 88 / 100

Course Description

In this game dev course, you'll learn how to make a 2D turn by turn strategy game using Unity, C#, and Photoshop (or a free alternative).
Here is a list of the keys things that you will learn by watching this course: First of all, you'll gain a deeper understanding of what it takes to create an entire game from A to Z, from art to programming to sounds to game design! By the end of the course, you'll be able to make your very own 2D local multiplayer strategy games, which you can share with family and friends. The game we will bring to life is simple, but will teach you the fundamentals of many tactic/strategy games such as turn by turn systems, attack & defense, moving characters on grid-like environments, placing units, gaining resources and more! All with the C# programming language- if you understand the basics of coding, then this is the perfect opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of those fundamentals (such as functions, arrays, vectors, if statements) and learn extra tips and tricks related to turn by turn games. You'll also learn how to make your own game characters. Starting with sketching, inking, and coloring using a 2D art application like Photoshop (but most of what is taught can be done using free alternatives, such as Gimp or Krita).
We will also learn how to rig and animate those characters inside of Unity using a simple bone-based method. There will also be tutorials on particle effects, sounds, game juice, and UI. Everything that is needed to make a game will be covered in well-edited, fun, engaging videos. This course will immerse you in the life of a game creator, as you go on an epic journey to bring your visions to life.
Why learn from us?
My brother and I created this course to share our passion for making games and help others bring their unique visions to life!
We've been teaching aspiring game developers how to use Unity, code with the C# programming language, and make game art and animations for over two years. Our tutorials have been viewed by thousands and are very popular, every day we get dozens of developers thanking us for helping them out on their own game dev journey! We've not only made tons of tutorials but we've also created plenty of games using Unity, both 2D, and 3D, on Itch io, Newgrounds, and Steam.
So we know what it's like to create a complete, polished experience from A to Z, and really want to equip you with the right tools and knowledge so you can do the same!
Who this course is for:
A beginner/intermediate game developer interested in learning how to create a fun, commercial quality 2D strategy game from A to Z using Unity and C#.
This course is also for those curious about programming using C#.
Someone wanting to learn how to draw and animate 2D game characters using a 2D application like Ps or Gimp and Unity.
This course is NOT for complete beginners having never touched Unity or C#. You should have understood the basics of both Unity and C# if you wish to properly follow along and get the most out of this course.

Time: 3h

Instructor Details

Noa Calice (aka Blackthornprod)

4.4 Rating
91 Reviews

Hey, I'm Noa Calice, an indie game developer having made a dozen games both 2D and 3D using Unity and C#. I've recently completed my first commercial game: The Dreadful Whispers which can be played on Steam.
I'm also a teacher, having made hundreds of tutorials on my Youtube channel called Blackthornprod, where I teach aspiring game developers how to use Unity, code and make awesome game art and animations.
I've developed a strong passion for teaching and sharing my knowledge with others, I want to help you the best I can acquire the skills you need to bring your unique ideas to life!
Join me on this adventure!

Reviews

4.4

91 total reviews

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By Jason Reeve on 11/21/2020

Pretty good but there are a lot of smaller details which are missed, and could have been put into a 'setup document' like setting the scale of objects to get the 1 unit placement, or how to group objects. Admittedly I'm coming at this without any Unity experience (33 Years Game Dev though) and you did sell it as an intermediate course, but would have been nice to get some extra setup info, even if it were just notes to read alongside the video content.

By Philipp Ottensamer on 11/14/2020

Loveable teachers and a fun and quick ride so far, but the coding could be better and the art asset creation could have been described more clearly and in more detail.
As a coder, the code quality is a little below what I would have expected and on the art side I'm kinda lost somewhat (especially without a drawing tablet).
I also fear that they might skip any kind of AI completely, but will update on this at the end.
Nevertheless, would recommend. :)

By Jeremy Toh Hong Hing on 11/7/2020

There are many tips and tricks you can learned from this course which is very good imo. However, the course does very little explanation on the approach but instead just allows you to follow along. You still get incredible value to create the core mechanics of a simple strategy game, but you would have to be innovative and go beyond to create your own original game or a slightly more complex strategy game.

By Caleb Bassing on 10/19/2020

For a three hour course it had some good information, but definitely needed slightly more in-depth overviews of how/what/why things were done instead of simply glossing over them.

By Emil Nielsen Hadzimahovic on 10/15/2020

This is the best tutorial i have ever went through:)

By EM S on 10/10/2020

This course was exactly what I was looking for. It's not a survey course. They get straight to the point. Usually I'll watch tutorials on 2x speed... not with these guys. While the amount of video content may appear to be less than some the the leading courses, the content is very much on par -- it's just far more efficient. As someone who gets a bit distracted this has been perfect for me.

By Al Wickman on 10/9/2020

Spot on - covers all the bases, yet it is concise. The discord channel was a great help.

By Tad DiDio on 10/1/2020

This course provides a good amount of variety of concepts but does not explain most things and if you want to deviate from the course in any way it is very difficult to by expanding some of the concepts introduced.

By MarcusWang on 9/26/2020

The overall course is totally awesome. But it become kinda rush at the end and skip few moves and I feel a lil confused.

By Andreas Johnsson on 9/19/2020

It is a bit challenging for me so far, as I just started to learn Unity. But still highly interesting.

By Matthew Burgess on 9/19/2020

TLDR: Good, but it could be better.
I am yet to complete this course, but I wanted to write up my feelings on it as I doubt much is going to change drastically enough to change my score.
The course is aimed at Beginner to Intermediates, and if this is their definition of intermediates then I'm a lot better than I gave myself credit for. The programming is fine, but there are things being done here that really shouldn't. For example, the repeated use of FindObjectOfType in foreach loops. Cache it! Performance-wise that adds up and is also just good practice. There is also a lot of heavy coupling, which again is fine and is to be expected in GameDev... but there were times when an event/delegate system would make more sense. An abundance of public variables and methods when some could be serialised to the inspector, or just made private.
The above is all fine, by the way, especially for a prototype. But as this course will be picked up by beginners, they should be aware that some of this is bad practice and should be improved on, and Liam hasn't (so far) done this.
What I have really enjoyed so far have been the sections on "game-juice", with some interesting ideas and examples on adding extra flair to the game. This is something that Noah, and the Blackthornprod Youtube channel, shines at and I have always admired. The art sections are useful, but I have an art background so less so for me (but I can see how it's useful for others).
I may be misremembering, but I recall Noah saying early on that this is something that can be built on top of - which it certainly can, with some big amendments. But, code-wise, we know a lot of beginners will just copy this, not think about the why and how, and treat it like gospel while in reality, it needs some hefty revisions.
So, a decent course overall that has taught me a thing or two and made me consider how I would approach some topics and areas of the codebase. But given that it's aimed at intermediates, I expected a bit more from some of the programming that was taught.