Templates & Modularism
Enable your maximum speed by using templates
Hello reader, in this blog I will try to explain why you should and must use template when producing prototypes. If you ever notice that you are wasting a lot of time by editing/creating same Scripts, UI, Scenes, Project settings, etc… then you need to consider your time that you put in for those things.
Creating a template can look rough for un-experienced / beginner developers but it is not! Think of that like listing the things you always do in your project. Do you always find yourself creating a scene with GameManager, LevelManager, UIManager? Then why not opening project that already contains them. Maybe you are always importing base character model in your projects and setup animations again and again put it in as well! When you get the idea, this is pretty easy to do ey?
My thoughts for the templates are pretty basic. I’m always asking myself does this thing going to speed up my production? But don’t over do it! Otherwise you may face with high loading times and messy workplace.
There is some musts I can tell if you start creating your own template for team of production. You need to make it clean and understandable by anyone (Artists, Game Designers, etc…). Friendly UI and UX are the most important parts when creating the templates and effects speed significantly. Even if you are lone wolf believe me it is much better for your sanity :)
If you feel lazy, don’t know where to start or feel not skilled enough to create such a thing. Then remember your last project and how did you put all the same assets/scripts/work that you’ve done or imported 2 - 1000 times and do this again without trying to create a game but base of the game so you don’t need to do that ever again.
Things that I suggest for (HyperCasual or any similar type of level based games) Unity3D Project templates are:
1- Create level system and use prefab for each level and ScriptableObject for creating the levels instead of using scenes. It is much easier to edit 1 scene than 40.
2 - Make sure you have all the managers you need such as GameManager, LevelManager, UIManager, SaveManager.
3- Import always used assets. Ex: DoTween, Toon Shader, Simple UI pack, Editor Packages like Unity Recorder, Sprite Editor.
4- Make sure level system is linked with UI and make it work well with the level system.
5- Drop some comments on the methods that you created for the template so nobody needs to ask you stupid questions or dig deep into all of the code that you create.
6- Use Editor utility tools like Odin Inspector.
Alright that’s it by my side. Remaining ups to you! Thanks for reading until here. I hope I convinced you to use Template and fasten your production. Cheers.
Tolga Durman
25 August 2021
