Building AI-driven Characters Using Playmaker in Unity
In this course, you will learn to understand AI character behavior by building a small game with a state-driven UI, a point and click character control system, and an enemy character driven by Navmesh and Animator movement.
What you'll learn
It can be difficult to visualize something as abstract as the behavior of an AI character in a game, let alone implement the code to make it work. In this course, Building AI-driven Characters Using Playmaker in Unity, you will use Playmaker to build a working UI. First, you will implement a point-and-click player control system driven by Navmesh. Then, you will add a ‘brain’ inside an enemy character, all without writing a line of code.Finally, you will sketch out a flow diagram of state-driven behavior, then add actions to that diagram to get the gameplay working for real. By the end of the course, you will know how to prototype your own games using Playmaker. Required Software: Unity 2017 and Playmaker.
Table of contents
- Adding a Brain to the Hero Character 8m
- Laying out a Sketch of a Point and Click Control System 5m
- Identifying the Root Object and Animator Component from within Playmaker 4m
- Using Layers to Determine What Object the Player Clicked On 6m
- Adding Pathfinding Actions through the Ecosystem Browser 2m
- Creating NavmeshAgent Destinations Using the New Actions 5m
- Investigating the Animator Parameters on the Hero's Animator Controller 3m
- Adding a Separate FSM to Handle Walking Animations 6m
- Negative Feedback: A Shrug Animation to Show the Path Is Invalid 4m
- Powerup Introduction 1m
- Creating a New FSM to Handle Player Stats 7m
- Handling Trigger Enter and Exit Events on the Powerup Altar 3m
- Sending Events and Changing Variables Between Two FSMs 3m
- Using a Global Variable to Control a UI Element 3m
- Adding Visual Feedback Using iTween to Shake the Camera 4m
- Using an Ease Curve to Animate a Float Variable 3m
- Lowering the Player's Health and Affecting the Heads-up Display 5m
- Providing Diegetic Sound and Visuals on the Hero's Sword 7m
- Preparing the Ice Prefab to Be Instantiated 7m
- Laying out the FSM to Handle the Shot Being Fired 3m
- Instantiating the Ice Prefab and Altering the Player Stats 8m
- Introduction to the Enemy 1m
- Laying out Scene Objects and Adding a Cinemachine Group Target Camera 6m
- Making a Patrol Sequence for the Enemy Guard 5m
- Syncing Footsteps with the Enemy's Animator Component 2m
- Laying out an Attack Sequence for the Enemy 3m
- Preparing a New FSM on the Enemy for Handling Line of Sight 4m
- Implementing Line of Sight and Providing Feedback to the Decisions FSM 5m
- Implementing Actions for the Attack Sequence 3m
- Implementing the Hiding Sequence 5m
- Making the Enemy React to the Ice Shot 5m
- Handling Collisions on the Enemy's Weapon Using Animated Triggers 4m
- Tracking the Enemy's Health in a Stats FSM 5m
- Using an FSM on the Hero to Do Damage to the Enemy on Weapon Contact 4m
- Tracking the Hero's Health and Receiving Damage from the Enemy's Weapon 3m
- Testing with Multiple Enemies 1m
About the author
Shane Whelan is a Game Design tutor at Ballyfermot College in Dublin, currently teaching in the Game Design and Animation degree program. He is also co-founder of Sneaky Vegetables, an educational games company, currently developing an untitled networked story-making game for children. He has also developed courses for Game Design that run internationally. Shane regularly works with Photoshop, 3ds Max, Unity, Mudbox, and Unreal Engine 4.