Create a 3D top down RPG with turn based battles from scratch in this ORK 4 tutorial series for Unity.

This tutorial series is a quickstart into ORK 4 RPG Framework without any prior knowledge (except for basic Unity knowledge). The goal is to create a small top down 3D RPG with turn based battles, setting up the entire project from scratch (only using provided assets).

The game will have a player group with 2 members (a physical fighter and a magical caster) and random encounters that take place in separate battle scenes. It’ll also contain a small in-game menu, save games, items and equipment – everything you need for a small game.

The tutorials will mostly cover the basics and setting up specific features and mechanics:

• player and some combatants
• UI system and UI prefabs
• simple status system
• abilities, items and equipment
• turn based battle system
• battle start/end schematics to load the battle scene and return
• animating actions
• battle menu, player HUD, simple menu system, dialogue
• auto saving after scene changes and battles
• an interaction and some item collectors

Tutorial Assets #

The assets provided for this tutorial series are not for commercial use.

You can download the tutorial assets for the Universal Render Pipeline (URP) here:

Download Tutorial Assets Pack

Used Assets & Special Thanks #

All you need is included in the tutorial assets pack download above.

I’d like to thank Jean Moreno (JMO) for letting me use some of his Cartoon FX particle effects in this tutorial. The used particle effects are coming from the Cartoon FX Free, Cartoon FX Remaster and Cartoon FX 2 Remaster assets.
Remember, the tutorial assets are not for commercial use, if you want to use JMO’s effects, please purchase them in the Unity Asset Store.

Another special thanks to Quaternius, who provides a large range of free 3D assets under the CC0 license. If you like Quaternius’ work, consider joining their Patreon to support them!

Project Setup #

Before getting started with the actual tutorials, we’ll have to do create the Unity project and handle some basic setup.

1. Create a new Unity project #

Use the Unity Hub to create a new Unity project, e.g. using Unity 6.3 (use at least Unity 6 or newer).

Use the Universal 3D template to create the project. The tutorial assets are set up for URP.

2. Layers (Unity Project Settings) #

After creating the new Unity project we’ll set up a layer that’s used by the tutorial assets.

Open the project settings via the Unity menu: Edit > Project Settings…

Go to the Tags and Layers settings of the project settings and extend the Layers foldout.

If your project already had layer 10 set up, you probably started with a project that has something else set up, e.g. by using a different project template. That shouldn’t have an impact on the tutorials in most cases.

Change the following layer.

As the name suggests, this is the layer the prefabs of our combatants, but also their equipment, will be placed on. The tutorial assets are already set up that way.

Why? It’s generally a good idea to have things on different layers, e.g. for this tutorial, the ground (and other scene assets) are on the Default layer and the combatants on layer 10 (Combatants). This makes it easy to use raycasting for positions on the ground without being blocked by combatants.

3. Import ORK Framework #

Import ORK 4 RPG Framework into the Unity project.

You can download the latest ORK 4 BETA version here.

4. Import Tutorial Assets Pack #

Import the tutorial assets pack you downloaded above.

5. Adding Scenes to Build Settings #

For being able to load scenes in a running game, they have to be added to Unity’s build settings. After importing the tutorial assets, we’ll add the scenes that are included in the package.

Open the build profiles using the Unity menu: File > Build Profiles

Select the Scene List on top of the platforms.

Add the following scenes to the Scenes In Build:

• Assets/Scenes/Start Menu
• Assets/Scenes/World
• Assets/Scenes/Dungeon
• Assets/Scenes/Forest Battle Arena
• Assets/Scenes/Dungeon Battle Arena

You can delete the SampleScene that is included in each new Unity project. It’s located in Assets/Scenes/.

Ready! #

You should now have a set up Unity project with ORK and the tutorial assets.

 

And with that, it’s time to start with the setup – we’ll start with the initial setup of our project.

Download the Completed Project #

If you want to test out the project or compare it with your own setup, you can download the completed tutorial project (up to the last tutorial: 28 Item Collectors):

This is a Unity 6.3 project, extract the content of the zip-file and open the project in Unity. The completed project comes with ORK 4’s beta version.

Download Completed Tutorial Project for Unity 6.3

Detailed Setup Guide #

Here’s a detailed guide to setting up the completed project in Unity and reimporting the folders to avoid missing UI scripts:

1. Download the completed Unity project (zip-file)
2. Unzip the file
3. Add the project to your Unity HUB
4. Open the project with at least Unity 6.3
5. Open the Start Menu scene (Assets/Scenes/)
6. Hit play

Controls #

The finished project uses the following controls:

• WASD
  Player movement
• Arrow Keys
  Navigate menus
• Space
  Accept/interact
• Escape
  Cancel
• F1
  Call menu.