In this tutorial we’ll begin the setup for our game’s menus.

We’ll start with some general settings:

• menu background prefab
• exit game question
• save game settings
• combatant selection
• start menu

Let’s get to it!

UI Background Prefab #

First, we’ll create another UI prefab – this time a background for our menus. Open the UI Environment Scene to create the prefab.

As usual, we can easily set this up using the scene hierarchy context menu: Makinom > UI > Background (Sprite)

This’ll create a UI background a bit larger than the canvas, we just need to adjust the Image component.

Image #

Create Prefab #

Create a prefab out of the Background game object by dragging it into the project view, e.g. name it Menu Background.

Don’t forget to remove the game object from the canvas.

UI Settings #

First, we’ll set up a dialogue that’s used when the player wants to exit the game.

Open the Makinom editor and navigate to UI > UI Settings.

Exit Game Question #

This dialogue can be shown when offering the player to exit the game, e.g. in menu screens.

Save Games #

Navigate to UI > Save Game Settings, we’ll take a look at the save games and set up the save menus.

Save Game Settings #

These settings handle the number of available save slots (and auto save slots) as well as where the save games are saved.

We’ll stick with the default setup:

Save File Settings #

These settings handle where the save game is stored – we stick with the default setup.

Save Data Settings #

These settings define which game data will be part of the save game.

We’ll stick with the default setup, which will save most of the data.

File Settings #

Define the name of save files and content included in the file’s information (e.g. game time, area).

We’ll adjust the File Info to include some information about the saved game, the rest will be kept at the default setup.

File Info #

UI Backgrounds #

We’ll use the Menu Background prefab we just set up to display a background in save menus.

Pause Settings #

You can optionally pause the game while displaying save game menus, we’ll do that.

Save Game Menu #

These settings handle the menu for saving the game.

Load Game Menu #

These settings handle the menu for loading a saved game.

Save Point Settings #

We don’t use save points (we can save at any time using the in-game menu), but we’ll set it up anyway.

The default Save Button and Load Button setup is already what we need, but we’ll add a cancel button.

Cancel Button #

Combatant Selection #

Combatant selections can be used to select targets for abilities and items in menu screens – we’ll e.g. use this in ability and inventory menus.

Navigate to UI > Combatant Selections, we’ll change the Default combatant selection.

Base Settings #

Start Menu #

The start menu is used to start a new game, load a saved game, exit the application and more. Learn more about the start menu in this documentation.

Navigate to UI > Start Menu.

Start Menu Settings #

New Game Settings #

Menu Options #

A new project already has 3 options added to the start menu:

• New Game
  Starts a new game.
• Load Game
  Opens the load game menu to load a save game.
• Exit
  Closes the application.

We’ll add another option to Continue the game from the last save game.

Save Changes #

And that’s it!

Don’t forget to save your changes by clicking on Save Settings at the bottom of the editor.

Auto Saves (Optional) #

Let’s add auto save games – the game should save to the Auto Save slot each time after changing a scene. I.e. after entering a scene changer and a new scene was loaded, or after a battle was finished.

For this, we simply add a Save Point component in each scene that saves to the Auto Save slot instead of displaying a save point.

Creating a Save Point #

Open the Town scene and create a new, empty game object using the scene hierarchy’s context menu: Create Empty

Rename the game object to Auto Save and move it somewhere out of the way.

Add a Save Point component to the game object using the component menu.

Save Point Settings #

Start Settings #

Save the changes you’ve made to the scene.

Other Scenes #

Copy the Auto Save game object in the scene hierarchy.

Open the Forest scene and paste the copied game object into the scene. Save the changes.

Open the Deep Forest scene and paste the copied game object into the scene. Save the changes.

And where’ done – the game will now automatically save to the Auto Save slot after loading into a scene. It doesn’t matter if we went through a Scene Changer or came from a finished battle.

Testing #

Hit play in the Start Menu scene.

You can now start the game from the start menu.

 

Next, we’ll add the in-game menus using menu screens.