In this tutorial we’ll make a first start into the game by setting up our player.

You’re probably eager to finally be able to actually run around with a player – at least if you’ve followed the status system setup tutorials instead of just downloading the finished setup.

So, let’s get started with a quick and easy setup for getting your player into the game!

Well … maybe not that quick – there’s a lot of topics to take care of:

• animations
• combatant setup
• scene setup
• start schematic
• controls

Player Settings #

But first, we’ll take a look at the general player and player group settings.

Navigate to Game > Game Settings.

ORK Game Settings > Player/Group Settings #

These settings handle the player’s faction and group size.

Animations #

Next, we’ll set up movement animations, i.e. idle, walk and run animations. Don’t worry about animation types for now – we’ll take a look at them at a later time, and a new project comes with some default set up animation types we’re going to use for now. You can learn more about animations in this documentation.

The models used in the tutorial assets worked best using the legacy animation system, so that’s what we’re going with. Also, the legacy animation system is great at giving you control over playing animations when you want, instead of relying on state transitions like Mecanim does.

Legacy animations are played on layers, higher layers overrule lower layers, we’ll use that to ensure the correct animation has priority:

• Layer -1: idle
• Layer 0: walk, run
• Layer 1: damage, evade, etc.
• etc.

0: Movement #

Navigate to Base/Control > Animations, select the Default animation setup and change the following settings.

Base Settings #

Legacy Settings #

Since we’re using the legacy animation system, that’s where we’ll do our animation setup.

Combatants General Settings #

Navigate to Combatants > Combatants > General Settings, we’ll use the animations we just set up as default animations for all combatants.

Animations & Movement #

We’ll set up the default setup for the animation system, animations, auto animation and move speed.

Default Animation System #

Default Animations #

Auto Animation #

Default Move Speed #

Player Combatant #

Navigate to Combatants > Combatants and select the Warrior combatant. This’ll be our player, we’ll have the rest join him later.

Change the following settings.

Base Settings > Prefab Settings #

Yeah … that’s it for the player’s setup for now.

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

Let’s get to our scene.

World Scene #

Open the World scene (Assets/Scenes/) – we’ll set up a start menu in the next tutorial, for now, we’ll just add a setup for quick game testing and jump right into the scene.

As you can see, it’s a rather big level – we’ve got a town, an outpost, a forest and a swamp area and the entrance to our dungeon (which has 5 levels).

Add Game Starter #

First, we’ll add a game starter to the scene and set it up for quick game testing. We’ll go with the ORK Game Starter variant.

Game starters are used to initialize your project, without it, you can’t access any functionality without causing errors. You can learn more about game starters in this documentation.

You can either use the scene hierarchy context menu or the scene wizard (e.g. via CTRL + ALT + W, or using the Unity menu: Window > Gaming Is Love > Makinom Scene Wizard).

I’ll use the context menu: ORK Framework > ORK Game Starter

The added game starter should already have your Project asset set up. Change the following setting in the ORK Game Starter component’s inspector.

It doesn’t really matter where you place the game starter.

Add Spawn Point #

Next, we’ll add a spawn point – we want to start in the town, so move your scene view to somewhere on the central plaza of the town.

Like the game starter, you can add a spawn point via the context menu or the scene wizard. The scene wizard has searchable popups for adding game objects or components, which can get very convenient when having to set up multiple things.

I’ll use the context menu: Makinom > Spawn Point

The spawn point will be placed directly on the ground at the screen’s center – and it automatically has the next free Spawn ID assigned. Spawn IDs are used to identify a spawn point, so when we (soon) spawn our player using a schematic, that’s the spawn ID we’ll use.

Since there wasn’t a spawn point in the scene before, we’ll have the spawn ID 0 assigned.

That’s it for the scene, save your changes.

Start Schematic #

Back to the editor, navigate to Schematics – it’s time to set up a schematic we’ll use when starting our game. This’ll be used when going through a start menu as well as via game starters for quick game testing.

There’s already a tutorial on setting up a simple start schematic available, but we’ll extend it a bit and add items to the player’s inventory

Join Group #

Add Node > Group > Group > Join Group

First, we’ll add the Warrior to the player group.

Spawn ORK Player #

Add Node > Game > Player > Spawn ORK Player

Now, we’ll spawn the player in the scene.

Add To Inventory #

Add Node > Inventory > Inventory > Add To Inventory

This node is used to add items to a combatant’s inventory.

And that’s it for the schematic. Click on Save Schematic to save it, e.g. as StartGame.

I usually save all my schematics in Assets/Schematics/ and sub folders of it.

Start Menu #

We don’t set up the start menu yet, but we’ll use the start schematic here.

Navigate to UI > Start Menu and change the following settings.

New Game Settings #

Game Controls #

And as our last setup, we’ll take care of the player controls. Learn more about player/camera controls in this documentation.

Navigate to Base/Control > Game Controls and scroll down to the ORK Control Settings.

ORK Control Settings > Player Controls #

The default setup, using the Button player control is already the right thing for us, we just need to select the input keys we’re using. The project already has some default input keys available – we’ll be moving using WASD controls.

The Button player controller moves the player using a Character Controller component – the tutorial assets are already set up that way. When working on your own projects or using different prefabs/models, keep in mind that you’ll need a Character Controller if you want to use the Button player control.

ORK Control Settings > Camera Controls #

While we’re at it, let’s switch the camera control to use the Top Down Border camera instead of the default Follow camera.

Rotation Settings #

We’ll allow rotating the camera using the mouse.

Save Changes #

And that’s it – we’re ready to take our player for a test walk!

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

Testing #

Hit play to start your game in the World scene. Your player will spawn in the town and you an move around using WASD controls.

The camera can be rotated by holding the right mouse button and moving the mouse.

Next, we’ll set up the start menu.

(Optional) Add Zooming #

Want to do a bit more? Why not add zooming to the camera control!

For this, we’ll have to set up a new input key – we’ll use the mouse scroll wheel, which can be accessed via Unity’s input manager.

Input Key #

Navigate to Base/Control > Input Keys and add a new input key.

Input ID Setting 0 #

Camera Control #

Navigate back to Base/Control > Game Controls.

ORK Control Settings > Camera Controls > Zoom Settings #

And that’s it, don’t forget to save your changes by clicking on Save Settings at the bottom of the editor.