Mobile RTS Game in Unity 2D - From Scratch to App Store from Udemy

This course is made in latest Unity 6, but is still compatible with older versions of Unity.

Build a Fully Functional Mobile RTS Game in Unity 2D and Publish It to the App Stores

This course offers a complete, step-by-step guide to developing, designing, and publishing a mobile real-time strategy (RTS) game using Unity 2D and C#. It’s perfect for beginners who want to learn game development from scratch and for experienced developers looking to expand their skills in mobile RTS game creation.

What Makes This Course Unique?

You’ll work on a single project from start to finish—building every feature yourself without relying on third-party libraries. This ensures you learn not just the "how," but also the "why" behind every system and mechanic.

Course Highlights:

Setup Your Game Environment:Start by setting up your Unity project and designing a game map with tilemaps and animated tiles. Learn to create dynamic environments and design immersive visuals for your RTS game.
Character Creation and Animation:Animate game characters, including builders and warriors, with unique behaviors and appearances. Master Unity’s animation tools to make your game come alive.
Game Mechanics:Implement crucial gameplay systems like:
- Unit selection and movement with click-based interaction.
- Building placement and confirmation workflows, complete with real-time visual feedback.
- Unit actions, such as gathering resources, constructing buildings, and combat engagement.
Resource Management System:Develop a resource economy where units collect and store wood and gold, enabling players to construct structures, train units, and unlock new gameplay opportunities.
Pathfinding with A* Algorithm:Learn the fundamentals of pathfinding as you code your own A* algorithm. Ensure that units can navigate obstacles and follow smooth movement patterns on the game map.
Enemy AI and State Machines:Program intelligent enemy behaviors using state machines, including movement, targeting, and attacking. Create dynamic enemy waves with unique challenges.
Combat System and Unit AI:Design a combat system where units engage in battles with enemy waves. Implement stances like defensive and offensive modes, enabling strategic control of player units.
Game Polishing:Enhance the user experience by adding features like:
- Damage popups and event announcements.
- Audio effects for footsteps, attacks, resource collection, and more.
- Camera controls for smooth navigation across the map.
Final Game Improvements and Publishing:Test your game on iOS and Android devices, ensuring performance optimization. Learn the full deployment process for both platforms, including:
- Setting up store pages.
- Creating preview videos.
- Complying with store guidelines for publishing.

By the End of This Course:

You’ll have a fully functional RTS game ready for release on mobile app stores. Moreover, you’ll gain the skills to create, code, and publish future games, setting you on a path toward becoming a professional game developer.

What's inside

Syllabus

Comprehend the course goals and discover how to troubleshoot coding errors.

Course Preview

Troubleshooting

Design a functional game map using tilemaps and animated tiles.

Traffic lights

Read about what's good

what should give you pause

and possible dealbreakers

Provides a step-by-step guide to developing a mobile RTS game, making it suitable for individuals with little to no prior game development experience

Offers experienced developers the opportunity to expand their skills in mobile RTS game creation by working on a single project from start to finish

Focuses on building a fully functional mobile RTS game and publishing it to app stores, which is directly relevant to mobile game developers

Uses Unity 2D and C#, which are industry-standard tools for game development, making it valuable for developers familiar with or wanting to learn these technologies

Covers the full deployment process for both iOS and Android platforms, including setting up store pages and creating preview videos, which is essential for publishing mobile games

Involves coding a custom A* algorithm for pathfinding, which may be challenging for beginners without prior programming experience or knowledge of pathfinding algorithms

Reviews summary

Mobile rts game from scratch

According to learners, this course provides a solid foundation for building a 2D real-time strategy game in Unity, taking you from scratch all the way to app store readiness. Students particularly appreciate the course's commitment to building systems entirely from the ground up without relying on third-party libraries, citing it as a key factor in understanding the 'why' behind the code. The step-by-step guidance on core RTS mechanics like A* pathfinding, unit AI, and resource management is frequently highlighted as a strength. However, some reviews note that the publishing section could be more detailed or updated, and a few mention needing additional outside resources for more complex topics or debugging.

Generally well-paced but can be challenging.

"The course pace is mostly good for beginners, but some sections move quite fast."

"It requires dedication, especially when coding complex systems like AI and pathfinding."

"As someone new to Unity, I sometimes had to rewatch lectures to fully grasp the concepts."

Leads to a fully functional game.

"Ending up with a complete, playable RTS game at the end felt really rewarding and cemented my learning."

"This course delivers on its promise to build a functional game from start to finish."

"It's a great feeling to have a full project I can show off after completing the lessons."

Excellent coverage of key RTS systems.

"The explanation and implementation of the A* pathfinding algorithm was incredibly clear and insightful."

"I feel like I have a solid grasp on unit selection, movement, and the combat system thanks to the detailed lessons."

"Implementing the resource management and building placement mechanics step-by-step was very effective."

"The AI state machine for enemies was a great learning experience."

Learning to build systems from the ground up.

"The focus on building everything from scratch, without relying on pre-built assets or libraries, was a game-changer for me."

"I really appreciated building all the core mechanics ourselves. It helps truly understand how things work under the hood."

"Building everything myself gave me a much deeper understanding than courses that rely heavily on plugins."

"Didn't use any third-party stuff, which makes me confident I can build custom things later."

Needs more detail or updating for app stores.

"While the course covers publishing, I felt this section was less detailed compared to the game development parts."

"The publishing steps seemed a bit outdated or could have used more in-depth coverage on specific store requirements."

"I had to look up additional resources to fully understand the process of getting the game onto mobile app stores."

Activities

Be better prepared before your course. Deepen your understanding during and after it. Supplement your coursework and achieve mastery of the topics covered in Mobile RTS Game in Unity 2D - From Scratch to App Store with these activities:

Review Unity 2D Fundamentals

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Solidify your understanding of Unity 2D concepts before diving into RTS game development. This will make it easier to follow along with the course and grasp more advanced topics.

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Review Unity's interface and basic tools.
Practice creating and manipulating 2D sprites.
Experiment with Unity's physics engine in 2D.

Prototype a Simple Unit Movement System

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Practice implementing a basic unit movement system in Unity 2D. This will reinforce your understanding of scripting, animation, and input handling.

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Create a new Unity 2D project.
Import a sprite for the unit.
Write a script to move the unit based on user input.
Animate the unit's movement.

Review 'Unity 2D Game Development Cookbook'

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Supplement your learning with a cookbook that provides solutions to common problems in Unity 2D game development. This will help you overcome challenges and implement game mechanics more efficiently.

View Putting Knowledge to Work on Amazon

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Browse the table of contents to identify relevant recipes.
Read through recipes related to game mechanics and UI.
Try implementing some of the recipes in a test project.

Four other activities

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Document Your Learning Journey

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Create a blog or journal to document your progress and challenges throughout the course. This will help you reflect on your learning and identify areas for improvement.

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Choose a platform for your blog or journal.
Write regular entries about your progress.
Reflect on challenges and solutions.

Review 'Game Programming Patterns'

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Study common design patterns used in game development to improve your code structure and maintainability. This will help you create a more robust and scalable RTS game.

View Crafting Interpreters on Amazon

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Read about the State pattern and its application in AI.
Explore the Command pattern for handling unit actions.
Consider how these patterns can be applied to your RTS game.

A* Pathfinding Exercises

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Practice implementing the A* pathfinding algorithm in different scenarios. This will solidify your understanding of the algorithm and improve your problem-solving skills.

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Implement A* on a simple grid.
Modify the grid to include obstacles.
Optimize the algorithm for performance.

Contribute to a Unity 2D Open Source Project

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Contribute to an open-source Unity 2D project to gain experience working in a collaborative environment. This will expose you to different coding styles and problem-solving approaches.

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Find an open-source Unity 2D project on GitHub.
Identify a bug or feature to work on.
Submit a pull request with your changes.

Career center

Learners who complete Mobile RTS Game in Unity 2D - From Scratch to App Store will develop knowledge and skills that may be useful to these careers:

Mobile Game Developer

Mobile game developers specialize in creating games for smartphones and tablets. This course directly aligns with the role of a mobile game developer by guiding you through the creation of a mobile real-time strategy (RTS) game using Unity 2D. You'll learn to design, develop, and publish a game for both iOS and Android platforms. Understanding Unity’s animation tools, resource management systems, and pathfinding algorithms helps you become adept at optimizing game performance for mobile devices. Furthermore, this course’s sections on testing your game on iOS and Android devices, ensuring performance optimization, and learning the full deployment process may be especially helpful.

See salaries and explore the career path for Mobile Game Developer

Indie Game Developer

An independent game developer works independently, often handling all aspects of game development from design to programming to publishing. This course is well-suited for aspiring indie game developers as it covers the entire game development lifecycle, from initial setup to publishing on app stores. You’ll gain hands-on experience in all areas, enabling you to create and launch your own games. Be sure to pay attention to testing your game on iOS and Android devices. Furthermore, ensure you spend enough time gaining familiarity with optimizing game performance as well as learning the full deployment process for both platforms.

See salaries and explore the career path for Indie Game Developer

Game Developer

A game developer brings games to life, and this course helps you on that path. Game developers design, develop, and test video games for a variety of platforms. This course can help you build a foundation in Unity 2D, a popular game engine, and C#, a versatile programming language. You’ll gain practical experience by developing a fully functional mobile RTS game from scratch. The course’s focus on character creation, animation, game mechanics, resource management, pathfinding, and publishing provides a comprehensive understanding of the game development lifecycle. Learning to set up your game environment, create dynamic environments, and design immersive visuals for your RTS game may be useful as well.

See salaries and explore the career path for Game Developer

Unity Developer

The Unity developer uses the Unity game engine to create interactive experiences such as video games. Working through this course helps you to develop proficiency in Unity 2D by creating a complete mobile RTS game. You'll master essential skills like character animation, game mechanic implementation, and UI design, all within the Unity environment. This course may be useful, as it teaches you to create dynamic environments and design immersive visuals for your RTS game. Learning to implement crucial gameplay systems like Unit selection and movement with click-based interaction also helps.

See salaries and explore the career path for Unity Developer

Gameplay Programmer

A gameplay programmer implements the rules, mechanics, and interactions that define how a player interacts with a game. This course helps you learn to implement crucial gameplay systems like unit selection and movement with click-based interaction as well as building placement and confirmation workflows. Additionally, you'll implement unit actions, such as gathering resources, constructing buildings, and combat engagement. Also, you will learn to design a combat system where units engage in battles with enemy waves.

See salaries and explore the career path for Gameplay Programmer

Game Designer

Game designers conceptualize and create the rules, settings, and stories of video games. This course helps you build a practical understanding of game design principles by guiding you through the development of a mobile RTS game. You'll learn to design game mechanics, balance resources, and create engaging player experiences. This course can help you learn how to create dynamic environments and design immersive visuals for your RTS game. Additionally, consider the section that teaches you to implement crucial gameplay systems like unit selection and movement with click-based interaction.

See salaries and explore the career path for Game Designer

Level Designer

Level designers create the environments and layouts for video games. This course can help you build a foundation in level design by guiding you through the creation of a game map with tilemaps and animated tiles. You’ll learn to design dynamic environments, implement pathfinding, and create engaging gameplay spaces. The sections on setting up your Unity project and designing a game map with tilemaps and animated tiles may be useful. Learning to create dynamic environments and design immersive visuals for your RTS game will also serve you well.

See salaries and explore the career path for Level Designer

AI Programmer

AI programmers specialize in creating intelligent behaviors for non-player characters (NPCs) in video games. This course helps you gain experience in AI programming by implementing enemy AI using state machines and creating dynamic enemy waves with unique challenges. You’ll also learn the fundamentals of pathfinding by coding your own A* algorithm, crucial for unit navigation. Game polishing by enhancing the user experience by adding features like damage popups and event announcements also may be useful.

See salaries and explore the career path for AI Programmer

Software Engineer

Software engineers design, develop, and maintain software systems, and this course helps you become one. While the course focuses on game development, it can help you learn fundamental programming principles and software engineering practices using C# and Unity. The course emphasizes problem-solving, algorithm design, and project management, all valuable skills for any software engineer. Particularly useful may testing your game on iOS and Android devices, ensuring performance optimization, and learning the full deployment process for both platforms. Additionally, creating dynamic enemy waves with unique challenges could be beneficial.

See salaries and explore the career path for Software Engineer

Technical Artist

Technical artists bridge the gap between art and programming in game development. Studying this course helps you develop skills in both areas by working with Unity’s animation tools, creating dynamic environments, and implementing visual effects. You’ll learn to optimize game assets and ensure they work seamlessly within the game engine. Creating dynamic environments and designing immersive visuals for your RTS game can be very helpful. Also, this course may give you the opportunity to master Unity’s animation tools to make your game come alive.

See salaries and explore the career path for Technical Artist

UI/UX Designer

UI/UX designers focus on creating user-friendly and visually appealing interfaces for software applications. This course can help you develop UI/UX skills by designing and implementing the user interface for a mobile RTS game. You'll learn to create intuitive controls, display information effectively, and enhance the overall user experience. This course may be helpful as it teaches you to enhance the user experience by adding features like damage popups and event announcements as well as audio effects for footsteps, attacks, resource collection, and more.

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Game Production Assistant

A game production assistant provides support for a development team. This course can help you become familiar with the full game development lifecycle. The course is useful via the creation of a mobile real-time strategy game to be published on mobile app stores. You will gain a practical sense of the different steps involved in game development. All of this will allow you to be useful in a support role. By the end of this course, keep an eye out for polishing and improvements you may want to suggest to other game developers.

See salaries and explore the career path for Game Production Assistant

Technical Writer

A technical writer documents the features of software and computer games so that a developer can refer to the documentation to develop new features or improve existing ones. This course may be useful if you carefully note the steps you take to develop the software or computer game. Pay attention to the different features of what your create. Describe each function and subsystem. List any parameters that are input and describe what the output is. It may be useful to document each step in the troubleshooting phase.

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Quality Assurance Tester

A quality assurance tester evaluates software and computer games to isolate issues and bugs that need resolution. This course can allow you to test your own mobile game so that it is ready for release on mobile app stores. Moreover, you’ll gain the skills to create, code, and publish future games, setting you on a path toward becoming a professional game developer. This can help you identify potential problems and issues. Take some to review the game polishing and final game improvements portions of the course.

See salaries and explore the career path for Quality Assurance Tester

Project Manager

Project managers oversee the design, execution, and delivery of projects. This course may be useful to learn the steps associated with the development and delivery of an application. You can use the information learned to better manage the creation of software, even that which is not related to the game industry. By the end of this course, in particular, take a look at the final game improvements and the publishing stage, including setting up store pages, creating preview videos, and complying with store guidelines.

See salaries and explore the career path for Project Manager

Mobile RTS Game in Unity 2D - From Scratch to App Store

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Mobile rts game from scratch

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