Author: Aliza

As promised, my first tutorial: Optimizing sprite Draw Calls in Unity.

Now back to coding, today’s starter is a map grid properties inspector.

I managed to completely solve problems and optimize performance regarding draw (setpass) calls in my sprite-based map editor. Though the topic is generally fairly explained in the official Unity documentation, I find that many people have problems putting together an actual system that can render hundreds of sprites from different sheets in about 10 total calls. There are definitely a few key points you mustn’t miss, but maybe aren’t emphasized enough. I’ll put together a small tutorial soon, maybe it will be useful.

It was a long day, had a first meeting with a graphic artist who will be responsible for the character looks, and maybe more, if we can arrange all worldly matters.

I was also working on some tileset functions for the level editor, seamlessly connecting tiles from different tilesets in particular. I started with an alpha-masked blend shader, but ended up with simply overlaying sprites that only require minor modifications to the tileset structure and look great with minimal impact on performance. Anyway, the blend shader is also working, so it may prove useful for some other purpose.

Hey there,

Aliza here, game designer/developer, creator of Ultimate Space Commando. This is going to be my new (and very first) devblog, dedicated to our brand new title-under-development at Angry Cat Studios. I’ve never really done any “blogging” before, so don’t expect me to be super interesting :-), especially if you’re not into this kind of stuff. So what CAN you expect? Regular posts about my progress with our new game, and about game design/development in general. No guarantee on the length or quality of these posts, though, but then again, everything has to start somewhere! You can also follow and/or contact me on Twitter with an appropriate comment, topic, or question, I’ll try to reply as soon as I can, depending on how busy I am.

I guess a bit more introduction is due. I’m a game enthusiast since I got my first computer, a Commodore-64 when I was 7. I enjoy games from all genres, with RPGs and turn-based strategy/tactics titles probably on the top of the list, and pen & paper / board games not missing from it. I started coding games in BASIC when I was 9, but to make a complete game, you also need graphics, sound, and most importantly, a good enough concept, so I had to improve my skills in all of these fields. (Unfortunately marketing was not among them…) Nowadays I’m mainly interested in the Unity engine.

That would be all for now, took a long enough time as is :-). Tune in tomorrow for the first bits of info about our new title ^^. (Hint: the logo with a rat’s tail is not a mere coincidence…)