4 Developing graphics for your game

We’ve been focusing mostly on how the game functions and not as much on how the game looks. That was no accident—this book is mostly about programming games in Unity. Still, it’s important to understand how to work on and improve the visuals. Before we get back to the book’s main focus on coding various parts of the game, let’s spend a chapter learning about game art so that your projects won’t always end up with just blank boxes sliding around.

All of the visual content in a game is made up of art assets. But what exactly does that mean?

4.1 Understanding art assets

An art asset is an individual unit of visual information (usually a file) used by the game. This overarching umbrella term applies to all visual content: image files are art assets, 3D models are art assets, and so on. Indeed, an art asset is simply a specific type of asset, which you’ve learned is any file used by the game (such as a script)—hence the main Assets folder in Unity. Table 4.1 describes the five main kinds of art assets used in building a game.

4.2 Building basic 3D scenery: Whiteboxing

4.2.1 Whiteboxing explained

4.2.2 Drawing a floor plan for the level

4.2.3 Laying out primitives according to the plan

4.3 Texturing the scene with 2D images

4.3.1 Choosing a file format

4.3.2 Importing an image file

4.3.3 Applying the image

4.4 Generating sky visuals by using texture images

4.4.1 What is a skybox?

4.4.2 Creating a new skybox material

4.5 Working with custom 3D models