Turn based RPG with Unity 2D - Part 1: Grid movement (tutorial)

DISCLAIMER: This is my tutorial of making a really simple RPG or roguelike with Unity in 2D mode. I'm not a professional Unity developer (just picked it up) and I'm prototyping as I go. Feel free to comment some good practices.

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Part 1: Grid movement
Part 2: Camera control
Part 3: Lighting
Part 4: NPC AI

Setting up the project

 

First, let's decide our cell size in the grid:

32 x 32 pixels - done.

Then start your new project normally (in 2D mode), let's call it RPGTutorial. Now I made a really simple 32 x 32 pixel square character for this purpose and imported it to Unity:

The character

Drag the character to Assets in Unity project

Then use the inspector (click the player sprite) and change the pixels to units to 32 and hit apply:

Then, for prototyping purposes I made a grid background (you will probably make the level with a tile based editor but for this purpose, I just quickly whipped up a single image and imported it to Unity):

Background

Also change the pixels to units to 32 for this asset, then drag it to the scene. Also drag the player sprite on top of the grid like so:

Scene view

Change the transform X and Y in the inspector to 0 (zero) for the grid to center it. For the player change the X and Y to -3.5 to put it in the corner.

Scripting

Create a new C# script in the assets and name it PlayerController. Edit the file like so:

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using UnityEngine; using System.Collections; public class PlayerController : MonoBehaviour { private Vector2 pos; private bool moving = false; void Start () { // First store our current position when the // script is initialized. pos = transform.position; } void Update () { CheckInput(); if(moving) { // pos is changed when there's input from the player transform.position = pos; moving = false; } } private void CheckInput() { // WASD control // We add the direction to our position, // this moves the character 1 unit (32 pixels) if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.D) || Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.RightArrow)) { pos += Vector2.right; moving = true; } // For left, we have to subtract the direction else if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.A) || Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.LeftArrow)) { pos -= Vector2.right; moving = true; } else if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.W) || Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.UpArrow)) { pos += Vector2.up; moving = true; } // Same as for the left, subtraction for down else if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.S) || Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.DownArrow)) { pos -= Vector2.up; moving = true; } } }

Save the script and drag it from the assets to the player object in the Hierarchy view. Hit play and test the movement with WASD keys.

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Part 1: Grid movement
Part 2: Camera control
Part 3: Lighting
Part 4: NPC AI

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