No Frogs Allow: Lego x Unity Game Jam - Summer 2021

It's been 3 years since I last worked with Unity. I'm currently developing B2B mobile applications using native mobile SDKs. It's fun and it was a nice experience but I really missed developing games.

In order to work on games again, I decided to touch up my skill in Unity game development and I believe the best way is to dive into it. As I review some articles about what's new in Unity, I stumbled upon their announcement about their new microgame: Lego.

Create your first game, brick by virtual brick, with the LEGOⓇ Microgame | Unity Blog

Have you ever wanted to build your own LEGO-based video game? If so, take a look at Unity’s new LEGOⓇ Microgame. Create that LEGO game you’ve always envisioned. Publish and share with your friends and family.

Unity BlogKat Woolley

In addition to that, I also learned that Unity has teamed up with Lego to host a game jam. I failed to join the first one but I was able to participate in the summer edition.

Unity x LEGO® Game Jam: Summer Edition - Unity Play

Join our LEGO GameJam Showcase for a chance to win an official Minifigure!

Unity Play

My entry was a tower defense. Player needs to defend the base against frogs by controlling their turret. On the latter levels, they can even buy traps to slow the frogs down or to do them damage. You can try it here.

Lego Microgame did a really good job integrating one of the core concept in Unity, which is the component system, into their behaviour bricks. This allowed newcomers to focus on game design and have a smooth learning curve. I myself was able to work on the story and at the same time had fun building the levels using the lego bricks. All that while getting myself familiar again with Unity.

Given my experience, I felt it was mandatory to do more so I tried extending some of those behaviour bricks based on my game needs and also for practice. As a bonus, I also explored cinemachine.

Overall, it was a satisfying experience relearning Unity.