Making a Game in Unity 005: Ship Model

Just so you know, this is not a tutorial series! I am writing this series mainly to give you a behind the scenes look at the process of making a game in Unity, and to document the development of this project.

See other posts in this series.


Making a game in Unity 005

Over the past two weeks, I started making a ship model. I’m tired of using cubes to represent my ships when testing, so I decided it was time to get the real thing going. Unfortunately I seriously underestimated how much time this model would take to make, and I’m still not finished.

I also managed to stop constantly playing Anno 1503. This should free up some more of my time to make progress, assuming I don’t find something else to procrastinate with.

Monday

Today I did some math homework, and afterwards I didn’t really feel like working on the game, so I ended up playing a bunch of Anno 1503—probably a little too much.

Tuesday

I spent quite a bit of time studying for my calculus test today, and I had various other things to do, so I once again didn’t get the chance to make progress.

Wednesday

Today I added basic wind functionality, meaning the ship now moves horizontally. However, I still need to adjust the ship mass and wind speed, as it’s currently moving much too fast.

Thursday

This evening I added a command that allows me to modify wind speed and direction on the fly, which will make testing substantially easier. I also played around with ship mass and flotation values some more, but I’m still not fully satisfied with the results.

Friday

Today was another typically busy Friday, so nothing to report.

Saturday

Today was a relatively uneventful day—I helped some people on Discord and had various other things to do. I did start looking at a few boat designs for inspiration, but I haven’t actually started the modelling process.

Sunday

This afternoon I wrote this week’s post about whether or not programming can be fun. Later in the evening I started modelling a ship in Blender, but I’m still working on the basic shape of the hull, so not much to show.

Monday

Today I did quite a bit of modelling. This ship is taking a really long time to make since every time I add a new part, I find other parts that need adjusting. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, and so I keep going back to make changes.

Ship model with basic hull
This is what the ship model looks like so far.

Tuesday

This evening I did some more modelling. The ship’s hull is now complete with a keel and rudder.

Wednesday

Today I kept working on the ship model. This is the fourth model I’ve ever made, and by far the most complex. I added some stairs, but have not yet sorted out the spacing, since I need players to actually be able to walk up and down them.

Thursday

This evening I added a mast and a sail to the ship and it’s really starting to come together.

3D ship model with hull and sail
The model now has a mast with a sail, a keel, a rudder, and stairs.

Friday

Today was another regularly busy Friday, so no progress to report. I think I’ll probably start leaving out days on which I don’t have time to get anything done since including them is quite redundant.

Saturday

When I got home from my soccer game today, I did some more modeling. I made a bunch of tweaks, mainly to the sail, and I began adding a crow’s nest.

Sunday

Today I completed the crow’s nest and added a flag at the top of the mast. Then I started working on the ship’s steering wheel and finished writing this post.

Ship model with crow's nest and flag
The final model update for this post. The ship now has a crow’s nest and a flag.

What’s next?

After I finish modelling the ship, the next step will be to add colliders to it so that players are able to walk on it. I’ll probably also spend quite a bit of time adjusting the stairs to make sure players can go up and down them properly. If I manage to get that all done, I’ll move on to steering and more realistic wind mechanics.

See other posts in this series.

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. deaglan

    tom did i influence you to create this game?

    1. Tom Weiland

      I don’t believe so. At least I have no memory of you suggesting something like this to me…what makes you think you might have?

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