So you have a cool game idea...💡

But when it comes time to make your idea, you run into all sorts of roadblocks:

• Scope. You're unsure how to scope your idea down into something manageable.
• Work breakdown. You're unsure how to break your idea into bite-sized development tasks.
• Progress. Your codebase becomes tangled as you add features, so you struggle to make progress.

The result? You fail to ship your game project – one that you're actually proud to show to your friends.

A game developer can dream... 💭

But what if you knew exactly how to scope your idea down, while keeping the spirit of your original idea?

What if you knew exactly how to break your idea into bite-sized tasks that you can start tackling today?

And what if adding features to your game was a joy, not a chore?

You'd be eager to work on your game every day.

You’d ship your game with confidence and momentum, and you’d be proud to show your finished game to your friends.

But... how?

Learn how to make games by example, with a Game Codebase Tour 🦮

You need an example. A role model.

An actual, finished game project whose codebase (and process) you can study and reference.

A Game Codebase Tour is exactly that. It's a guided codebase that:

1. implements a game genre (match-3, roguelike, deckbuilder, etc.), and
2. walks you through the game's codebase with written feature guides.

With a Game Codebase Tour, you can...

1. Learn how to make a similar game, by having a finished project to reference. 📖

Want to build a match-3 game? A roguelike? A roguelike deckbuilder 😁?

A Game Codebase Tour gives you full access to the clean, well-documented codebase of a production-quality game project.

Use it as a reference implementation for your own games – especially if you're building a game in the same genre.

But when source code isn't enough...

2. Learn how to scope your ideas, and how to turn ideas into code. 🔎

Study the feature guides that accompany the source code.

Each feature guide walks through:

1. The original idea
2. How to scope the idea, and how to scope down if needed
3. How to translate the scope into bite-sized coding tasks
4. Pointers to the relevant parts of the codebase, and how the code works
5. Why the code works that way, and
6. Exercises for testing your understanding.

And not only that. You also get to...

3. Learn how to write maintainable code. 🏡

Each game in a Game Codebase Tour is built as a set of interacting game systems that follow the MVP (Model-View-Presenter) design pattern.

As such, a Game Codebase Tour teaches you how to write modular code that you can easily extend.

Learn how to write clean code from the start of your project, so that adding features to your game is a joy – not a chore.

Frequently Asked Questions 🤔

Who makes these codebase tours, and why should I trust you?

Game Codebase Tours is made by me, Jason Tu.

I work as a full-stack software engineer by day. And by night, I build game projects in Unity.

This entire project is an effort to make game-making easier for folks like me. There's little guidance for hobbyist Unity developers on what a finished game looks like, and I aim to fix that by showcasing polished, well-thought-out examples.

If you'd like to see my past content, you can check out my blog: jasont.co

How well do I need to know Unity to follow these tours?

You should have an intermediate, working knowledge of Unity:

• how to navigate the interface
• how to write scripts
• how to build simple games

That said, if you are completely new to Unity, you'll still benefit by seeing how a complete game is put together.

It all depends on how comfortable you are with diving into the deep end!

What if I go through a Game Codebase Tour, and have remaining questions?

Reach out on the tour’s GitHub issue tracker (which will be linked as part of the purchased tour package), and I’ll respond as soon as I can.

What files are included in a Game Codebase Tour?

You get the full, documented source code of a completed game.

You also get access to a source code walkthrough.

As of this writing, the source code walkthrough will be in the form of a written guide. However, I’m considering whether using Unity’s In-Editor Tutorial Framework might be a better option.

Will a Game Codebase Tour be paid?

Yes, it will be paid.

I’d like for these tours to solve the problem that plagues all part-time game developers:

“How is a complete game put together, and how can I do the same?”

Paying a small sum of money puts some skin into the game (so to speak), and helps both the buyer (and myself) take the project more seriously.

What's the license? Can I reuse the assets in my own projects?

You can read a copy of the license here.

TL;DR: Do whatever you want with the source code and assets, including using them in open-source projects. But don’t resell them, or pass them off as yours on the Unity Asset Store. That’s not cool!

Note that the license doesn't apply to the source code walkthrough.

You should treat the source code walkthrough like owning a book: you can freely consume the book upon purchase, but you may not claim the book contents as your own.