How to Make a Top Down 2D Action RPG in Unity 2022

Name: How to Make a Top Down 2D Action RPG in Unity 2022
Rating: 4.1 (25 reviews)

State Machine Animations, Combat, and Level Building Basics Coded in C#

Created byChris Tutorials

Last updated 9/2022

English

English [Auto],

What you'll learn

Learn how to create a player character with movement, attacks with knockback, and physics
Make an enemy that will chase and damage players - optionally other enemies too
Build 2D game levels with tilemap and tileset tools
Setup animations for your characters using the unity animation state machine tools
Add floating text to indicate damage dealt to enemies or players
Explore the differences between kinematic and dynamic rigidbody movement and physics
Receive player input through the new InputSystem package

Course content

3 sections • 47 lectures • 3h 39m total length

Introduction1:30
A brief look at what to expect over the content of this video course.
Finished versions of the course assets and scripts downloadable below!
Music: Summer Ambient Piano by Rafael Krux
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/5504-summer-ambient-piano
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist website: https://www.orchestralis.net/

What to Expect in Part 11:23
Explore a quick crash course in building a top-down 2D action RPG in Unity, using the mystic wards asset pack and starting a new 2D project in Unity Hub.
Assets Importing3:01
Creating Player Game Objects4:45
Level Tileset and Tilemap Setup12:42
InputSystem & Player Controller Setup7:07
Install and enable the new Unity input system, create a player input actions asset, attach a player input component, and implement an on move handler using fixed update for movement.
Player Kinematic Rigidbody Movement & Collisions10:05
Editor Speed Tip & Controlling Sprite Sorting1:55
Sliding Along Walls3:58
Character Animator and Animators Setup9:46
Correcting Collisions2:16
Cinemachine Follow Camera1:36
Install Cinemachine, add a virtual camera to follow the player, and apply the pixel perfect extension to smooth motion.
Player Attack Animation Setup5:32
Attack Hitbox5:18
Controlling Attack Direction5:19
Slime Enemy & Hitting with Sword8:46
Create a slime enemy and implement sword hit detection using a trigger box collider to deal damage, track health, and defeat the enemy when health reaches zero.
Slime Animator & Animations4:45
Part 1 Wrapup0:55
Wrap up the first part of this top-down 2d action rpg crash course in unity, covering player movement, collisions, and tile map setup, with slime damage as a next step.

Character Run and Sprite Flip0:49
Downloadable in this video is the starting point for part 2. You should download it to follow along in this part.
Player Controller Starting Point1:01
Read the movement input vector and apply it to a dynamic rigidbody, clamp speed, flip the sprite when idle, and set animator parameters to switch between idle and run.
Transition to Run Animation6:22
Player Attack State7:15
Plan attacks with a one-time trigger from the Unity input system; bind fire to left mouse or right control, then trigger a sword attack in the animator and lock movement.
Slime Animator Setup7:35
Set up a slime enemy in Unity by creating a sprite prefab, adding dynamic Rigidbody2D with gravity off and collider, and wiring an animator controller with idle, run, hit, death.
Slime Script1:28
Tune slime and player physics in Unity 2022 by adjusting linear drag to create ground friction, observe idling dynamics, and apply prefab changes for consistent behavior.
Sword Swing Hitbox13:22
Receiving Damage2:01
Slime - Hit and Death Animation Transitions6:25
Controlling Sword Hit Direction6:03
Learn to flip the sword hitbox with the player's facing direction using local position offsets and a directional callback, enabling precise hits and slime knockback.
Hit Knockback2:38
IDamageable Interface for Damageable Objects9:38
Knockback Force and Direction5:41
Calibrate knockback force and direction in Unity by tweaking mass and linear drag, using collider positions to control force direction. Implement a targetable flag to disable collider after death.
Destroy Object2:18
Slime Hit Color Change2:17
Correcting Player Transform for Sword Knockback3:02
Slime Damage to Player3:26
Health Manager Component5:34
Lock Movement on Defeat1:12
Disable movement on defeat by toggling targetable and rb.simulated, apply to the prefab, and differentiate behavior for the player and slimes when entering a death state.
Knockback the Player3:14
(Update!) Better Knockbacks using Add Force and Linear Drag Only3:06
I've been experimenting and I find one way is to increase the linear drag on the rigidbody set in Dynamic mode. Instead of the Lerp to 0 (removing those lines entirely), you can set the rb.drag to a higher amount to get it to stop faster (Stop drag vs moving drag as 2 different variables for different character states). This lets the knockback apply more correctly. So for movement...

// Move animation and add velocity
// Accelerate the player while run direction is pressed (limited by rigidbody linear drag)
rb.AddForce(moveInput * moveSpeed * Time.fixedDeltaTime, ForceMode2D.Force);

And in the scripts where you apply force to the player

// Apply force to the slime
// Impulse for instantaneous forces
rb.AddForce(knockback, ForceMode2D.Impulse);

Letting the linear drag handle the knockback lets the rigidbody physics smooth out the velocity between the normal run and the knockback impulse.
Player Movement by Forces2:24
Learn to move a 2d top-down character in Unity by applying forces instead of setting velocity, and tune knockback, linear drag, angular drag, and speed for responsive combat with slime.
Setting a Max Speed for Player2:57
Slimes Aggro and Chase Player9:28
Floating Damage Numbers with Text Mesh Pro5:36
Fading Text1:29
Fade the text by adjusting its alpha from the starting color as time elapsed approaches time to live, updating every frame with the text mesh color assigned in the inspector.
Instantiating Text Prefabs above Hit Characters5:06
Instantiate a health text prefab and attach it to the canvas with Text Mesh Pro. Place it above hit character using world-to-screen coordinates and gate movement via targetable property.
Invulnerability Timer5:25
Course Wrapup1:33

Requirements

Some programming experience will definitely help. I walk through each line of code to explain things thoroughly.
Make sure you have Unity 2022.1 or newer installed. Best to use stable versions to avoid bugs.

Description

Learn the basics on how to build a Top Down 2D Action RPG (think classic Zelda games) inside of Unity 2022. The main focuses of this course is on creating a working player with a sword attack, a slime enemy to chase and damage the player, and building a level to play on with pixel art tilesets including wall collisions. Another key focus is demonstrating the differences between kinematic physics and unity dynamic rigidbody physics with two versions of the player controller script so you can choose which method works best for you and your own games. Also important is the cinemachine package for creating a follow camera to track your player but maintain pixel perfect settings in Unity to avoid any screen tears or distortions.

In this course, we'll cover much of the core gameplay essentials games in this genre will need in their main gameplay cycle

Player Movement and Attacks with new InputSystem package
Building Tilemaps from Tilesets
Movement with Kinematic and Dynamic Rigidbodies
Making a Slime Enemy which can chase player, cause damage, and be slain
Setting up animations and transitions with Unity animation state machines
Creating hitboxes for directional attacks
Floating Damage Text numbers

Everything is written in C#, the standard language for unity games. You don't have to be a programming master. If you get stuck, feel free to download the finished scripts included in this course so you can get up and running.

Who this course is for:

Helping you to build your first RPG game
Students somewhere between beginners and intermediate skill level
If you like coding and want to get better at C# especially in Unity engine

How to Make a Top Down 2D Action RPG in Unity 2022

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction1 lecture • 2min

Part 117 lectures • 1hr 29min

Part 229 lectures • 2hr 8min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: