Making 2D Games with Unity3D UI or Sprites?

edited in Questions and Answers
I want to migrate from making my 2D prototypes in GameMaker to making them in Unity3D so that I can get better with the engine.

I've got the latest beta with the new (old NGui) UI elements but can anyone recommend if I should be using this framework for game elements or is it strictly for UI and I should be using Sprites?

Comments

  • Good question, if the new GUI can do 2D that'd be cool, though I doubt it's something that flexible... Would be great if it's capable of Gamemaker level of control of 2D output. Would love to hear what people in the know know.

    Sprites are ultimately just textures on quads, so whether you use simply 3D cubes or quads with textures it's about the same.
  • I can't see any reason to use the new GUI for gameplay instead of regular sprites.
  • @Squidcor, well it's got the eventing system and transitions built right in so mousing over or selecting elements should be easier.
  • I'm not sure what you want to do with the UI. I've been playing around with the new UI system and it's really powerful. So, if you want to use the system for lets say the city builder proto you showed a while ago I don't see why not to use the UI to use for selecting elements (buildings, people, etc) because it has a mode for putting UI in world space which makes it a lot easier than the previous UI. From what I've seen with the scripting of the new UI elements, it's very modular and one function can be used for several UI elements by dragging the gameobject.

    As for just 2D games, that's all I've done with unity, using the new 2D framework and it's worked pretty great. I also like the fact that you can still blend 3D elements alongside the 2D framework. I've never used game maker and can't compare.

  • @Fengol - I know that Will Goldstone from Unity stongly advocates the use of sprite sheets in his live training sessions in the Unity Learn section, but I also see no reason why the new UI can not be used. I haven't played around too much with it yet, but from what I have seen it is really powerful. Creating animations from spritesheets and hooking them up in scripts is really easy to do within the 2D framework though, so either method can be used.
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