Hints and Tips

General

• Save and backup often! Even better use Version Control like Subversion or Perforce!
• Always backup projects before importing any updates in Unity! Again, use version control!
• Playmaker tool windows can be docked and added to tabs to create a custom layout.
• Save your Playmaker layout using Unity's custom Layouts dropdown.
• Subscribe to @HutongGames on Twitter for #PlayMakerTips

Designing State Machines

• Describe:
  • Use the FSM description field to describe the desired behaviour of the state machine.
  • Describing the behaviour in words helps clarify the problem and reveal design problems early.
• Rough out: 
  • Sketch out the states and transitions in the Graph View to reveal design flaws early.
  • Think visually, a messy looking flow might be unnecessarily complicated.
• Tell a story:
  • Add Debug Log actions to each state and Alt-click through the running state machine to check that it tells the right story.
  • Read the story back and make sure it works before spending a lot of time implementing Actions.
• Divide and conquer:
  • Multiple smaller FSMs that talk to each other are often more manageable than larger FSMs.
  • Smaller self contained state machines also tend to be more re-usable across scenes and projects.
• Standardize:
  • Standardize event names so it’s easier to send events between FSMs.
  • For example, decide if switches use "activate" or "turnOn" - it doesn't matter what you pick, but pick one and stick with it until you really need another event.
  • Standardizing events also makes state machines more re-usable.
• Animation events:
  • State transitions are often tied to animation transitions, so use animation events to coordinate animations and behaviours.
• Switchboards:
  • Switchboard states with a global transition are a common pattern to reduce clutter.
  • The switchboard state evaluates the current situation and instantly chooses another state - that’s all it does. You can call it with the global transition whenever you need to re-evaluate.
• Spread the load:
  • Remember you can transition through multiple states in a single update, so you can spread logic across states.
  • Spreading decisions across multiple states, each making a simple decision, makes it easier to author complex branching behaviours.
• Iterate:
  • Game development IS iteration!

Using the Scene Hierarchy

• Use the scene hierarchy to help solve problems. The right scene organization can make hard problems a lot easier to solve.
• Build as much "smarts" into the scene as possible (triggers, waypoints, collisions...). There's no cheating in game A.I. - it's not real artificial intelligence, it's entertainment!
• Parent related objects under a common object to make it easy to iterate through them using Get Child, or Get Child Num.
• Use trigger volumes and Trigger Event as much as possible - it's a robust solution to many problems. Think about sensors and zones etc.