Welcome

This is the manual for Action Adventure Kit by SoftLeitner. Action Adventure Kit is quite the mouthful so I will be referring to it using the shorthand AAK.

Action Adventures are a very wide, loose genre with all kinds of different games and sub genres. There are some things that many of them have in common though. Lots of them have characters that perform actions. These might have items that change hands and attributes that define their capabilities.

AAK was made to provide a solid foundation for these common ideas within the genre so you can focus on what makes your game special.

Since AAK goes for a broad base of functionality rather than something more specialized it generally tries to do anything in the most default, unity-built-in way possible. For example the movement in the souls demo uses the default unity character controller and the intro is done using timeline. To accommodate for the fact that more special systems may be required for movement, inventory, actions, … AAK was made from the ground up with expandability in mind.

Setup

AAK is separated into multiple projects. If you are using AAK for the first time I recommend importing everything, including settings, into a new project.

If the project you are importing into uses the old input system the editor will prompt you to restart and you will have to start the import again after that.

AdventureCore

The Core Framework of AAK, always import this one.

AdventureCore.Tests

Contains test scenes for various features, can be useful to try out those features in isolation. Import while exploring AAK but should not be included in production.

AdventureExtras

Contains additional examples that use assets from the other demos. For example scenes that demonstrate how different objects can be reused between demos. An explanation for these can be found here. Since extras are built on top of the other demos these also have to be imported and I recommend exploring them individually first.

AdventureHero

Contains the hero demo, import if you want to start by adapting this demo.

Start up Scenes/HeroTitle to start the game from the title screen just like the demo does.

IMPORTANT, before playing the ‘SaveSlot’ app variable has to be added in visual scripting. Select the Logic Object in the Hierarchy and click ‘Edit Graph’ which opens the visual scripting graph. In the ‘App’ tab on the bottom left add a variable called ‘SaveSlot’ of type Integer with a default value of -1. This is needed to carry over the save slot between scenes.

Scenes/Debugging/HeroDebuggingGeneral is a useful scene for testing, some more specialized scenes can be found in the same folder

AdventureManual

Contains the getting started project. Recommended to learn about the various systems of AAK in a minimal environment before jumping into the more complex souls demo.

Also contains some Visual Scripting examples. Be sure to read the visual scripting manual page before jumping into any scenes using Visual Scripting as there is some additional setup required!

AdventureSouls

Contains the soulslike demo, import if you want to start by adapting this demo.

Start up Scenes/Title/SoulsTitle to start the game from the title screen just like the demo does.

IMPORTANT whenever starting the souls demo from the editor you need to click into the window to lock the cursor before some input is accepted. This is done to avoid performing actions on accident from outside.

To jump directly into the game open Scenes/Dungeon/SoulsDungeon for the level itself, add Scenes/Dungeon/SoulsDungeonTemp for the temporary parts like enemies and crates.

Scenes/Debugging/SoulsDebuggingGeneral is a useful scene for testing out all the actions and Scenes/Debugging/Enemies/SoulsDebuggingEnemies can be used to debug combat.

Scenes/Debugging/Interaction/SoulsDebuggingInteraction can be useful to synchronize the character with some object they are interacting with, this is done using timelines.

The models for the demos were made using blender and then exported to fbx for unity. You can find the original blend files and the used export settings in AdventureModels.zip.

Dependencies

AdventureCore

  • Input System allows binding character actions directly to inputs
  • Timeline used to provide a character action that waits for a timeline to finish
  • Cinemachine used in a helper that performs camera locking using two virtual cameras
  • Visual Scripting for the custom visual scripting units

AdventureManual

AdventureHero

AdventureSouls

About Universal RP

AAK does not have a hard dependency on URP but it is the render pipeline the demos and manual projects use out of the box. The following steps show how the asset could be switched over to built-in.

  • Import the entire asset(including packages and settings) into a fresh project
  • Activate the Build-in Render Pipeline
    • Select Edit > Project Settings > Quality.
    • For each quality level, if an asset is assigned to the Render Pipeline field, unassign it.
    • Select Edit > Project Settings > Graphics.
    • If an asset is assigned to the Scriptable Render Pipeline Setting field, unassign it.
  • Open a scene of the demo you want to switch over(for example HeroDebuggingGeneral)
    • Switch over materials from URP to their built-in counterpart
      • Universal Render Pipeline/Lit > Standard
        HeroFade and SoulsFade need RenderMode Transparent
      • Universal Render Pipeline/Particles/Unlit > Particles/Standard Unlit
    • objects in the scene should go from pink to their actual color
  • Open the Package Manager and remove the ‘Universal RP’ package

For additional information about render pipelines please see unity documentation.

About Cinemachine Version 3

Currently AAK is compatible with both Cinemachine Versions 2 and 3. The Code is switched between versions using the CINEMACHINEV3 predefine in the AdventureCore and AdventureHero assembly definitions. To keep compatibility with Unity 2021 the project initially comes with a dependency to Cinemachine Version 2.

How to upgrade to Cinemachine Version 3:

  • upgrade the package from the Package Manager window.
  • open a scene that contains cinemachine cameras like HeroDebuggingGeneral and look for the CinemachineVirtualCamera on the FreeLookCamera object
  • click Upgrade entire Project to Cinemachine 3 to let cinemachine exchange all the old components for new ones(docs)
  • remove the CinemachineInputAxisController components from the cameras as inputs are driven by AAK
  • on the LockableCameraFreeLook inside the character set the FreeLook and the FirstPersonCamera(hero demo only) fields

Support for Version 2 will probably be dropped when Unity 2021 goes out of support at which point I plan to migrate the demos to Version 3 fully.

Manual

This manual is meant to explain the concepts and ideas of AAK rather then any specific detailed API. For more detailed explanations of every class in the core framework and most of the demo please consult the code itself. I try to give a detailed explanation for the purpose of the class in the xml-doc of the class itself and explain every field of the behaviors in the tooltip.

The manual pages for the core systems of AAK are always split into a Core part that explains the idea behind the system and a Souls part that covers how the system was used in that demo.

The Souls and Hero sections at the end of the manual contain some additional information about how the demo are set up and how they may be extended.

Integrations

All GitHub repositories related to my unity assets can be found in the Softleitner Extras list. I generally try to keep the main ones updated but some of the minor ones may be out of date.

Roadmap

The next update will continue to polish and build out the Hero Demo and its Documentation.

Feedback

The quickest channels to reach me are mail and discord. Please feel free to reach out with any problems and questions. Feedback regarding the general direction of AAK and particular future features are also always welcome. Though I might not immediately be able to incorporate your requests I very much take them into consideration when planning out future updates.

If you can spare the time please consider leaving a review in the asset store.