Welcome to the EECS 494 Metroid Template Tutorial Series

In these tutorials, we aim to help you get started on your classic Metroid game project.

As you go through these tutorials, make sure you’re following along in your own project so that once you finish you’ll be setup and ready to tackle the project on your own.

By the end of these tutorials you will have a basic scene setup with a basic implementation of the player. More importantly though, you will understand many of the concepts you’ll need to finish the rest of the project on your own.

Final

We expect these tutorials to take approximately 1.5 hours to complete, but they are sectioned so that you can stop and review at any time.

Whenever you see a gray block, you can click to expand it and get more information.

What do these gray expandable sections look like? How do you use them? (Click to Expand)

Exactly like this, and exactly like that.

Is reading these sections optional?

Technically, this whole tutorial is optional if your group is confident that you can do the project on your own.

Technically, doing this whole project is optional, but it will be reflected in your GPA.

These extra sections, along with the rest of the tutorial, are here to help save you a lot of time. We strongly encourage you take take full advantage of them.

What differences can I expect between the Metroid and Zelda project?

Both projects are fairly equal in the challenges you'll face. The biggest difference between the two is Metroid's focus on tight platforming (and the challenges that presents to implementing physics) and Zelda's focus on inventory (and the challenges that presents to implementing UI).

In terms of effort, both projects are structured to take around the same amount of time.

Why can't I copy and paste the code snippets?

We've intentionally made all included code in image form only. This is to keep you from copy-pasting the solutions; there's value in writing the code yourself.

When you’re ready to get started, go to the first tutorial: 1: Project Setup.

Tutorial List

7: Player Movement Fixes

8: Player Direction

9: Bullets and Firing