Explore the vertical slice

Out of Circulation is the case study for this course. It’s a very small playable section of a point-and-click narrative adventure game.

In this tutorial, you’ll play a build (executable file) of Out of Circulation and note down your initial impressions from a player perspective. Later in this course you’ll learn about how Out of Circulation was developed and have many opportunities to explore and extend what we created.

New to Unity?

This learning experience assumes that you are already familiar with the Unity Editor. If you’re new to Unity, the Unity Essentials learning pathway has been designed to help you get set up and ready to create in the Unity Editor.

Download a build of Out of Circulation

To get the right file to play through the example on your computer:

1. Download the correct build for your platform from the Tutorial Materials:

• Windows
• macOS

Note: To open the macOS build for the first time, you’ll need to select and hold (or right-click) the executable file and then select Open.

2. Choose a suitable location on your computer and unzip the folder there. The executable file Out of Circulation is what you will use to launch the game.Set up the Out of Circulation Unity project

You won’t use this until a little later in the course, but you can download the Out of Circulation assets now to save yourself time later.

Set up the Out of Circulation Unity project

You won’t use this until a little later in the course, but you can download the Out of Circulation assets now to save yourself time later.

To set up your Unity project:

1. Install Unity 2022.3 LTS, if you haven’t already done so.

2. Create and save a new Unity project using the 3D Core template.

3. Open the Practical Game Accessibility: Case study project in the Asset Store.

4. Download and import the assets into your Unity project.

5. Save your project.

Now that you’ve reviewed key information about the course itself, you’re almost ready to explore the course case study: Out of Circulation. Small, playable sections of games like the one that we have created as the course case study are sometimes called a vertical slice.

A vertical slice is a small portion of a game that demonstrates the major systems, features, and art of an entire game.

Vertical slices are sometimes used to demonstrate game projects to potential funders or publishers. They can also be useful for technical demonstrations and case studies to support learning experiences (like this one!).

As a vertical slice, Out of Circulation has the systems, aesthetic design, and final polish to help you explore accessibility, without the file size or overwhelming scope of an entire game.

We made Out of Circulation a point-and-click narrative adventure game because this type of game involves a lot of different accessibility considerations for you to explore throughout this course.

Play through the game build that you downloaded. This should take you between five and twenty minutes. Record your first impressions so that you can compare them to your future observations when you evaluate the game build later in the course.

As you explore and work through the vertical slice, consider:

• Your initial impressions of the experience overall.
• What you notice in relation to the accessibility of the experience, if anything.
• Questions that you’d like to ask the team that made the experience.

You’ll have the opportunity to explore and experiment in the Unity project for Out of Circulation in Design and development.

Default controls

In Out of Circulation, you can:

• Select (mouse) or use WASD controls / Arrow keys (keyboard) to move to a location.
• Select (mouse) or use the Spacebar (keyboard) to quick-approach an interactable object.
• Select (mouse) or use the Spacebar (keyboard) to interact with a character / object.

Important: You can also remap these default controls in the game settings menu.

Now you’ve explored the vertical slice for the first time, you’re ready to plan your personal learning journey. In the next tutorial, you’ll reflect on your personal goal for this course and set up a development log that works for you.