Create a grid in Unity - Perfect for tactics or turn-based games!

[@Tarodev]

NOTICE: If you're having trouble seeing your tiles, ensure your sprite renderers alpha are set to 255. Sometimes it defaults to 0. Part 2 has been released: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nGbTnmVvrs2UitU It includes additional functionality like unique tile logic, game flow, unit moving and attacking! Did you enjoy the video? Let me know so I can continue making helpful content!

[@smileychess]

Yup, the alpha channel was the problem. Took 20 minutes to figure it out (even after reading your message here, because I'm stupid). Thanks!

[@WorkingDev]

@@smileychess new to unity and this is my first time dabbling in it. Where do you find this setting?

[@smileychess]

@@WorkingDev - It's in each of the places that you set the color. It's the last slider, labeled "A" and has a range of 0 to 255. Crank that up to 255 so it's not transparent.

[@themonkeysadvocate3265]

@@smileychess *2 hours for me XD

[@lillylyddon9869]

You should really pin this to the top.

[@jikosauce]

Even the simplest tasks seem impossible if you don't know how unity works, it's like looking at the flying board for a plane

[@theroboman727]

For the offset bool you could use: (x + y) % 2 == 1

[@theroboman727]

also maybe: x % 2 != y % 2

[@Tarodev]

You're right! That's much cleaner.

[@DuniC0]

Yeah! I thought the same! (x+y) it's called Manhattan distance and with the modulus of 2 you can get a perfect checkboard

[@playboyy21]

Yo checkout this template for a grid tactics game , this one is by far the best ive seen so far kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqKscoeGaqd_l7M

[@overcomeaging]

or: (x % 2 == 0) ^ (y % 2 == 0)

[@jameslavery2958]

All that in under 9 minutes! Tutorials are on par with the best on YT. Thanks.

[@larryd9577]

Instead of casting _width and _height to floats, you can divide them by 2f, it will result in a float.

[@glebozhgikhin1528]

Most understandable grid tutorial ever! Thank you! I had problems with activating hilight object, and solved it with adding hilight color field into "Tile Script", and empty "backupColor" variable, that saves renderer color on mouse collision enter.

[@playboyy21]

Yo checkout this template for a grid tactics game , this one is by far the best ive seen so far kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqKscoeGaqd_l7M

[@ksalarang]

Few minutes into the video and I already knew that this is an instant like and a sub

[@Tarodev]

Hope you enjoyed the rest ❤

[@paulglosemeyer2451]

Imagine not liking this video... perfect video! Short, clear, easy to follow. Keep going!

[@nyx0103]

These tutorials are really clear, concise and you also explain some of the principle behind the code instead of just saying "type the code that I am typing and it will do what you want". I am subscribing. This tutorial is giving me an idea to make a small game for my portfolio, thanks a lot.

[@Tarodev]

I'd love to see what you end up making 👌

[@playboyy21]

Yo checkout this template for a grid tactics game , this one is by far the best ive seen so far kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqKscoeGaqd_l7M

[@awildmoose6798]

show me where he explains the principle behind the code. he didnt do it once.

[@squabbler_]

I looked for any sort of video tutorial, blog post, etc explaining this in 2020. Thank you so much!

[@lln6123]

The Cameraposition based on the size of your grid was what I needed!

[@Umbra00000]

This is a great video! You were able to communicate in such a way that I was able to understand what you were doing and how the code works.

[@nyaenya]

Thank you for this wonderful tutorial! I was wondering why my colors didn't alternate after I added the sprite renderer and isOffset boolean, turns out my colors were all transparent! Make sure to check whether your Alpha value is at 255 to avoid the same problem I had :')

[@pandasempie]

LOL I was about to have the same issue ty T_T

[@pseudoleviathan5923]

Same issue thank you!

[@chrisdaly6023]

you kept me from facing a huge headache.. thanks!

[@goodymicplaysgaming]

I was soooooo confused as to why it wasn't working, thank you.

[@kitteninamitten5735]

The visual studio text is too small, pretty difficult to read. Other than that pretty good tutorial.

[@nakano15]

I think they fixed that on 2022, but at the cost of performance hahah.

[@MarcosacroM]

Thanks for the tutorial, was very cleary and for non english speacker it was very simply to understand you without subtitles.

[@VikkersOlfsson]

This is a magnificent tutorial, thanks champ!

[@zoop391]

Personally, I think storing the grid in a data structure such as a two-dimensinal array is nice to work with. To extend this, if we had a three-dimensional array we could store layers of grids, that could represent house floors, underground floors, etc.

[@dpurrington]

That's the model Minecraft uses. Every square "foot" is of one material or another. Air is just another material that you can pass through.

[@CharlieVanders22020]

Absolutely brilliant tutorial, thank you very much for your work!

[@Tarodev]

I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

[@SlimeWithClass]

Would you be able to give an example of how to use the GetTileAtPosition function? Just to do something like displaying that tiles name to a debug menu or change a clicked tile to a different color?

[@playboyy21]

Yo checkout this template for a grid tactics game , this one is by far the best ive seen so far kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqKscoeGaqd_l7M

[@ngjiayi2705]

you're my fav tilemap guy right now!!

[@Tarodev]

Wait until you see part 2 😉

[@playboyy21]

Yo checkout this template for a grid tactics game , this one is by far the best ive seen so far kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqKscoeGaqd_l7M

[@noobcraft5712]

You should mix in some devlogs that will be sooo cool.

[@Tarodev]

Very good idea. I'll do that! Also, I took your advice and started a discord. I'll drop the link in a video or two when it's ready

[@noobcraft5712]

@@Tarodev oh :)

[@andubunea9627]

@@Tarodev OH can t wait to see the discord I think I will really get help with unity from there

[@jiři.kropocev]

Very nice video: clear, informative and easy to understand. Thank you!

[@mrbooscloos2431]

instead of centering the camera on the gird i wrote: Instantiate(_tileprefab, new Vector2(x - 4.5f, y - 4.5f), Quaternion.identity); its alot easier and if it doesnt line up properly then you need to play around with" 4.5f"

[@phildebondi8311]

Hi I'm just getting started with Unity, I'm sure I've messed up something simple. Whenever I call the Tile.Init(Bool) function all of the tiles are positioned in the one spot and the color doesn't change. Any help would be appreciated.

[@treppas]

Great video, really taught me a lot of stuff in a short time.

[@Dead_Seconds1058]

i don't know what fails, but i can't put my tile prefab into the grid manager, as he does at 1:28 i would appreciate some help

[@Gears2Game]

The field is looking for a "Tile", try to attached the Tile.cs to the tile prefab.

[@mrussogamedev]

life saver @@Gears2Game

[@nightmarehustak]

Had the same problem, don't know if you still need it after 7 months but make sure that inside the Tile script the MonoBehaviour is called Tile and not "NewBehaviorScript" like I did after renaming it after it got crated like I did. That or you dont have the Tile script in your prefab.

[@jugibur2117]

Watching this at 50% speed but wish you could pause 2-3 seconds after you swapping the screen, so I have time stopping the video and finish typing :-) But anyway, your videos are very helpful, so thanks for your effort!

[@Tarodev]

I do feel like I swap between windows a bit more than I should. I'll try keep it in mind for my future videos!

[@matthewjames7513]

Great video! I followed the whole thing and duplicated it perfectly on my end. However, when I run it, I find that the tiles are not visible to the camera. The green colors do not show up. However, I can tell that the core functionality still works because the highlight comes up as I move my mouse around. I'm using Unit 2020.3.29, maybe that's why? :) Thanks for the tutorial!

[@matthewjames7513]

Nevermind! I figured it out from a previous comment of yours. For those that don't know this is what you need to do: 1) Click on "Tile" so that the inspector tab on the right shows up 2) Change the alpha of the Base Color and Offset Color 2a) When you click on the color a separate screen comes up where you can choose the RGBA values. Move the slider from 0 to 255.

[@gamingcodingwithrandoms1187]

@@matthewjames7513 thank you

[@garvisan6540]

@@matthewjames7513 thank you so much

[@dtwallace92]

@@matthewjames7513 Had the same issue. Thanks for clearing it up!

[@birdblue6927]

Thanks a lot!!! 👍👍👍👍

[@sulin8517]

Thank you for your tutorial, that's a nice way to create a grid.

[@Shokukumi]

Would look forward to more board game type of videos!

[@Tarodev]

I just released part 2: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nGbTnmVvrs2UitU :)

[@playboyy21]

Yo checkout this template for a grid tactics game , this one is by far the best ive seen so far kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqKscoeGaqd_l7M

[@TheRotomFan]

Great video! I'm following along, but for some reason the Init function is making all the tiles not visible to the camera. I'm not sure how to fix this. I'm on 2021.2.7f1 if that matters.

[@againstallevens8512]

Make sure your alpha on the color is set to 255 rather than 0.

[@coreybuchan34]

Hey, so this is a great tutorial and I was wondering if you could clarify the _renderer.color = isOffset ? _offsetColor : _baseColor; Is that just an if/else statement written in a single line? _renderer.color = (if ifOffset is True, _offsetColor, else _baseColor)?

[@kordeyrow]

Yes, it's a ternary operator

[@soco5338]

Clear, concise instruction without fast forwarding to a speed no realistic human could follow. Probably(why lie? you definitely are) one of the top three cleanest and most efficient coders for Unity tutorials on KZbin.

[@Tarodev]

Damn bro

[@Dooz181]

You deserve more subs thank you for the tutorial.

[@amrutvijapur8057]

Can somebody help me? I've done everything the master said in the video character to character. After adding the code to change the color of the tiles, the tiles stopped appearing and yes my sprite renderer was not turned off.

[@rafaelokabe]

You saved me tons of hours of work!

[@soninh4357]

Thank you alot. Im learn how to make a game rn, this guide help me alot

[@playboyy21]

Yo checkout this template for a grid tactics game , this one is by far the best ive seen so far kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqKscoeGaqd_l7M

[@leeblackharry]

How would you go about creating an outline around each grid cell instead of coloring each grid cell like you did in this example? I tried adding in an Outline component but this did not work.

[@dusklights6810]

Hello, Just wondering how the GetTileAtPosition function is supposed to be used? Every way I have tried to use it, it has returned a null value and never a tile.

[@hayali9302]

@Tarodev Thank you brother, I learn so much from you.

[@edmondeyeemceeezekiels9158]

Much love for this!

[@brittanypruneau3377]

Any ide why none of the tiles show a color? I can see the outline of them when I click on them, but the base color and offset color are not showing up when I click play.

[@Tarodev]

On your sprite renderer make sure you alpha (r, g, b, alpha) is pulled to the right. Sometimes it defaults to 0

[@DarkstalkerFly]

@@Tarodev Thanks, that was the problem

[@matthewcraft7457]

@@Tarodev How do you change it? All my tiles are created with the alpha set to 0?

[@yuuki85]

wow it in detail works! Very good job

[@Programming_Buddy1]

Great video! straight to the point.

[@gregotox]

the new brackeys is looking good.

[@Tarodev]

You're too kind ❤️

[@DroolingNoob115]

When instantiating your dictionary it may be good practice to pass in the capacity (width * height in this case) of it as to not consume more memory than necessary whenever the dictionary needs to resize its capacity as you add more tiles. It may be also be worth to consider using a 2d array if you are nit picky about performance and memory as you don't have to save a key for each tile. I would only suggest this if you plan to make a giant array however, may not be necessary or even optimal for small projects.

[@Tarodev]

Good tips. I avoid 2d Arrays like the plague and opt for more user-friendly devices. Unless performance is an issue, as you said.

[@LocalContentShow]

Feel like I'm kind of falling at the first hurdle here, I don't have the option to make a 2D object. I thought it might be something about Unity's weird multiple render pipelines but no matter if I use URP or specific 2D, nope, still no 2D objects?

[@theresnothinghere59]

fast, clever video, amazing!

[@BossAleks123]

If anybody has invincible tiles, dont forget to change where you change the color the saturation.

[@Tarodev]

Ensure alpha on the sprite renderer is not set to 0

[@BossAleks123]

@@Tarodev yes 👍🏽

[@LeoCow]

hey, i am having trouble trying to shrink it down. i want to make it all 10x smaller, so x=1 y=1 is now x=0.1 y=0.1 do you know how i could do this?

[@Handler643]

Hi, I am getting an error like this can any one please Help me? UnassignedReferenceException: The variable _renderer of Tile has not been assigned. You probably need to assign the _renderer variable of the Tile script in the inspector.

[@billpariss9559]

You have to drag and drop the Tile object into the Renderer field, like he does at 6:31 with the Highlight.

[@andressblabla]

Would you mind explaining why you prefered to self-create a Grid system instead of using the actual Unity Grid and Tilemap system? I'll be really glad if you do so because I've already seen another youTuber's take on Grid as well (CodeMonkey's) and both of you decide to create your own versions instead of using Unity's. Is there a reason for that? Thanks in advance!

[@Tarodev]

Just answered your question in discord! ❤️

[@colbywinfield]

Hi, great tutorial. I'm a bit stuck around the 5:30 mark changing the sprite colors. I have everything identical to the video, but when I play - my sprites are fully transparent. I can't figure out why - do you know?

[@Tarodev]

Check that the colors have alpha all the way up. By default it's set to 0

[@colbywinfield]

@@Tarodev Oh man, duh! I should've seen that - thank you so much! Loving this series, I just subscribed :)

[@canadianmodder7403]

Can this work with Hexagon tiles? Your video is very helpful

[@issaraychouni1570]

best easy board ever

[@chubbychuck2118]

Very good tutorial!

[@DeezyCobain]

It’s not working.. I’m gettin a singular tile not the full grid

[@alexhere4061]

Try to debug your code

[@vivekntl]

@Tarodev . Hi Please help me understand why the grid does not fill my game view completely. I am using 16:9 aspect ratio and followed all the step and I see the grid as rectangle with 1 tile space on all sides. Thank you in advance.

[@theemeraldsloth9570]

Thanks for this. This was super good and simple

[@tuckbuckk5465]

What's the difference between this and the grid component

[@Tarodev]

Do you mean unity tile maps? Although they have their place, tilemaps give you very minimal control over tile logic. They make it basically impossible to link tiles, for example a lever and a trap door tile. Creating your own always gives a much more flexible result. Downside is if you want handmade maps you'll need to build a simple editor

[@mavericbrycelmanzanillo5021]

After 4:50 the tiles were not appearing, but they spawned, with the colors. Just not appearing

[@Tarodev]

Check the alpha on the sprite renderer

[@UngelisteteVideosvonExes]

rly good video man

[@nirname-r4y]

What are the different ways to highlight tiles in Unity? What if I need to cast a shadow under object I am going to put? How to highlight tiles that are already occupied and those that are free?

[@슷하-m8o]

Why is the Value data type in the dictionary the Tile Class, not the GameObject?

[@aku8261]

Hey there, I'm new on unity programming and I was trying to follow the turotial but for some reason the "Init" in 5:07 gives me an error... I copied everything from the code correctly, I don't know what could be wrong...

[@st0rmpr0of]

Hey! Thanks for the tutorial! How would you do this method with a flat-top hexagonal grid?

[@Tarodev]

Checkout my more recent grids video, which shows how to position tiles for all types of grids. You can use the position logic of that video with the game play logic of this one

[@mewpsy1000]

Ty so much dude.

[@Tarodev]

@@mewpsy1000 no problem 😊

[@earth2772]

哇哦，太酷了bro，非常感谢你的教程👍

[@lluisvinent9099]

Aren't these 'OnMouse' methods actually a raycast? I guess that for huge grids it would be more performant to create a single raycast from the mouse position and check what's colliding instead of a script for each tile. Anyways, I love your content. I'm recomending your videos to a noob friend of mine who is starting with Unity. He's super motivated thanks to your videos! :)

[@Tarodev]

Thanks for the recommendation ;)

[@supergogogo]

Very useful tutorial! thank you very much

[@DuniC0]

You can use Manhattan distance for the checkboard pattern: (x+y)%2

[@playboyy21]

Yo checkout this template for a grid tactics game , this one is by far the best ive seen so far kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqKscoeGaqd_l7M

[@eddyrc7]

Saw your video in reddit, decided to sub, will be back today and get this tutorial going, thanks for this!

[@playboyy21]

Yo checkout this template for a grid tactics game , this one is by far the best ive seen so far kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqKscoeGaqd_l7M

[@seleg3163]

I have a problem with the camera the width is fine but the height go beyond the boundaries of my camera and I have no clue how to fix it

[@thanhhainguyen3553]

FACTS!!!!!! Thank you so much man, you're the best!!!!!!!!!

[@christian2809]

how can you make sure that you can see all tiles when handling multiple resolutions?

[@mayronen9643]

why you use an underscore at the start of your variables? for example: _width.

[@iliketoast]

will it lag if i put too many lines of code in the tile prefab

[@Tarodev]

As long as the code is efficient it will be perfectly fine. For example don't have heavy logic in their update loop

[@McGreir]

My tiles are invisible, any idea why? I can see that they are created in the scene but they have no color in neither game/scene

[@Tarodev]

Check the opacity on the sprite renderer. For some reason they can default to 0. The a in rgba

[@McGreir]

@@Tarodev Yup thanks a lot, that was it!

[@Tarodev]

@@McGreir happy coding 😊

[@Tarodev]

@Balint Ujvari You're right! I pinned it.

[@rayaqin]

@@Tarodev cheers : ) 🎉

[@benconaway2349]

I'm unable to set X and Y dimension for the GridManager script when I attached to the empty Gridmanager object. As well as unable to add the Tile Prefab to it.

[@xHartii]

Nice tutorial

[@theulfhednar2655]

things worked fine :O . Though my tiles keep dissapearing visually. They are there! just, not visible :/

[@Tarodev]

Check the alpha on the sprite renderer. It's probably at 0

[@theulfhednar2655]

not only that, but I only get tiles up to 8 8. after that it stops

[@Tarodev]

@@theulfhednar2655 obvious thing first: is your width and height set to 8 in the inspector?

[@theulfhednar2655]

@@Tarodev They weren't, I even increased to 22 on the width at one point, and it stayed at 8. 8x8, perfect square.

[@theulfhednar2655]

@@Tarodev do you think making it a public variable would do any difference (Im kinda new to programming so idk :P )

[@darthnihilius6757]

How do you make GenerateGrid exist ij the first place because my unity keeps saying it does not exist in current context

[@sealer1675]

Hey! Is this system incompatible with the inbuilt Tilemap/Grid system of unity? Fx. You're making a custom Tile class, while there already exists one in the Tilemap package of unity.

[@Tarodev]

Tile maps are great, but they're certainly not suitable for most grid games. For example, you can't attach unique logic to a certain tile (easily) using tile maps. One example would be if you had one tile which was a pressure plate which opened a door on another tile... That's very difficult to do using the tile map system.

[@sealer1675]

@@Tarodev i see, I was thinking wether or not it would be possible to have both a unity tilemap and a custom grid on top - with unity tilemap used just for tiles and a custom grid for logic

[@matthewmathis62]

This is very useful, thank you!

[@Astamor]

Isn't it kinda redundant to create grid when tilemap itself is already a grid ? It contains methods for specific tiles, tilemap size, etc ?

[@Tarodev]

Tilemap is good for some things, but is hugely limited on intractability. For example, having one tile linked to another tile in some way (lever/door) is very tricky and requires ugly workarounds.

[@Astamor]

@@Tarodev Is it tricky tho ? Firstly you place door and lever as objects on separate layer of tilemap then just use event system to interact with them. I think it's actually much simpler way of doing it. I usually use 3 tilemaps, ground(walkable), obstacles(unwalkable) and objects(everything that you can interact with).

[@Tarodev]

@@Astamor When editing your maps, how are you linking the lever and door together? Assuming you can have unlimited levers and doors scattered around the map.

[@Astamor]

@@Tarodev They are prefabs. Every door/lever has scriptable object conatining it's name, description and most importantly id number. The lever with id=5 will open door with id 6, lever id = 115 will open door with id 116 etc. I use unity events to do it. Super easy and you can later just swap scriptable object on a lever to change it's functionality.

[@goodnight6202]

For some reason, the board alternates colors for two columns then defaults to light color. Need some help.

[@baszotek5819]

do you know how to apply this grid to a custom tileset?

[@cheesewizard3659]

The name 'GenerateGrid' does not exist in the current context assembly-csharp. ??

[@savagefox3530]

is it possible to use a tile set this way tell it to grab certain tiles from a tile set to do a random generated grid map

[@Tarodev]

You can add tile variance as you loop through and set the tile. Add specific tile types with certain weights and roll a dice to determine what to place. If this doesn't make sense come into discord and we'll chat.

[@jackrobinson9403]

how does the text "x = 0; x < _width" pop up instantaneously when he makes the void GridManager? at 0:36???

[@willem6161]

By double tapping tab as he wrote for

[@tughloksiddiquee1714]

What can i use to make the tile be next to each other if the scale is

[@francescocatalano1517]

hello very clean tutorial and thanks for the work. I have a problem, when i instantiate the cam the grid doesn't snap on the center of the cam but in high right zone. I tried to give the center point and the cam is in the center but not the grid.

[@JianqiuChen]

Good pace! The video is a bit blurry, hard to see the code on my screen.

[@shiratasakusharane7714]

Nice tutorial, thank you :) However, I have face the problem in the highlight section as the highlight color doesn't show up at all when I place my mouse to the tiles. Do you have any advice to fix it? Ps: My tiles are "Sprite Image" instead of "Color" and it seems like my Unity doesn't have the option "2D -> Sprite -> S̶q̶u̶a̶r̶e̶" for some reason...

[@Tarodev]

Do you have the sprite 2D package installed I'm package manager? Make sure your highlight alpha is not sitting at 0. Make sure the sorting order is higher than your tile.

[@Ukysseus]

I have the exact same problem, did you find the solution? When my mouse pass over any tiles, the original tile lights up

[@jaylonreidhead157]

I finally figured it out!!! I had to replace the Tile object in my assets with the Tile object (with highlight stacked on it) from my scene. That way the script takes my uodated Tile with the highlight asset every time it makes a new block.

[@thestain8004]

When I create the grid manager object and add the gridmanager script it won't allow me to add dimensions or a prefab to it? I checked my script and it's identical to yours so I'm confused

[@thestain8004]

Nevermind I just forgot to save the script so that it actually loaded lol 😆 thanks for the easy to follow tutorial

[@Tarodev]

@@thestain8004 Sometimes it's the simple things which catch us :)

[@BatuhanTerzi1]

Hi everyone and Tarodev, I love to use events like OnMouseEnter etc. but can you tell me if there is any performance difference between onmouseenter-exit and raycast system? I love to use both of them. Which one should we choose?

[@BatuhanTerzi1]

Hi everyone again, if there is anyone seeking an answer for this subject, I chatted with chatGBT and it's saying if there are so many objects with an onMouseDown-Enter-Exit type event on it, using Raycast is more efficient.

[@BakedFrame]

For anyone who can get the highlight to appear change the layer for the Highlight 2D object to 1.

[@hogofogo0]

so i am getting this error NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object GridManager.GenerateGrid() (at Assets/Scripts/GridManager.cs:33) that is the _tiles[new Vector2(x, y)] = spawnedTile; what is wrong?

[@Tarodev]

Did you initialize the _tiles dictionary? Looks like I do it on line 20. _tiles = new Dictionary();

[@hogofogo0]

@@Tarodev nope xD I'll do that thx for help

[@alifdoll6372]

hey man how do i access the tile position

[@Deadalus175]

What would I need to do to have more than one tilegrid within one scene? I'm trying to create two boards for 2 different player to use. Each Player basicly needs their own board at different positions within the same scene.