In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:
One aspect of game development in general (and inventories as our particular examples in this chapter) is the distinction about when we undertake an activity. Run-time is when the game is running (and when all our software and UI choices take affect). However, design-time is the time when different members of our game design team work on constructing a wide range of game components, including the scripts, audio and visual assets, and the process of constructing each game level (or "scene" in Unity-speak).
In this chapter, we will introduce several recipes that make use of Unity's Editor extensions; these are scripting and multimedia components that enable a game software engineer to make design-time work easier and less likely to introduce errors. Editor extensions allow workflow improvements, thus allowing designers to achieve their goals quicker and more easily; for example, removing the need for any scripting knowledge when generating many randomly located inventory pickups in a scene via a menu choice, or editing the type or properties of pickups being hand-placed in different locations in a level.
While Editor extensions are quite an advanced topic, having someone on your team who can write custom editor components, such as those we illustrate, can greatly increase the productivity of a small team with only one or two members who are confident at scripting.
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