Once a Unity 3D beginner completed a tightly-scripted microgame tutorial, we are directed towards a collection of "Creative Mods". These suggested exercises build on top of what we created in the scripted tutorial. Except now individual tasks are more loosely described, and we are encouraged to introduce our own variations. We are also allowed to experiment freely, as the Unity Editor is no longer partially locked down to keep us from going astray. The upside of complete freedom is balanced by the downside of easily shooting ourselves in the foot. But now we know enough to not do that, or know how to fix it if we do. (In theory.)

Each of the Unity introductory microgames have their own list of suggested modifications, and since I just completed the LEGO microgame I went through the LEGO list. I was mildly surprised to see this list grow while I was in the middle of doing it -- as of this writing, new suggested activities are still being added. Some of these weren't actually activities at all, such as one entirely focused on a PDF (apparently created from PowerPoint) serving as a manual for the list of available LEGO Behaviour Bricks. But most of the others introduce something new and interesting.

In addition to the LEGO themed Unity assets from the initial microgame tutorial, others exist for us to import and use in our LEGO microgame projects. There was a Christmas-themed set with Santa Claus (causing me to run through Visual Studio 2019 installer again from Unity Hub to get Unity integration), a set resembling LEGO City except it's on a tropical island, a set for LEGO Castles, and my personal favorite: LEGO Space. Most of my personal LEGO collection were from their space theme and I was happy to see a lot of my old friends available for play in the digital world.

When I noticed the list of activities grew while I was working on them, it gave me a feeling this was a work-in-progress. That feeling continued when I imported some of these asset collections and fired up their example scene. Not all of them worked correctly, mostly centered around how LEGO pieces attached to each other especially the Behaviour Bricks. Models detach and break apart at unexpected points. Sometimes I could fix it by using the Unity Editor to detach and re-attach bricks, but not always. This brick attachment system was not a standard Unity Editor but an extension built for the LEGO microgame theme, and I guess there are still some bugs to be ironed out.

The most exciting part of the tutorial was an opportunity to go beyond the LEGO prefab assets they gave us and build our own LEGO creations for use in Unity games. A separate "Build your own Enemy" tutorial gave us instructions on how to build with LEGO piece by piece within Unity Editor, but that's cumbersome compared to using dedicated LEGO design software like BrickLink Studio and exporting the results to Unity. We don't get to use arbitrary LEGO pieces, we have to stay within a prescribed parts palette, but it's still a lot of freedom. I immediately built myself a little LEGO spaceship because old habits die hard.

I knew software like BrickLink Studio existed but this was the first time I sat down and tried to use one. The parts palette was disorienting, because it was completely unlike how I work with LEGO in the real world. I'm used to pawing through my bin of parts looking for the one I want, not selecting parts from a menu organized under an unfamiliar taxonomy. I wanted my little spaceship to have maneuvering thrusters, something I add to almost all of my LEGO space creations, but it seems to be absent from the approved list. (UPDATE: A few days later I found it listed under "3963 Brick, Modified 1 x 1 with 3 Loudspeakers / Space Positioning Rockets") The strangest omission seem to be wheels. I see a lot of parts for automobiles, including car doors and windshields and even fender arches. But the only wheels I found in the approved list are steering wheels. I doubt they would include so many different fender arches without wheels to put under them, but I can't find a single ground vehicle wheel in the palette! Oversight, puzzling intentional choice, or my own blindness? I lean towards the last but for now it's just one more reason for me to stick with spaceships.

My little LEGO spaceship, alongside many other LEGO microgame Creative Mods exercises (but not all since the list is still growing) was integrated into my variant of the LEGO microgame and uploaded as "Desert Dusk Demo". The first time I uploaded, I closed the window and panicked because I didn't copy down the URL and I didn't know how to find it again. Eventually I figured out that everything I uploaded to Unity Play is visible at https://play.unity.com/discover/mygames.

But since the legal terms of LEGO microgame assets are restricted to that site, I have to do something else for my learn-and-share creation for ART.HAPPENS. There were a few more steps I had to take there before I had my exhibit Bouncy Bouncy Lights.