.NET Console Game Porting to Unity

The same game running in the console (on the right) and in Unity (on the left).

This project shows an example porting a C# console game into a Unity project. The current implementation of the console supports the following methods and properties:

Console.Write(string value);
Console.Write(char value);
Console.WriteLine(string value);
Console.WriteLine();
Console.ReadLine();
Console.ReadKey();
Console.Clear();
Console.ResetColor();
Console.Beep(int frequency, int duration);  // Not supported in WebGL
Console.ForegroundColor {get; set; }
Console.BackgroundColor {get; set; }

The framework adds other useful methods in the Console class:

Console.Sleep(int milliseconds);        // Equivalent to Thread.Sleep(int milliseconds).
Console.GetKeyState(KeyCode key);       // Returns true if the key is pressed.
Console.PixelsPerUnit {get; set; }      // The number of pixels corresponding to a Unity unit. Can be updated in windowed mode.
Console.InputBufferActive {get; set; }  // Activate or deactivate the input buffer.
Console.BorderSize {get; set; }         // Console on the left and right of the text.

The project contains the porting of a few games from https://github.com/dotnet/dotnet-console-games

It also contains the porting of the text adventure game Alaric's Adventure: the Beginning. Original game by Mekkmann : https://mekkmann.itch.io/alarics-adventure-text-based-game

How to port your console game to Unity

The main steps to consider when converting a console game to a Unity game are the following:

• Make sure you are using the Console from the UnityConsole namespace

using Console = UnityConsole.Console;

• Replace Thread.Sleep(time) with Console.Sleep(time)

• Replace the read functions with async functions and use KeyCode instead of ConsoleKeyInfo:

ConsoleKeyInfo key = Console.ReadKey(); with KeyCode key = await Console.ReadKey(); string input = Console.ReadLine(); with string input = await Console.ReadLine();

• await Console.ReadKey(); doesn't react to key presses that don't appear in Input.inputString (like arrow buttons). To check for these keys, use the Console.GetKeyState(KeyCode key) method.

• Turn every method that call a read method on the Console into an async function. The read methods have cancellation support.

In the following code, I use UniTask instead of Task for the WebGL support. See the WebGL support section for more information

For example:

private void F1(){
  F2();
}

private void F2(){
  string input = Console.ReadLine();
}

Replace the code above with:

private async UniTask F1(){
  await F2();
}

private async UniTask F2(){
  string input = await Console.ReadLine();
}

• Replace the entry point of the game with a Monobehaviour:

internal class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            GameManager gameManager = new();
            gameManager.StartGame();
        }
    }

Replace the code above with:

public class Program : MonoBehaviour
{
    private void Start()
    {
        UniTask.Create(Play);
    }

    private async Task Play()
    {
        GameManager gameManager = new();
        await gameManager.StartGame();
    }
}

• Replace the colors in the game with Unity colors.

• Put the resources of the project in a folder such as Resources or StreamingAssets and change the paths in the code accordingly.

WebGL support

The carriage return character produces weird results in WebGL TextMeshPro. The character is therefore automatically removed from texts before printing in the console.

Console.Beep() isn't supported in WebGL.

The framework supports WebGL using UniTask instead of Task for async methods.

A FileLoader class provides the following methods to load from a file. These methods are also compatible with non-WebGL builds.

public static async UniTask<string[]> ReadAllLinesAsync(string path);
public static async UniTask<string> ReadAllTextAsync(string path);
public static async UniTask<byte[]> ReadAllBytesAsync(string path);

These methods need to be executed in asynchronous code. For example, you may nee to move the calls async methods out of the constructors:

private void CreateEnemy(string namePath){
    Enemy enemy = new Enemy(namePath);
}
public Enemy()
{
    Name = await FileLoader.ReadAllLinesAsync(string path); // Compilation error
}

Replace the code above with

private async UniTask CreateEnemy(string namePath){
    Enemy enemy = new Enemy(namePath);
    await enemy.LoadNameFromFile(namePath)
}
public Enemy()
{
}

// In the Enemy class
public async UniTask LoadNameFromFile(path){
  Name = await FileLoader.ReadAllLinesAsync(string path);
}