UniRx and Unity 5 : Working with C# and object-oriented reactive programming

Abstract: Gameplay programming is vital for video game development and benefits from good tools and techniques. However, techniques are still used in the industry that involves describing how the computer operates. Reactive programming is a way to describe eventful and stateful computer programs declaratively, focusing on what the program should accomplish. This thesis uses the reactive library UniRx with the game engine Unity 5 to create an FPS with reactive techniques, and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of these. Object-oriented reactive programming is used to combine reactive objects with Unity’s component-based framework without using wrappers for non-reactive objects. The results include static methods for observable user input, patterns when defining game components with reactive content, and communication between game objects through interface components. It can be concluded that reactive programming for game programming enables the programmer to describe and understand game logic in a declarative manner. However, combining UniRx and Unity 5 led to complex patterns. Suggestion for future work is using reactive programming with game engines that allows to design game objects that are fully reactive.