Unity Tutorial – Scripting a Simple Countdown Timer

In this lesson, I show you how to create a simple random looping countdown timer. I use this game mechanic in my Presidential Slap game in order to spawn the 2D characters. This mechanic can be used more many other purposes like having items or weapons respawn in a game like Halo. This mechanic also makes it very easy to speed of the timer so things begin spawning faster.

CountDownTimer.cs

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
public class CountDownTimer: MonoBehaviour
{
    [SerializeField]
    float maxTime, minTime;
    float currentTimer;
    // Start is called before the first frame update
    void Start()
    {
        ResetTimer();
    }
    // Update is called once per frame
    void Update()
    {
        currentTimer -= Time.deltaTime;
        if (currentTimer <= 0)
        {
            //Do Something
            ResetTimer();
        }
    }
    void ResetTimer()
    {
        currentTimer = Random.Range(minTime, maxTime);
    }
}

using Photon.Chat;
using Photon.Pun;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.UI;

public class PhotonChatManager : MonoBehaviour, IChatClientListener
{
    #region Setup

    [SerializeField] GameObject joinChatButton;
    ChatClient chatClient;
    bool isConnected;
    [SerializeField] string username;

    public void UsernameOnValueChange(string valueIn)
    {
        username = valueIn;
    }

    public void ChatConnectOnClick()
    {
        isConnected = true;
        chatClient = new ChatClient(this);
        //chatClient.ChatRegion = "US";
        chatClient.Connect(PhotonNetwork.PhotonServerSettings.AppSettings.AppIdChat, PhotonNetwork.AppVersion, new AuthenticationValues(username));
        Debug.Log("Connenting");
    }

    #endregion Setup

    #region General

    [SerializeField] GameObject chatPanel;
    string privateReceiver = "";
    string currentChat;
    [SerializeField] InputField chatField;
    [SerializeField] Text chatDisplay;

    // Start is called before the first frame update
    void Start()
    {

    }

    // Update is called once per frame
    void Update()
    {
        if (isConnected)
        {
            chatClient.Service();
        }

        if (chatField.text != "" && Input.GetKey(KeyCode.Return))
        {
            SubmitPublicChatOnClick();
            SubmitPrivateChatOnClick();
        }
    }

    #endregion General

    #region PublicChat

    public void SubmitPublicChatOnClick()
    {
        if (privateReceiver == "")
        {
            chatClient.PublishMessage("RegionChannel", currentChat);
            chatField.text = "";
            currentChat = "";
        }
    }

    public void TypeChatOnValueChange(string valueIn)
    {
        currentChat = valueIn;
    }

    #endregion PublicChat

    #region PrivateChat

    public void ReceiverOnValueChange(string valueIn)
    {
        privateReceiver = valueIn;
    }

    public void SubmitPrivateChatOnClick()
    {
        if (privateReceiver != "")
        {
            chatClient.SendPrivateMessage(privateReceiver, currentChat);
            chatField.text = "";
            currentChat = "";
        }
    }

    #endregion PrivateChat

    #region Callbacks

    public void DebugReturn(DebugLevel level, string message)
    {
        //throw new System.NotImplementedException();
    }

    public void OnChatStateChange(ChatState state)
    {
        if(state == ChatState.Uninitialized)
        {
            isConnected = false;
            joinChatButton.SetActive(true);
            chatPanel.SetActive(false);
        }
    }

    public void OnConnected()
    {
        Debug.Log("Connected");
        joinChatButton.SetActive(false);
        chatClient.Subscribe(new string[] { "RegionChannel" });
    }

    public void OnDisconnected()
    {
        isConnected = false;
        joinChatButton.SetActive(true);
        chatPanel.SetActive(false);
    }

    public void OnGetMessages(string channelName, string[] senders, object[] messages)
    {
        string msgs = "";
        for (int i = 0; i < senders.Length; i++)
        {
            msgs = string.Format("{0}: {1}", senders[i], messages[i]);

            chatDisplay.text += "\n" + msgs;

            Debug.Log(msgs);
        }

    }

    public void OnPrivateMessage(string sender, object message, string channelName)
    {
        string msgs = "";

        msgs = string.Format("(Private) {0}: {1}", sender, message);

        chatDisplay.text += "\n " + msgs;

        Debug.Log(msgs);
        
    }

    public void OnStatusUpdate(string user, int status, bool gotMessage, object message)
    {
        throw new System.NotImplementedException();
    }

    public void OnSubscribed(string[] channels, bool[] results)
    {
        chatPanel.SetActive(true);
    }

    public void OnUnsubscribed(string[] channels)
    {
        throw new System.NotImplementedException();
    }

    public void OnUserSubscribed(string channel, string user)
    {
        throw new System.NotImplementedException();
    }

    public void OnUserUnsubscribed(string channel, string user)
    {
        throw new System.NotImplementedException();
    }

    #endregion Callbacks
}