What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting Jiggy with the Unity Interface, surveys the game engine landscape, comparing other game engines with Unity to give you a full appreciation for Unity's capabilities. You'll learn how to download and install Unity 5. You'll also learn about Unity 5's user interface and core tools, including transform tools and cameras.

Chapter 2, Creating the Game Environment, will teach you about game design by reviewing the book's game design of Little Farmer Colt. You'll start creating the game environment with terrain, mountains, trees, a lake, and the sky.

Chapter 3, Working with Assets, is all about the assets used to develop games with Unity 5. You'll learn about assets, where to get them, how to make your own, and how to import them into your game. You'll also learn about free 3D object creation software to create game objects compatible with Unity 5.

Chapter 4, Animating the Game Characters, is about Unity animations and player controllers. You'll see our game characters come to life and give your users the ability to control the player.

Chapter 5, Scripting the Game, is dedicated to teaching you how to script. You'll start with a primer on C# and experience with MonoDevelop. You'll also gain experience creating your own C# scripts for your game.

Chapter 6, Adding a Graphical User Interface, contains key information on graphical user interfaces and their importance to games. You'll gain hands-on experience with the Unity 5 user interface system. You'll learn to create a heads-up display, an in-game mini-map, and full-screen navigation menus.

Chapter 7, Polishing and Optimizing the Game, will teach you several ways to make your game shine and operate optimally. You'll gain appreciation for the importance of audio and visual effects in games and how to create them. You'll gain experience with sound effects, shadows, lighting effects, and camera rendering. You'll also learn about optimizing scripts.

Chapter 8, What's Next?, is the final chapter where you'll receive several specific suggestions on how to take the Little Farmer Colt game to a higher level. You'll also learn about Unity workflow, project scalability, cross-platform issues, and the importance of attribution. You'll also gain an appreciation for advanced topics.