Book Image

Game Development Patterns with Unity 2021 - Second Edition

By : David Baron
Book Image

Game Development Patterns with Unity 2021 - Second Edition

By: David Baron

Overview of this book

This book is written for every game developer ready to tackle the bigger picture and start working with advanced programming techniques and design patterns in Unity. Game Development Patterns with Unity 2021 is an introduction to the core principles of reusable software patterns and how to employ them to build components efficiently. In this second edition, you'll tackle design patterns with the help of a practical example; a playable racing game prototype where you’ll get to apply all your newfound knowledge. Notable updates also include a game design document (GDD), a Unity programming primer, and the downloadable source code of a complete prototype. Your journey will start by learning about overall design of the core game mechanics and systems. You’ll discover tried-and-tested software patterns to code essential components of a game in a structured manner, and start using classic design patterns to utilize Unity's unique API features. As you progress, you'll also identify the negative impacts of bad architectural decisions and understand how to overcome them with simple but effective practices. By the end of this Unity book, the way you develop Unity games will change – you’ll adapt a more structured, scalable, and optimized process that will help you take the next step in your career.
Table of Contents (22 chapters)
1
Sections 1: Fundamentals
5
Section 2: Core Patterns
16
Section 3: Alternative Patterns
20
About Packt

Benefits and drawbacks of the State pattern

The following are the benefits of using the State pattern: 

  • Encapsulation: The State pattern allows us to implement an entity's stateful behaviors as a collection of components that can be assigned dynamically to an object when it changes states. 
  • Maintenance: We can easily implement new states without having to modify long conditional statements or bloated classes.

However, the State pattern does have its limitations when we use it to manage an animated character.

Here's a shortlist of potential limitations:

  • Blending: In its native form, the State pattern doesn't offer a solution to blend animations. This limitation can become an issue when you want to achieve a smooth visual transition between the animated states of a character.
  • Transitioning: In our implementation of the pattern, we can easily switch between states, but we are not defining the relation between them. Therefore, if we wish to define transitions between...