Book Image

Unity Certified Programmer: Exam Guide

By : Philip Walker
Book Image

Unity Certified Programmer: Exam Guide

By: Philip Walker

Overview of this book

Unity Certified Programmer is a global certification program by Unity for anyone looking to become a professional Unity developer. The official Unity programmer exam will not only validate your Unity knowledge and skills, but also enable you to be part of the Unity community. This study guide will start by building on your understanding of C# programming and take you through the process of downloading and installing Unity. You’ll understand how Unity works and get to grips with the core objectives of the Unity exam. As you advance, you’ll enhance your skills by creating an enjoyable side-scrolling shooter game that can be played within the Unity Editor or any recent Android mobile device. This Unity book will test your knowledge with self-assessment questions and help you take your skills to an advanced level by working with Unity tools such as the Animator, Particle Effects, Lighting, UI/UX, Scriptable Objects, and debugging. By the end of this book, you’ll have developed a solid understanding of the different tools in Unity and understand how to create impressive Unity applications by making the most of its toolset.

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Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Get in touch
1
Setting Up and Structuring Our Project
Setting Up and Structuring Our Project
The core exam skills covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
The six core objectives
Overview of design patterns
The SOLID principles
Designing the Killer Wave game
The Killer Wave game framework
Setting up Unity
Collaborate
Summary
Free Chapter
2
Adding and Manipulating Objects
Adding and Manipulating Objects
Core exam skills covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Setting up our Unity project
Introducing our interface – IActorTemplate
Introducing our ScriptableObject – SOActorModel
Setting up our Player, PlayerSpawner, and PlayerBullet scripts
Planning and creating our enemy
Setting up our EnemySpawner and Enemy scripts
Summary
3
Managing Scripts and Taking a Mock Test
Managing Scripts and Taking a Mock Test
The core exam skills covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Adding a Singleton design pattern
Setting up our ScenesManager script
Creating lives for the player
Scoring enemy hits
Creating sounds for the player's bullets
Summary
Mock test
4
Applying Art, Animation, and Particles
Applying Art, Animation, and Particles
The core exam skills covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Adding visuals to the player's ship prefab
Creating a particle effect
Importing and animating the background
Animating our three-dimensional enemies
Summary
5
Creating a Shop Scene for Our Game
Creating a Shop Scene for Our Game
The core exam skills covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Introducing our shop scripts
Customizing our shop selection
Selecting game objects with raycasts
Adding information to our description panel
Summary
6
Purchasing In-Game Items and Advertisements
Purchasing In-Game Items and Advertisements
The core exam skills covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Buying upgrades for our player's ship
Buying items, watching adverts, and preparing to start a game
Extending the PlayerSpawner script
Summary
7
Creating a Game Loop and Mock Test
Creating a Game Loop and Mock Test
Core exam skills covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Transitioning our player ship
Expanding our ScenesManager script
Preparing to loop our game
Summary
Mock test
8
Adding Custom Fonts and UI
Adding Custom Fonts and UI
Core exam skills being covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Introducing the Canvas and UI
Applying text and images to our scenes
Summary
9
Creating a 2D Shop Interface and In-Game HUD
Creating a 2D Shop Interface and In-Game HUD
Core exam skills covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Setting up our HUD
Making our shop scene support alternative screen ratios
Applying and modifying our shop scripts
Summary
10
Pausing the Game, Altering Sound, and a Mock Test
Pausing the Game, Altering Sound, and a Mock Test
Core exam skills covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Applying and adjusting level music
Creating a pause screen
Adding a game pause button
Summary
Mock test
11
Storing Data and Audio Mixer
Storing Data and Audio Mixer
Core exam skills covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Using the Audio Mixer
Storing data
Exploring Unity Analytics and Remote Settings
Summary
12
NavMesh, Timeline, and a Mock Test
NavMesh, Timeline, and a Mock Test
The core exam skills covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Preparing the final scene
Developing AI with NavMesh
Exploring the timeline
Extending the timeline
Summary
Mock test
13
Effects, Testing, Performance, and Alt Controls
Effects, Testing, Performance, and Alt Controls
Core exam skills being covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Applying physics with RigidBody
Customizing for different platforms
Preparing to build Killer Wave for mobile
Applying PC visual improvements
Adding global illumination and other settings
Building and testing our game
Summary
14
Full Unity Programmer Mock Exam
Full Unity Programmer Mock Exam
Full mock exam
15
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Other Books You May Enjoy
Leave a review - let other readers know what you think
Appendix
Appendix
Developing for Virtual Reality
Unity's current networking setup
Closing suggestions for the game/exam
Mock answers
Preface

Unity Certified Programmer: Exam Guide will take a basic object-oriented programmer and introduce them to Unity through a creative project that stretches across the entire book, achieving essential exam core objectives that can be put toward Unity's own Official Programmer Exam.

This book will take you (the programmer) through discussing the exam itself, breaking down each of its objectives, and what is expected of you to achieve a pass. From there, everything we'll discuss relates to supporting you with potential questions from the exam. So, we'll start straight away and refer to an overview of common design patterns and even more common SOLID principles that all programs need to know. We will go through our game design brief and custom-built framework before we even touch Unity.

After installing Unity, you will begin to take your first steps in building a side-scrolling shooter game, and at the beginning of every chapter, it will be brought to your attention which core objectives you will be covering to support you. After some chapters, you will also be tested with a mini mock exam to see how you are getting on.

By the end of the book, you will have created a game that can be played on a standalone PC and/or Android device supporting a keyboard and touch screen controls, where you will fly a spaceship to fight off oncoming enemies.

As early as Chapter 2, Adding and Manipulating Objects, you will have coded the majority of the game and the following chapters we'll progress through will introduce you to Unity's tools and components, such as the Timeline, which is specifically built for the TV/film industry and cutscenes in games. You will cover particle effects, different materials to apply to your game objects to make them react to light, fading the sound in and out by manipulating an audio mixer with your scripting, pausing the game, storing values in your own scriptable objects, and much, much more.

Even if you aren't taking the Unity Certified Programmer Exam, you will make a game that you can continue to develop, play, and learn from.

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