Book Image

Unity Game Development Essentials

By : Will Goldstone
Book Image

Unity Game Development Essentials

By: Will Goldstone

Overview of this book

Game engines are central to the video games we know and love. From the artwork to the mathematics that underpin the frames onscreen, the engine calls the shots. Aside from offering one of the leading 3D game engines, Unity also provides a superlative development tool ñ a tool that can produce professional standard games for Mac, PC, and the Unity Web Player. This book is a complete exercise in game development covering environments, physics, sound, particles, and much more, to get you up and working with Unity quickly. Taking a practical approach, this book will introduce you to the concepts of developing 3D games before getting to grips with development in Unity itself. From creating 3D worlds to scripting and creating simple game elements you will learn everything you'll need to get started with game development for the PC, Mac, and Web. This book is designed to cover a set of easy to follow examples, which culminate in the production of a First Person 3D game, complete with an interactive island environment. By introducing common concepts of game and 3D production, you'll explore Unity to make a character interact with the game world, and build puzzles for the player to solve, in order to complete the game. At the end of the book, you will have a fully working 3D game and all the skills required to extend the game further, giving your end-user, the player, the best experience possible. Soon you will be creating your own 3D games with ease!
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Unity Game Development Essentials
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
Preface
Index

About the Reviewers

Aaron Cross is a freelance video game developer based in New Zealand. A successful musician and music producer, film-maker, and 3D artist, he switched his focus to game development in 2006. Since then he has produced three video game titles, and has provided art and programming solutions to Unity developers across the globe. He is based in Wellington, New Zealand.

In addition to commercial games, he has developed simulations for medical training, architectural visualization, science and research, conservation, and visual reconstructions for evidence used in court cases, using the Unity game engine.

Emil E. Johansen is a freelance game development consultant living in Copenhagen, Denmark. Having worked professionally with engines, such as Renderware, CryEngine, and UnrealEngine 3, Emil joined the Unity community when going freelance and has been very active there by the alias AngryAnt.

In the Unity community, Emil has actively promoted and participated in the Wiki and IRC channels, while developing AI middleware solutions for Unity.

When not hooked up to the internet, Emil enjoys biking, sailing, and concert going. Online he can be found on the Unity forums, Wiki, and IRC channel as AngryAnt, on Twitter by the same name, and at AngryAnt.com.

Clifford Peters is 19 years old and has recently graduated from high school. A few years ago, Clifford decided to make his own web site. He learned about HTML and started to hand code his own web site. Later, he rewrote his web site after learning about XHTML and CSS. Later, after getting bored with making a web site, Clifford decided that he would instead make a computer game. He tried a bunch of different game engines but did not like using them very much. Clifford then found out about Unity, and after using it for a few weeks, he realized that he liked it because it was easy to use. He liked it so much that he went and bought it, and now he often spends hours a day programming with Unity and developing games.

Jonathan Sykes is a senior play researcher, skilled in the design and evaluation of the play experience. He is the director of eMotionLab, a premier research facility, which offers both consultancy and development services in the area of game production and play-testing. His particular research focus is the application of play technologies to serious endeavors, such as health, education, and business.

Both a psychologist and usability engineer, Jonathan's work is very much player-centered, and focused on the player experience. He has worked with Microsoft's Game User Research group to develop player-centered approaches to game design and evaluation and written academic papers and textbook chapters on the subject. He also works as a senior lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University where he delivers undergraduate courses in player-centered game development.