Book Image

Learning C# by Developing Games with Unity 2020 - Fifth Edition

By : Harrison Ferrone
Book Image

Learning C# by Developing Games with Unity 2020 - Fifth Edition

By: Harrison Ferrone

Overview of this book

Over the years, the Learning C# by Developing Games with Unity series has established itself as a popular choice for getting up to speed with C#, a powerful and versatile programming language that can be applied in a wide array of application areas. This book presents a clear path for learning C# programming from the ground up without complex jargon or unclear programming logic, all while building a simple game with Unity. This fifth edition has been updated to introduce modern C# features with the latest version of the Unity game engine, and a new chapter has been added on intermediate collection types. Starting with the basics of software programming and the C# language, you’ll learn the core concepts of programming in C#, including variables, classes, and object-oriented programming. Once you’ve got to grips with C# programming, you’ll enter the world of Unity game development and discover how you can create C# scripts for simple game mechanics. Throughout the book, you’ll gain hands-on experience with programming best practices to help you take your Unity and C# skills to the next level. By the end of this book, you’ll be able to leverage the C# language to build your own real-world Unity game development projects.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)

Overloading methods

The term method overloading refers to creating multiple methods with the same name but with different signatures. A method's signature is made up of its name and parameters, which is how the C# compiler recognizes it. Take the following method as an example:

public bool AttackEnemy(int damage) {} 

The method signature of AttackEnemy is written as follows:

AttackEnemy(int)

Now that we know the signature of AttackEnemy, it can be overloaded by changing the number of parameters or the parameter types themselves, while still keeping its name. This offers added flexibility when you need more than one option for a given operation. 

The RestartLevel() method in GameBehavior is a great example of a situation where method overloading comes in handy. Right now, RestartLevel() only restarts the current level, but what happens if we expanded the game so that it includes multiple scenes? We could refactor RestartLevel() to accept parameters, but that often leads...