Book Image

Learning C# by Developing Games with Unity 2021 - Sixth Edition

By : Harrison Ferrone
Book Image

Learning C# by Developing Games with Unity 2021 - Sixth Edition

By: Harrison Ferrone

Overview of this book

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 with a wide array of applications in various domains. This bestselling franchise presents a clear path for learning C# programming from the ground up through the world of Unity game development. This sixth edition has been updated to introduce modern C# features with Unity 2021. A new chapter has also been added that covers reading and writing binary data from files, which will help you become proficient in handling errors and asynchronous operations. The book acquaints you with the core concepts of programming in C#, including variables, classes, and object-oriented programming. You will explore the fundamentals of Unity game development, including game design, lighting basics, player movement, camera controls, and collisions. You will write C# scripts for simple game mechanics, perform procedural programming, and add complexity to your games by introducing smart enemies and damage-causing projectiles. By the end of the book, you will have developed the skills to become proficient in C# programming and built a playable game prototype with the Unity game engine.

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Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Get in touch
1
Getting to Know Your Environment
Getting to Know Your Environment
Technical requirements
Getting started with Unity 2021
Using C# with Unity
Exploring the documentation
Summary
Pop quiz – dealing with scripts
Free Chapter
2
The Building Blocks of Programming
The Building Blocks of Programming
Defining variables
Understanding methods
Introducing classes
Working with comments
Putting the building blocks together
Summary
Pop quiz – C# building blocks
3
Diving into Variables, Types, and Methods
Diving into Variables, Types, and Methods
Writing proper C#
Debugging your code
Understanding variables
Introducing operators
Defining methods
Summary
Pop quiz – variables and methods
4
Control Flow and Collection Types
Control Flow and Collection Types
Selection statements
Collections at a glance
Iteration statements
Summary
5
Working with Classes, Structs, and OOP
Working with Classes, Structs, and OOP
Introducing OOP
Defining classes
Declaring structs
Understanding reference and value types
Integrating the object-oriented mindset
Applying OOP in Unity
Summary
Pop quiz – all things OOP
6
Getting Your Hands Dirty with Unity
Getting Your Hands Dirty with Unity
A game design primer
Building a level
Lighting basics
Animating in Unity
Summary
Pop quiz – basic Unity features
7
Movement, Camera Controls, and Collisions
Movement, Camera Controls, and Collisions
Managing player movement
Moving the player with the Transform component
Scripting camera behavior
Working with the Unity physics system
Summary
Pop quiz – player controls and physics
8
Scripting Game Mechanics
Scripting Game Mechanics
Adding jumps
Shooting projectiles
Creating a game manager
Creating a GUI
Summary
Pop quiz – working with mechanics
9
Basic AI and Enemy Behavior
Basic AI and Enemy Behavior
Navigating 3D space in Unity
Moving enemy agents
Enemy game mechanics
Refactoring and keeping it DRY
Summary
Pop quiz – AI and navigation
10
Revisiting Types, Methods, and Classes
Revisiting Types, Methods, and Classes
Access modifiers
Revisiting methods
Intermediate OOP
Namespace conflicts and type aliasing
Summary
Pop quiz – leveling up
11
Introducing Stacks, Queues, and HashSets
Introducing Stacks, Queues, and HashSets
Introducing stacks
Working with queues
Using HashSets
Intermediate collections roundup
Summary
Pop quiz – intermediate collections
12
Saving, Loading, and Serializing Data
Saving, Loading, and Serializing Data
Introducing data formats
Understanding the filesystem
Working with streams
Serializing data
Data roundup
Summary
Pop quiz – data management
13
Exploring Generics, Delegates, and Beyond
Exploring Generics, Delegates, and Beyond
Introducing generics
Delegating actions
Firing events
Handling exceptions
Summary
Pop quiz – intermediate C#
14
The Journey Continues
The Journey Continues
Diving deeper
Remembering your object-oriented programming
Design patterns primer
Approaching Unity projects
Unity features we didn't cover
Next steps
Hero's trial – putting something out into the world
Summary
15
Pop Quiz Answers
Pop Quiz Answers
16
Other Books You May Enjoy
Other Books You May Enjoy
17
Index
Index

Serializing data

When we talk about serializing and deserializing data, what we're really talking about is translation. While we've been translating our text and XML piecemeal in previous sections, being able to take an entire object and translate it in one shot is a great tool to have.

By definition:

  • The act of serializing an object translates the object's entire state into another format
  • The act of deserializing is the reverse, taking the data from a file and restoring it to its former object state

Figure 12.19: Example of serializing an object into XML and JSON

Let's take a practical example from the above image — an instance of our Weapon class. Each weapon has its own name and damage properties and associated values, which is called its state. The state of an object is unique, which allows the program to tell them apart.

An object's state also includes properties or fields that are reference types. For...

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