Game Development with Unity [Paperback]

Michelle Menard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 19, 2011 | ISBN-10: 1435456580 | ISBN-13: 978-1435456587 | Edition: 1

GAME DEVELOPMENT WITH UNITY shows you how to use the Unity game engine, a multiplatform engine and editor in one, to build games that can be played on just about any platform available, from the web to the Wii and even on smartphones. Unity's simple interface, friendly development environment, and wide-ranging support of all popular gaming platforms make it perfect for new developers or those looking to create games with an easy, efficient, and inexpensive game engine. Throughout the book you'll learn all the important interface commands, how to set up and organize your project, and all the basics of getting a 3D game up and running, from character importation to scripting to audio. Basic game and level design theory are taught in tandem with specific skills so you can build your game development skill set. The book is divided into five parts, with each chapter within a part covering a single concept, and new concepts are taught using step-by-step tutorials and questions, as well as through a comprehensive game project built throughout the book. GAME DEVELOPMENT WITH UNITY covers everything from building game assets, to adding interactivity, to polishing your finished game and publishing it, and provides you with all the information you need to create your own games using Unity.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Features

• Covers all the key features of the Unity game engine and editor.


• New skills and concepts are taught using step-by-step tutorials, questions, and projects.


• The accompanying CD-ROM includes all the game assets, HTML resource files, the finished game built throughout the book, and any additional resources needed to complete the exercises in the book.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 1 edition (January 19, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1435456580
• ISBN-13: 978-1435456587
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,659 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #15 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Game Programming

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A solid beginner-intermdediate book, March 3, 2011

By 

C. Lee "long time Director user" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Game Development with Unity (Paperback)

This is a very well-written book on Unity game development. It discusses, in detail, virtually every aspect of Unity interface, gives a good review on Unity Javascript and in some cases C# when the differences between these languages merit attention. The entire book centers around the 3rd person character control, which is missing in other books on Unity. I especially liked the natural & logical flow of discussion from the starting level creation phase to the final stages of optimization and publishing. The number of pages is over 460 rather than 350 and appendices are on the accopanying DVD. The DVD also has useful resources and all the project files in the book. The only thing I don't like about this book is that it is based on Unity 2.x version. Thus, like other books so far published no new aspects introduced in Unity version 3.x are found here, either. Still, the material coverd in this book holds in version 3.x, if some minor modifications are made. Overall, this is a well thought-out book and the price is quite reasonable, so I believe you will get your money's worth.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Resource, February 4, 2011

By 

Merrie Schonbach (VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Game Development with Unity (Paperback)

Very well written and good book for Unity 3D engine, I recommend adding it to your resource collection. The author goes over 3rd person controls and other controls that the previous books published did not. I recommend it.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid Book to learn Unity3d with, May 30, 2011

By 

mike ferguson - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Game Development with Unity (Paperback)

Just finished reading this book from front to back. This book is a great introductory book to Unity3d. It walks you through the process of putting a game together from beginning to end. The book spends a large portion of time on coding in the middle. By the time you finish, you will be comfortable using unity's Javascript, but you will still need to study the language much further using the unity documentation or some other source to learn more about all the unity specific functions and classes. It should be noted that you don't need to be a javascript expert to use unity. Unity's implementation is actually a little different from regular javascript anyways. You only need the knowledge of core javascript, not client side. If you know actionscript 3, you're golden as it's basically the same. Knowledge of any basic programming language like java or c++ is all you really need. The book won't show you much of how to make you're own textures and doesn't talk about modeling characters and animation rigging, but I didn't and don't expect it to. It's about the unity3d engine, not modeling.

There are definitely quite a few errors in this book. However, it does not deserve the low ratings it has. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this book to anyone. It should be noted that on the very last page, the author explicitly acknowledges that there are "intentional" flaws that the author left in the widget game, but doesn't say what they are... Perhaps the people complaining about the errors didn't even read the whole book? Anyways, the author should have pointed out where the mistakes are in the book as she put them in. At a couple points, complete sections of code were missing... and there were plenty of typos. I wonder if the author just said there were intentional errors at the end to excuse the poor proofreading? Despite all the errors, the book is still great; not excellent, but great. The errors are all minor. If you can't figure them out, you should probably find another career because you are bound to make tons of errors as a programmer/game developer.

My only complaint is that it didn't go in to more detail on certain things, but then again, this is an introductory book. It should be noted that this book is written for unity3d version 2.x, but it will work for 3.x. The only difference is a couple menu options are changed when viewing specific things. I wish there were more books on unity3d that were up to date and went in to more depth on all aspects of the engine. I'm not aware of any "advanced" unity3d books that are out yet, at least at the time I'm writing this. Considering how few books there on unity at the time of this writing, the author should be applauded for her contribution.