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Unity From Zero to Proficiency (Foundations): A step-by-step guide to creating your first game with Unity. [Second Edition, November 2017]
Get Started with Game Programming Fast
Getting started with Unity can be tedious if the resource that you are using doesn't have an approach tailored to your needs. In the past, I have seen how a simple yet detailed approach to teaching Unity can make a real difference to a student's ability to create games confidently and successfully and I have made sure that everything has been included in this book to make your journey enjoyable and to guarantee your success in the creation of video games with Unity.
How this book is different
With this book, you will not only learn about Unity but you will also enjoy the journey without the frustration. This book includes six chapters that painlessly guide you through the necessary skills to master Unity's interface, use its core features, and create and navigate through realistic 2D and 3D environments. It assumes no prior knowledge on your part and ensures that you have all the information and explanations that you need every step of the way. All the information is introduced progressively. This book is for parents or teachers who would like to introduce their children or students to game development; it is also for hobbyist just getting started with Unity, or aspiring indie game developers.
What this book offers
This book includes all the features that will guarantee your success as an aspiring game
> A book truly designed for beginners
This book also assumes that you can't be expected to learn everything at once; this is why you will build all your skills incrementally. In addition, if you are more of a visual learner, you will gain access to a FREE video training that covers all the topics and features introduced in the book so that you can see how it is done.
> You will be kept motivated throughout the book
This book ensures that you stay motivated by giving you the right amount of information and challenge in each chapter; we all know that it's hard to keep motivated when learning a new skill, so this book always contextualizes the knowledge with an example (so that you feel it's relevant), and also makes sure that you get to challenge yourself, if you need to, with optional challenges present at the end of each chapter.
> You will never feel lost or overwhelmed
You will have the opportunity to learn and use Unity at your own pace and to become comfortable with its interface. This is because every single new concept introduced will be explained. Every step is explained in great details so that you never feel lost. All the concepts are introduced progressively so that you don't feel overwhelmed.
> You will learn by doing
With this book, you will build your own 2D and 3D environments and you will spend more time creating than reading, to ensure that you can apply the concepts covered in each section. All chapters include step-by-step instructions with examples that you can use straight-away.
What you will learn
After completing this book, you will be able
Getting started with Unity can be tedious if the resource that you are using doesn't have an approach tailored to your needs. In the past, I have seen how a simple yet detailed approach to teaching Unity can make a real difference to a student's ability to create games confidently and successfully and I have made sure that everything has been included in this book to make your journey enjoyable and to guarantee your success in the creation of video games with Unity.
How this book is different
With this book, you will not only learn about Unity but you will also enjoy the journey without the frustration. This book includes six chapters that painlessly guide you through the necessary skills to master Unity's interface, use its core features, and create and navigate through realistic 2D and 3D environments. It assumes no prior knowledge on your part and ensures that you have all the information and explanations that you need every step of the way. All the information is introduced progressively. This book is for parents or teachers who would like to introduce their children or students to game development; it is also for hobbyist just getting started with Unity, or aspiring indie game developers.
What this book offers
This book includes all the features that will guarantee your success as an aspiring game
> A book truly designed for beginners
This book also assumes that you can't be expected to learn everything at once; this is why you will build all your skills incrementally. In addition, if you are more of a visual learner, you will gain access to a FREE video training that covers all the topics and features introduced in the book so that you can see how it is done.
> You will be kept motivated throughout the book
This book ensures that you stay motivated by giving you the right amount of information and challenge in each chapter; we all know that it's hard to keep motivated when learning a new skill, so this book always contextualizes the knowledge with an example (so that you feel it's relevant), and also makes sure that you get to challenge yourself, if you need to, with optional challenges present at the end of each chapter.
> You will never feel lost or overwhelmed
You will have the opportunity to learn and use Unity at your own pace and to become comfortable with its interface. This is because every single new concept introduced will be explained. Every step is explained in great details so that you never feel lost. All the concepts are introduced progressively so that you don't feel overwhelmed.
> You will learn by doing
With this book, you will build your own 2D and 3D environments and you will spend more time creating than reading, to ensure that you can apply the concepts covered in each section. All chapters include step-by-step instructions with examples that you can use straight-away.
What you will learn
After completing this book, you will be able
247 pages, Paperback
Published February 22, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 11, 2021
I’ll begin with a word of warning. This book (3rd edition) was published in February 2019 and the guidance is based on two of the Unity 2018 versions (2018.2 and 20218.3). We are now on Unity 2021.2 so be aware:
1. Unity is updated several times a year with new features and functionality.
2. The C# programming language also evolves, though at a slower pace than Unity.
3. The way C# is used in Unity also evolves.
4. There is a large community of developers providing free and paid-for assets for use in Unity. These assets include characters, trees, water, surfaces, vehicles and 2D images (sprites) such as spaceships and aliens. How useful these assets are depends on the quality of the coding and artwork that underpins them, and the willingness of the developers to update them to ensure they continue working every time Unity is updated. Sadly, the free assets are the least likely to be supported over time, for understandable reasons. This means that they can quickly become unusable as they are no longer compatible with the current version of Unity.
What this means is that in Chapter 2 the author advises the reader to download a free package called Starter Assets from the Unity store. When you go into the store you are warned that this is a legacy package, i.e. it is no longer supported by whoever developed it. I tried downloading it twice and both times I got error messages in the Unity editor. Generally, you cannot run your game if you have an error message. You must correct it first. This can be a big problem when you’re starting out as if the error is in the underlying code, you will probably have no idea how to fix it. I have just finished a four-month online course in C# for Unity and I thought I would tinker with the offending code. I soon gave up. I deleted the package and downloaded it a third time and got a different set of error messages. I was about to give up when I decided to email the author. Within an hour he sent me a fix which worked. That fix is available on his website but I hadn’t spotted it.
It’s also worth noting that although there is an enormous range of free assets on the Unity store (and on other sites), the quality is variable and often they are not up to commercial standards. What that means is that they are fine for learning or for developing a fun game for yourself or your friends. However, if you want to develop a game that players will pay for, you should not plan on using free assets. Just because they’re free doesn’t mean that they’re not subject to copyright. Also, their variable quality may make them look amateurish in a commercial game, leading to complaints and poor testimonials from users. If you’re serious about creating a commercial game, you will need to buy assets (and check first that you have permission to use them in a commercial game) or create your own. This book and the other volumes in the series will help you with that, but for professional-looking characters you might have to use other tools like Blender (or buy in the necessary expertise).
None of this is any reflection on the author. It’s just that the pace of change in the Unity world means it is impossible to keep a book up to date unless you republish it several times a year. The online course I finished recently was devised in 2017 and some of the supporting materials were unusable in the 2021 versions of Unity. Even YouTube videos quickly become dated. The way this author gets round this problem is to provide fixes and supporting materials on his website. His helpfulness bumps my rating for this book up from about 3 ½ to five stars.
The author also encourages the use of free tools that are available from Unity, such as ProBuilder, which you can use to build, well, buildings. These tools are not the same as assets. You can install them from within your Unity editor. They are free and they are fully supported by Unity. They are a great way to speed up your game development and there is plenty of supporting material in the Unity documentation. There are also plenty of YouTube videos showing you how to get the most out of them.
If you work through this book, you will create several 3D worlds that could form the base for some exciting games, including a maze, a village and a realistic-looking island with trees, buildings, a lake, roads and a car and aeroplane. You will also build a simple 2D level game, which you could develop further. This book involves no coding. By using assets available on the Unity store or provided by the author (you have to register with him and then you get a link to download assets like textures (paving stones, brickwork etc.). It’s a lot easier than designing these yourself or searching for them on other sites.
I would recommend this book for anyone who wants to design games using Unity. Just ensure that you make maximum use of the additional resources and advice that the author offers on his website.
1. Unity is updated several times a year with new features and functionality.
2. The C# programming language also evolves, though at a slower pace than Unity.
3. The way C# is used in Unity also evolves.
4. There is a large community of developers providing free and paid-for assets for use in Unity. These assets include characters, trees, water, surfaces, vehicles and 2D images (sprites) such as spaceships and aliens. How useful these assets are depends on the quality of the coding and artwork that underpins them, and the willingness of the developers to update them to ensure they continue working every time Unity is updated. Sadly, the free assets are the least likely to be supported over time, for understandable reasons. This means that they can quickly become unusable as they are no longer compatible with the current version of Unity.
What this means is that in Chapter 2 the author advises the reader to download a free package called Starter Assets from the Unity store. When you go into the store you are warned that this is a legacy package, i.e. it is no longer supported by whoever developed it. I tried downloading it twice and both times I got error messages in the Unity editor. Generally, you cannot run your game if you have an error message. You must correct it first. This can be a big problem when you’re starting out as if the error is in the underlying code, you will probably have no idea how to fix it. I have just finished a four-month online course in C# for Unity and I thought I would tinker with the offending code. I soon gave up. I deleted the package and downloaded it a third time and got a different set of error messages. I was about to give up when I decided to email the author. Within an hour he sent me a fix which worked. That fix is available on his website but I hadn’t spotted it.
It’s also worth noting that although there is an enormous range of free assets on the Unity store (and on other sites), the quality is variable and often they are not up to commercial standards. What that means is that they are fine for learning or for developing a fun game for yourself or your friends. However, if you want to develop a game that players will pay for, you should not plan on using free assets. Just because they’re free doesn’t mean that they’re not subject to copyright. Also, their variable quality may make them look amateurish in a commercial game, leading to complaints and poor testimonials from users. If you’re serious about creating a commercial game, you will need to buy assets (and check first that you have permission to use them in a commercial game) or create your own. This book and the other volumes in the series will help you with that, but for professional-looking characters you might have to use other tools like Blender (or buy in the necessary expertise).
None of this is any reflection on the author. It’s just that the pace of change in the Unity world means it is impossible to keep a book up to date unless you republish it several times a year. The online course I finished recently was devised in 2017 and some of the supporting materials were unusable in the 2021 versions of Unity. Even YouTube videos quickly become dated. The way this author gets round this problem is to provide fixes and supporting materials on his website. His helpfulness bumps my rating for this book up from about 3 ½ to five stars.
The author also encourages the use of free tools that are available from Unity, such as ProBuilder, which you can use to build, well, buildings. These tools are not the same as assets. You can install them from within your Unity editor. They are free and they are fully supported by Unity. They are a great way to speed up your game development and there is plenty of supporting material in the Unity documentation. There are also plenty of YouTube videos showing you how to get the most out of them.
If you work through this book, you will create several 3D worlds that could form the base for some exciting games, including a maze, a village and a realistic-looking island with trees, buildings, a lake, roads and a car and aeroplane. You will also build a simple 2D level game, which you could develop further. This book involves no coding. By using assets available on the Unity store or provided by the author (you have to register with him and then you get a link to download assets like textures (paving stones, brickwork etc.). It’s a lot easier than designing these yourself or searching for them on other sites.
I would recommend this book for anyone who wants to design games using Unity. Just ensure that you make maximum use of the additional resources and advice that the author offers on his website.
November 20, 2020
I does what says on the tin. I was expecting a bit more content, but it's not a big deal. Good if you want to start with unity and have no idea.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews