Unity 4.x Game Development by Example Beginner's Guide

572 Pages·2013·9.57 MB·English

by  Ryan Henson Creighton

Unity 4.x Game Development
by Example Beginner's Guide
A seat-of-your-pants manual for building fun, groovy little
games quickly with Unity 4.x
Ryan Henson Creighton
BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Unity 4.x Game Development by Example Beginner's Guide
Copyright © 2013 Packt Publishing
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First published: September 2010
Second edition: September 2011
Third edition: December 2013
Production Reference: 1191213
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
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ISBN 978-1-84969-526-8
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Cover Image by Dan John Cox (http://danjohncox.tumblr.com/)
Credits
Author Project Coordinator
Ryan Henson Creighton Venitha Cutinho
Reviewers Proofreaders
Trond Abusdal Elinor Perry-Smith
Huzaifa Arab Mario Cecere
John Hutchinson Bridget Braund
Wei Wang
Indexers
Mariammal Chettiyar
Acquisition Editors
Wilson D'souza Mehreen Deshmukh
Mary Jasmine Nadar Rekha Nair
Owen Roberts Tejal Soni
Lead Technical Editors Graphics
Owen Roberts Sheetal Aute
Poonam Jain
Production Coordinator
Nitesh Thakur
Technical Editors
Tanvi Bhatt
Cover Work
Akashdeep Kundu
Nitesh Thakur
Edwin Moses
Nikhil Potdukhe
Tarunveer Shetty
Faisal Siddiqui
Sonali Vernekar
About the Author
Ryan Henson Creighton is a veteran game developer, and the founder of Untold
Entertainment Inc. (http://www.untoldentertainment.com) where he creatively
consults on games and applications. Untold Entertainment creates fantastically fun
interactive experiences for players of all ages. Prior to founding Untold, Ryan worked as
the Senior Game Developer at Canadian media conglomerate Corus Entertainment, where
he created over fifty advergames and original properties for the YTV, Treehouse TV, and
W networks. Ryan is the co-creator of Sissy's Magical Ponycorn Adventure, the game he
authored with his then five-year-old daughter Cassandra. Ryan is the Vice President of the
IGDA Toronto Chapter. He is also the author of the book that you are currently reading.
When Ryan is not developing games, he's goofing off with his two little girls and his fun-
loving wife in downtown Toronto.
Big thanks to Cheryl, Cassandra, and Isabel for their love, their support,
and their cinnamon rolls. Thanks to Jean-Guy Niquet for introducing me to
Unity; to Jim "McMajorSupporter" McGinley for help with the book outline
and ongoing mentorship; to the technical reviewers and Packt Publishing
staff for letting me leave a few jokes in the book; and to David Barnes, for
having such a great sense of humor in the first place. Special thanks to
Michael Garforth and friends from the #unity3d IRC channel on Freenode. I
also want to thank Mom, God, and all the usual suspects.
About the Reviewers
Trond Abusdal, though having been interested in computers since his parents bought him
and his brother a C64 in the early 90s, he first got into programming years later when writing
a modification for Quake2 with a childhood friend.
This interest lead to a bachelor's degree in Computer Science in 2006, after which he
started working for TerraVision, a company using game technologies as a tool for education
and visualization. In 2008, he first got introduced to Unity, which is still his main game
development tool, although knowledge of other technologies and tools often come in handy.
Since 2010, he is a programmer and more recently a partner at Rock Pocket Games, which
makes games for a variety of different platforms, both client projects and internal projects.
Huzaifa Arab is a Game Designer by choice and a Game Programmer by need. He has been
playing games since young age, which progressed to Modding/Map-making/Scripting, when
he realized that some games could be a whole lot more fun if he could put his own twist
in them. And so, his hobby became a professional career choice after formally graduating
from DSK Supinfogame, India (where his team won the prestigious Square Enix Game Dev
Competition). After a year of freelance Game Development, he currently works at Tiny
Mogul Games, India, as a Principal Game Designer.
He loves to connect with people interested in Human Computer Interface, Game Engines/
VR Tech, Game Design in Education, and Instrumental music. You can drop him a line at
[email protected].
I would like to thank Packt Publishing for giving me an opportunity to
review a book on Unity 3D, a technology I am so passionate about. I
would like to thank my best friend Angad for recommending me to Packt
Publishing and I would like to thank my family and co-workers/friends for
their support as I took time out to review such a wonderful book.
John Hutchinson is the founder of Rubber Ducky Games, an independent game
development studio based in California.
In addition to being an exceptional programmer in multiple languages and frameworks,
he is an experienced graphic designer, talented game system architect and gets excited
about experience-focused design (and rubber duckies).
He is especially interested in games which push the boundaries of twitch-reflex response,
explore human emotion, or leverage the interactive medium for more powerful learning
experiences.
He is currently working with Making Friends Inc. as Lead Engineer and as part of the core
design team, to deliver a game intent on teaching kids on the Autism-Asperger's spectrum
valuable social skills.
When his face isn't glued to a computer screen he likes to play with his kids, explore board
game design, and read technical books like this one.
Thanks to my brothers, for providing feedback (and teaching me some things
about games). To my sister, for making me feel like a hero (not a robot). To
my parents, for teaching me to be caring and to work my butt off. And to my
kids, for just being you. I love you all more than words can express.
Wei Wang made his first iOS casual game with Unity 3D in his college time, which got big
success with more than 5 million downloads world-wide. Since then, he has discovered it's a
great thing to make great games. After earning his master's degree from Tsinghua University
(one of the best universities in China), he joined a game company in Japan and now he is
trying to create interesting games with Unity 3D.
Right now, he is a skilled engineer and always eager to learn more. He now lives in Kawasaki
with his wife. You can know more about him from his project's page http://project.
onevcat.com or find him on his blog http://onevcat.com (Chinese). You can also follow
him on twitter @onevcat.
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Table of Contents
Preface 1
Chapter 1: That's One Fancy Hammer! 9
Introducing Unity 3D 9
The engine, the tool, and the all-weather tires 10
Unity takes over the world 11
Why choose Unity? 11
Why burn this book and run away screaming? 12
Browser-based 3D – welcome to the future 13
Time for action – install the Unity Web Player 13
Welcome to Unity 3D! 14
What can I build with Unity? 14
FusionFall 14
Completely hammered 15
Should we try to build FusionFall? 15
Another option 16
Off-Road Velociraptor Safari 16
Fewer features, more promises 17
Maybe we should build Off-Road Velociraptor Safari? 17
I bent my Wooglie 17
Big Fun Racing 18
Diceworks 18
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime 20
Showcase Showdown 20
Unity Technologies – "Made with Unity" page 21
Kongregate 21
The iOS App Store 22