Getting Started with Unity


Getting Started with Unity guides you progressively through the necessary steps to create a survival game using Unity3D’s built-in objects and components, JavaScript, animations with Mecanim, and some basic AI.

In this book, you will be introduced to a wide range of the core features used for games developed with Unity3D, including the user interface and much more. Furthermore, you will also learn about essential aspects like transformations, scripting, navigation, and built-in controllers.

Beginning with an introduction to the user interface, you will learn the necessary skills required to create a survival video game. Each section is a stepping-stone toward the completion of the final game. By the end of the book, you will have created an indoor level with enemies, AI, weapons, objects to collect, and all the logic to control the game.

Overview

  • Use basic AI techniques to bring your game to life
  • Learn how to use Mecanim; create states and manage them through scripting
  • Use scripting to manage the graphical interface, collisions, animations, persistent data, or transitions between scenes

How to Obtain the Book

If you don’t have the book yet, you can purchase it as an ebook or paperback through Packt Publishing (eBook: €11.04; price last checked on 31/08/2013), or Amazon (paperback: €26.61; price last checked on 31/08/2013).

Enter a Draw to be in with a Chance of Receiving a Free Copy of the Book

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Material and Solutions for each Chapter

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This section includes all necessary material and solutions (code and packages) for all chapters

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Errata

Erratum I

Before modifying the script to handle collision with the water on page 133, in the script “collisionDetection” , the following line
if(c.gameObject.tag == “medpack” || c.gameObject.tag == “key” || c.gameObject.tag == “gun” || c.gameObject.tag == “ammunitions”)

should be changed to:

if(c.gameObject.tag == “medpack” || c.gameObject.tag == “key” || c.gameObject.tag == “gun” || c.gameObject.tag == “ammunitions” || c.gameObject.tag == “water”)

Erratum II

On page 124, the code
setCharacterType(canFollowPlayerCrumbs)
should be replaced by
setCharacterType(canFollowPlayersCrumbs)
[an ‘s’ needs to be added after the word Player]

Erratum III

On page 125, the text “In statement 4 of the previous code, we create an array that will include all of the breadcrumbs generated by this zombie” should read “In statement 4 of the previous code, we create an array that will include all of the breadcrumbs generated by the player”
[In this section, the breadcrumbs are dropped by the player, not the zombie]

Other Known Issue

Some readers seem to encounter issues with state machines in chapter 5, whereby the character is in the IDLE mode in the Animator window, but the corresponding switch state in the script controlZombie is never accessed. This issue may or may not occur (the same code may or may not work on different project/computers), but a workaround is to declare the different states in the script controlZombie as private variables (not public variables).
For example, replace “public var walkForwardState : int” with “private var walkForwardState : int”.
This workaround seems to fix the issue until we know more about the causes.

Mailing List

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What the readers say about the book

Getting Started is a good book covering a ton of content. Even with the consideration that the code in the book is written in JavaScript, I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in beginning game development, especially those interested in Unity

InsideGamer.org

Getting started with Unity is a solid title – in as little as 170 pages, you get to build a level from scratch with free assets, a menu, animated zombies governed by some basic AI, create a GUI complete with inventory and health bar and take a good look at the new animation system in Unity…quite a feat.

Indigameschool

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to learn Unity3D. It covers the latest Unity3D features while implementing a fantastic, fully functioning and interesting game

Unity3dBooks

The book is relatively short, about 140 pages if you don’t count the front and back matter, and it covers a lot of ground. As a result, the book provides a quick introduction to many topics

Blog.Tiaan.com



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