Unity 5 from Zero to Proficiency

Why this book can help you to get started with Game Development

Creating your own game can be very intimidating at the start, and quite often, regardless of your experience with games, it is sometimes difficult to find the time and motivation to get over the first barriers and to get started.

Often, these barriers seem higher than they actually are. Maybe you are a teacher trying to introduce games in your classroom or a parent trying to help your child with coding, but with no previous coding or game development experience; maybe you are a hobbyist who would love to create interactive environments based on your favorite games; maybe you are a student getting started with game development but you just don't know where to start or what resources to use; or maybe you have tried online video tutorials but found them disjointed. You may be wondering: "How can I start to create my games if I have no experience of coding", or "this game engine is so complex that I just don't know where to get started".

This is quite common, and you can easily overcome these issues with a step-by-step approach that gets you to progressively develop and use your skills. This is the approach that I have used successfully over the past years to take students from no knowledge of coding or game development to good levels of proficiency in Unity and coding.

Of course, it takes some time and dedication; however, by following the techniques and suggestions described in this book, I can promise you that you will progress, regardless of your background, and become more comfortable with Unity and coding.



Content and structure of this book

In this book, the third book in the series, you will become comfortable with programming in C# by creating a simple survival game in Unity. The book includes:

• A list of the learning objectives at the start of each chapter.
• Step-by-step activities.
• Opportunities to engage in deeper learning and problem-solving skills through challenges at the end of each chapter.
• Quizzes to test your knowledge.
• Code solutions (in C#) for each chapter.
• Cheat-sheets (i.e., shortcuts, best practice, etc.) that you can download.

The content of each chapter is as follows:

• Chapter 1 provides an introduction to C# and explains key programming concepts such as variables, variable types, polymorphism, constructors, or methods as well as best practices for C# programming within Unity.
• Chapter 2 helps you to code your first script in C#. It explains common coding mistakes and errors in Unity, and how to avoid them easily.
• Chapter 3 gets you to use C# to instantiate, use and control Rigidbody objects from your script as well as explosions.
• Chapter 4 explains how to create a simple weapon management system. You will create weapons (e.g., a gun and a grenade launcher), manage the collection of ammunition, and also implement a user interface to keep track of ammunition.
• Chapter 5 explains how to use Mecanim and NavMesh navigation to control an animated NPC that detects, follows, or shoot at the player.
• Chapter 6 makes it possible to combine the skills that you have acquired in the previous chapters to create a fully functional level. You will also learn how to generate a maze (or game level) dynamically from your code.
• Chapter 7 provides answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) related to FSM, NavMesh, Rigiddbody components, or Artificial Intelligence. It also provides links to additional exclusive video tutorials that can help you with some of your questions.
• Chapter 8 summarizes the topics covered in the book and provides you with more information on the next steps