Beginning 3D Game Development with Unity 4: All-in-One, Multi-Platform Game Development, Second Edition

Beginning 3D Game Development with Unity 4: All-in-One, Multi-Platform Game Development, Second Edition

by Sue Blackman
Released August 2013
Publisher(s): Apress
ISBN: 9781430248996

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

Beginning 3D Game Development with Unity 4 is perfect for those who would like to come to grips with programming Unity. You may be an artist who has learned 3D tools such as 3ds Max, Maya, or Cinema 4D, or you may come from 2D tools such as Photoshop and Illustrator. On the other hand, you may just want to familiarize yourself with programming games and the latest ideas in game production.

This book introduces key game production concepts in an artist-friendly way, and rapidly teaches the basic scripting skills you'll need with Unity. It goes on to show how you, as an independent game artist, can create interactive games, ideal in scope for today's casual and mobile markets, while also giving you a firm foundation in game logic and design.

  • The first part of the book explains the logic involved in game interaction, and soon has you creating game assets through simple examples that you can build upon and gradually expand.

  • In the second part, you'll build the foundations of a point-and-click style first-person adventure game—including reusable state management scripts, dialogue trees for character interaction, load/save functionality, a robust inventory system, and a bonus feature: a dynamically configured maze and mini-map.

  • With the help of the provided 2D and 3D content, you'll learn to evaluate and deal with challenges in bite-sized pieces as the project progresses, gaining valuable problem-solving skills in interactive design.

    • By the end of the book, you will be able to actively use the Unity 3D game engine, having learned the necessary workflows to utilize your own assets. You will also have an assortment of reusable scripts and art assets with which to build future games.

    What you'll learn

  • How to build interactive games that work on a variety of platforms

  • Take the tour around Unity user interface fundamentals, scripting and more

  • Create a test environment and gain control over functionality, cursor control, action objects, state management, object metadata, message text and more

  • What is inventory logic and how to manage it

  • How to handle 3D object visibility, effects and other special cases

  • How to handle variety of menus and levels in your games development

  • How to handle characters, scrollers, and more How to create or integrate a story/walkthrough

  • How to use the new Mecanim animation

    • Who this book is for

    Students or artists familiar with tools such as 3ds Max or Maya who want to create games for mobile platforms, computers, or consoles, but with little or no experience in scripting or the logic behind games development.

    Table of contents

    1. Title Page
    2. Dedication
    3. Contents at a Glance
    4. Contents
    5. About the Author
    6. About the Technical Reviewer
    7. Acknowledgments
    8. Introduction
    9. CHAPTER 1: Introduction to Game Development
      1. The Adventure Genre
      2. Designing Your Game
      3. Managing Your Project
      4. New to Real Time vs. Pre-render
      5. Summary
    10. CHAPTER 2: Unity UI Basics—Getting Started
      1. Installing Unity and Starting Up
      2. Loading or Creating a New Project or Scene
      3. The Layout
      4. Toolbar
      5. Menus
      6. Creating Simple Objects
      7. Selecting and Focusing
      8. Transforming Objects
      9. Snaps
      10. Scene Gizmo
      11. Lights
      12. 3D Objects
      13. Materials
      14. Summary
    11. CHAPTER 3: Scripting: Getting Your Feet Wet
      1. What Is a Script?
      2. Components of a Script
      3. Conditionals and State
      4. Order of Evaluation
      5. Summary
    12. CHAPTER 4: Terrain Generation: Creating a Test Environment
      1. Creating Environments
      2. The Terrain Engine
      3. Shadows
      4. Fog
      5. Summary
    13. CHAPTER 5: Navigation and Functionality
      1. Navigation
      2. Summary
    14. CHAPTER 6: Cursor Control
      1. Cursor Visibility
      2. Custom Cursors
      3. GUI Texture Cursor
      4. Hardware Cursor
      5. UnityGUI Cursor
      6. Object-to-Object Communication
      7. Mouseover Cursor Changes
      8. Quick Publish
      9. Object Reaction to Mouseover
      10. Summary
    15. CHAPTER 7: Imported Assets
      1. 3D Art Assets
      2. Import Settings
      3. Setting Up Materials
      4. Shadows
      5. Summary
    16. CHAPTER 8: Action Objects
      1. Colliders
      2. Triggering Animation
      3. Adding Sound F/X
      4. Setting Up a Two-State Animation
      5. Using Unity’s Animation View
      6. Triggering Another Object’s Animations
      7. Limitations
      8. Summary
    17. CHAPTER 9: Managing State
      1. Identifying the Action Objects
      2. Developing a State Machine
      3. Lookup Table
      4. The Object Lookup Script
      5. Action-Related Messages
      6. Object Metadata
      7. Summary
    18. CHAPTER 10: Exploring Transitions
      1. Processing the Auxiliary Objects
      2. Handling Object Visibility
      3. Handling Special Cases
      4. Ensuring Player Focus
      5. Summary
    19. CHAPTER 11: Physics and Special Effects
      1. Adding New Assets
      2. Physics
      3. Combining Physics and Keyframe Animation
      4. Particle Systems
      5. Other Special Effects
      6. Summary
    20. CHAPTER 12: Message Text
      1. GUI Skin
      2. Text Visibility
      3. Using the Object Metadata
      4. Summary
    21. CHAPTER 13: Inventory Logic
      1. Using Layers
      2. Creating the Inventory Screen
      3. Adding Inventory Icons
      4. Dropping Cursors in the 3D Scene
      5. Summary
    22. CHAPTER 14: Managing the Inventory
      1. Organizing the Inventory Objects
      2. Inventory Layout
      3. Inventory Overflow
      4. Setting the Limits
      5. Adding and Removing Objects from Inventory
      6. Summary
    23. CHAPTER 15: Dialogue Trees
      1. The Scenario
      2. Starting a Conversation
      3. Summary
    24. CHAPTER 16: Mecanim and Characters
      1. Adding Characters
      2. Controlling the Characters
      3. NPC Controller
      4. Combining Characters and Dialogue
      5. Communicating with the Dialogue Manager
      6. Wrapping Up the Test Scene
      7. Summary
    25. CHAPTER 17: Game Environment
      1. Adding the Final Assets
      2. Setting Up the Shrines
      3. Setting Up the Maze
      4. Summary
    26. CHAPTER 18: Setting Up the Game
      1. Finishing the Main Level
      2. The Final Level
      3. Summary
    27. CHAPTER 19: Menus and Levels
      1. Game Menus
      2. Audio
      3. Level Save and Load
      4. Traveling Between Levels
      5. Start Menu
      6. Final Tasks
      7. Summary
    28. Index

    Product information

    • Title: Beginning 3D Game Development with Unity 4: All-in-One, Multi-Platform Game Development, Second Edition
    • Author(s): Sue Blackman
    • Release date: August 2013
    • Publisher(s): Apress
    • ISBN: 9781430248996