Unity 2020 By Example Third Edition

Learn Unity game development with C# through a series of practical projects ranging from building a simple 2D game to adding AR/VR experiences and machine learning capabilities in a simple yet effective way

▶Book Description
The Unity game engine, used by millions of developers around the world, is popular thanks to its features that enable you to create games and 3D apps for desktop and mobile platforms in no time. With Unity 2020, this state-of-the-art game engine introduces enhancements in Unity tooling, editor, and workflow, among many other additions.

The third edition of this Unity book is updated to the new features in Unity 2020 and modern game development practices. Once you've quickly got to grips with the fundamentals of Unity game development, you'll create a collection, a twin-stick shooter, and a 2D adventure game. You'll then explore advanced topics such as machine learning, virtual reality, and augmented reality by building complete projects using the latest game tool kit. As you implement concepts in practice, this book will ensure that you come away with a clear understanding of Unity game development.

By the end of the book, you'll have a firm foundation in Unity development using C#, which can be applied to other engines and programming languages. You'll also be able to create several real-world projects to add to your professional game development portfolio.

▶What You Will Learn
⦁Learn the fundamentals of game development, including GameObjects, components, and scenes
⦁Develop a variety of games in C# and explore the brand new sprite shaping tool for Unity 3D and 2D games
⦁Handle player controls and input functionality for your Unity games
⦁Implement AI techniques such as pathfinding, finite state machines, and machine learning using Unity ML-Agents
⦁Create virtual and augmented reality games using UnityVR and AR Foundation
⦁Explore the cutting-edge features of Unity 2020 and how they can be used to improve your games

▶Key Features
⦁Gain a high-level overview of the Unity game engine while building your own games portfolio
⦁Discover best practices for implementing game animation, game physics, shaders, and effects
⦁Create fully featured apps, including Space shooter and a 2D adventure game, and develop AR/VR experiences and Game AI agents

▶Who This Book Is For
If you are a game developer or programmer new to Unity and want to get up and running with the game engine in a hands-on way, this book is for you. Unity developers looking to work on practical projects to explore new features in Unity 2020 will find this book useful. A basic understanding of C# programming is required.

▶What this book covers
⦁ Chapter 1, Exploring the Fundamentals of Unity, begins our journey into Unity by creating a first-person collection game. This is a great starting point if you are totally new to Unity and are ready to create your first game.

⦁ Chapter 2, Creating a Collection Game, continues from the previous chapter and completes the first project. It assumes that you have completed the first chapter and brings closure to our project, leading neatly to the next chapter.

⦁ Chapter 3, Creating a Space Shooter, marks the beginning of our second project, focusing on the creation of a space shooter game. Here, we will create a project in which the player must shoot the oncoming enemies.

⦁ Chapter 4, Continuing the Space Shooter, completes the space shooter project by adding final touches to it, including projectile spawning and object pooling.

⦁ Chapter 5, Creating a 2D Adventure Game, enters the world of 2D and UI functionality. Here, we'll explore Unity's wide range of 2D features by making a side-view platformer game that relies on 2D physics.

⦁ Chapter 6, Continuing the 2D Adventure, continues the 2D adventure game project that was started in the previous chapter, linking together with the overarching game logic and adding additional levels using Sprite Shaping.

⦁ Chapter 7, Completing the 2D Adventure, completes the project started in Chapter 5, Creating a 2D Adventure Game, with the addition of a quest system and an NPC. This is a great place to see how multiple parts and facets of a game come together to form a whole.

⦁ Chapter 8, Creating Artificial Intelligence, focuses on artificial intelligence and creating enemies that can patrol, chase, and attack the player's character at relevant times, while cleverly navigating their way around the level.

⦁ Chapter 9, Continuing with Intelligent Enemies, brings closure to the AI project started in the previous chapter. Here, we'll see how to use finite-state machines to achieve powerful intelligence functionality that'll help us in a variety of scenarios.

⦁ Chapter 10, Evolving AI Using ML-Agents, approaches AI from a different angle. Whereas previous chapters have relied on hardcoding NPC behavior, in this chapter, we will evolve the required behavior using ML-Agents.

⦁ Chapter 11, Entering Virtual Reality, explores how to create a first-person shooter in VR where the player must tackle waves of oncoming enemies. In this chapter, we will lay the foundations for creating a VR game.

⦁ Chapter 12, Completing the VR Game, completes the VR project by adding gameplay elements and core functionality, and by creating a build.

⦁ Chapter 13, Creating an Augmented Reality Game Using AR Foundation, continues the exploration of Extended Reality, but this time by creating an Augmented Reality game. In this chapter, you'll also be introduced to the Universal Render Pipeline.

⦁ Chapter 14, Completing the AR game with the Universal Render Pipeline, completes the project started in the previous chapter. You'll learn how to detect surfaces in the real world and use that data to spawn AR objects.