[BOOK] Unity in Action (Unity 5 intro for programmers!)

Unity in Action teaches you how to write and deploy games! You'll master the Unity toolset from the ground up, adding the skills you need to go from application coder to game developer. Based on Unity version 5.



Available as both a print book and e-book download from the publisher's website:
http://www.manning.com/UnityinAction

This book helps readers build successful games with the Unity game development platform. You will use the powerful C# language, Unity's intuitive workflow tools, and a state-of-the-art rendering engine to build and deploy mobile, desktop, and console games. Unity's single codebase approach minimizes inefficient switching among development tools and concentrates your attention on making great interactive experiences.

To get a sense of what the writing's like, here's Chapter 10 that explains how to program audio:
http://www.manning.com/hocking/UnityinAction_SampleChapter-10.pdf

(You'll need to know how to program, in C# or a similar OO language. No previous Unity experience or game development knowledge is assumed.)

Oh and about the author: I'm a software engineer specializing in interactive media development. I work for Synapse Games and teach classes in game development at Columbia College Chicago.

 

Thanks for your work!

I hope that it will help others.

What game do you build through the course of the book?

 

Several actually! Glancing over the table of contents, the list of games developed/genres covered:
First-person shooter
2D puzzle game
Third-person action adventure
Action RPG

One thing I noticed about previous books were they usually take this "one monolithic project" approach where they gradually build a single game over the course of the entire book. However that approach can make it difficult for people to jump in the middle of the book, skipping around to the content they are most interested in.

So instead I planned my book around a series of standalone projects. Every few chapters introduces a new gaming genre in order to show how Unity is flexible enough for any kind of game. Meanwhile, each chapter is really focused on a different feature/family of features, so that you can mix and match these modules to build up your own game.

 

My book is listed on Amazon now! It's already been available at Manning's website for a week, but there's a bit of lag before it's stocked in Amazon's warehouses.

http://www.amazon.com/Unity-Action-Multiplatform-Game-Development/dp/161729232X/

 

Working hard to day, hope to get every thing working.

 

Just occurred to me I might want to point out the foreword too http://www.manning.com/hocking/excerpt_foreword.html

Jesse Schell, author of The Art of Game Design, was good enough to write the foreword for my book. I know a lot of game developers are fans of his book on game design!

 

I just found out about a tiny issue with the code for the inventory UI in Chapter 11. On page 260, listing 11.14 uses an API that changed between Unity 5.0 and 5.1

Specifically, look for the two lines:
trigger.delegates.Clear();
trigger.delegates.Add(entry);

Those lines are correct for Unity 5.0, but Unity 5.1 will throw errors. The lines should be changed to:
trigger.triggers.Clear();
trigger.triggers.Add(entry);

Don't panic if you encounter this issue when you run the sample code in the latest version of Unity! I'll be updating the sample downloads to mention this issue.