Joe Hocking - Unity in Action: Multiplatform Game Development in C# with Unity 5

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Development editor: Dan MaharryTechnical development editor: Scott ChausseeCopyeditor: Elizabeth WelchProofreader: Melody DolabTechnical proofreader: Christopher HauptTypesetter: Marija TudorCover designer: Marija Tudor

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I started programming games in 1982. It wasnt easy. We had no internet. Resources were limited to a handful of mostly terrible books and magazines that offered fascinating but confusing code fragments, and as for game engineswell, there werent any! Coding games was a massive uphill battle.

How I envy you, reader, holding the power of this book in your hands. The Unity engine has done so much to open game programming to so many people. Unity has managed to strike an excellent balance by being a powerful, professional game engine thats still affordable and approachable for someone just getting started.

Approachable, that is, with the right guidance. I once spent time in a circus troupe run by a magician. He was kind enough to take me in and help guide me toward becoming a good performer. When you stand on a stage, he pronounced, you make a promise. And that promise is I will not waste your time.

What I love most about Unity in Action is the action part. Joe Hocking wastes none of your time and gets you coding fastand not just nonsense code, but interesting code that you can understand and build from, because he knows you dont just want to read his book, and you dont just want to program his examplesyou want to be coding your own game.

And with his guidance, youll be able to do that sooner than you might expect. Follow Joes steps, but when you feel ready, dont be shy about diverging from his path and breaking out on your own. Skip around to what interests you mosttry experiments, be bold and brave! You can always return to the text if you get too lost.

But lets not dally in this forewordthe entire future of game development is impatiently waiting for you to begin! Mark this day on your calendar, for today is the day that everything changed. It will be forever remembered as the day you started making games.

J ESSE S CHELL

CEO of S CHELL G AMES

A UTHOR OF T HE A RT OF G AME D ESIGN

Ive been programming games for quite some time, but only started using Unity relatively recently. Unity didnt exist when I first started developing games; the first version was released in 2005. Right from the start, it had a lot of promise as a game development tool, but it didnt come into its own until several versions later. In particular, platforms like iOS and Android (collectively referred to as mobile) didnt emerge until later, and those platforms factor heavily into Unitys growing prominence.

Initially, I viewed Unity as a curiosity, an interesting development tool to keep an eye on but not actually use. During this time, I was programming games for both desktop computers and websites and doing projects for a range of clients. I was using tools like Blitz3D and Flash, which were great to program in but were limiting in a lot of ways. As those tools started to show their age, I kept looking for better ways to develop games.

I started experimenting with Unity around version 3, and then completely switched to it when Synapse Games (the company I work for now) started developing mobile games. At first, I worked for Synapse on web games, but we eventually moved over to mobile games. And then we came full circle because Unity enabled us to deploy to the web in addition to mobile, all from one codebase!

Ive always seen sharing knowledge as important, and Ive taught game development for the last several years. In large part I do this because of the example set for me by the many mentors and teachers Ive had. (Incidentally, you may even have heard of one of my teachers because he was such an inspiring person: Randy Pausch delivered the Last Lecture shortly before he passed away in 2008.) Ive taught classes at several schools, and Ive always wanted to write a book about game development.

In many ways, what Ive written here is the book I wish had existed back when I was first learning Unity. Among Unitys many virtues is the availability of a huge treasure trove of learning resources, but those resources tend to take the form of unfocused fragments (like the script reference or isolated tutorials) and require a great deal of digging to find what you need. Ideally, Id have a book that wrapped up everything I needed to know in one place and presented it in a clear and logically constructed manner, so now Im writing such a book for you. Im targeting people who already know how to program, but who are newcomers to Unity, and possibly new to game development in general. The choice of projects reflects my experience of gaining skills and confidence by doing a variety of freelance projects in rapid succession.

In learning to develop games using Unity, youre setting out on an exciting adventure. For me, learning how to develop games meant putting up with a lot of hassles. You, on the other hand, have the advantage of a single coherent resource to learn from: this book!

I would like to thank Manning Publications for giving me the opportunity to write this book. The editors I worked with, including Robin de Jongh and especially Dan Maharry, helped me throughout this undertaking, and the book is much stronger for their feedback. My sincere thanks also to the many others who worked with me during the development and production of the book.

My writing benefited from the scrutiny of reviewers every step of the way. Thanks to Alex Lucas, Craig Hoffman, Dan Kacenjar, Joshua Frederick, Luca Campobasso, Mark Elston, Philip Taffet, Ren van den Berg, Sergio Arbeo Rodrguez, Shiloh Morris, and Victor M. Perez. Special thanks to the notable review work by technical development editor Scott Chaussee and by technical proofreader Christopher Haupt. And I also want to thank Jesse Schell for writing the foreword to my book.