Finnegan T. - Learning Unity Android Game Development

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In this book, we explore the ever-expanding world of mobile game development. Using Unity 3D and Android SDK, we learn how to create every aspect of a mobile game while leveraging the new features of Unity 5.0 and Android L. Every chapter explores a new piece of the development puzzle. By exploring the special features of development with mobile platforms, every game in the book is designed to increase your understanding of these features. We will finish the book with a total of four complete games and all of the tools that you need to create many more.

The first game that we will make is Tic-Tac-Toe. This game functions just like the classic paper version. Two players take turns filling a grid with their symbols and the first to make a line of the same three symbols wins. This is the perfect game for us to explore the graphical interface options that we have in Unity. By learning how to add buttons, text, and pictures to the screen, you will have all the understanding and the tools that are needed to add any interface that you might want to any game.

The next game that we will create is the Tank Battle game. In this game, the player takes control of a tank to drive around a small city and shoot targets and enemies. This game spans three chapters, allowing us to explore the many key points of creating games for the Android platform. We start it by creating a city and making the player's tank move around by using the controls about which we learned when we made the Tic-Tac-Toe game. We also create and animate the targets at which a player will shoot. In the second part of this game, we add some lighting and special camera effects. By the end of the chapter, the environment looks great. In the third part of the game's creation, we create some enemies. Using the power of Unity, these enemies chase the player around the city and attack them when they are close.

The third game is a simple clone of a popular mobile game. Using the power of Unity's physics system, we are able to create structures and throw birds at them. Knock down the structures to gain points and destroy the target pigs to win the level. We also explore some of the specific features of a 2D game and Unity's 2D pipeline, such as a parallax scrolling background and the use of sprites. We complete the chapter and the game with the creation of a level-selection menu and the saving of high scores.

Finally, we will create a Monkey Ball-style game. This game involves using the special inputs of a mobile device to control the movement of the ball and the player's interaction with the world. When a player's device is tilted, they will be able to guide the monkey around the level. When they touch the screen, they can do damage and eventually collect bananas that are scattered throughout the game. This game also shows you how to include the special effects that are necessary to complete the look of every game. We create explosions when bananas are collected and dust trails when our monkey moves around. We also add in sound effects for touching and exploding.

We wrap up the book by taking a look at optimization. We explore all the great features of Unity and even create a few of our own to make our game run as best it can. We also take a little bit of time to understand some things that we can do to minimize the file size of our assets while maximizing their look and effect in the game. At this point, our journey ends, but we will have four great games that are just about ready for the market.