Unity 2d Game Development .pdf

  • The Unity engine has revolutionized the gaming industry, by making it easier than ever for indie game developers to create quality games on a budget. Hobbyists and students can use this powerful engine to build 2D and 3D games, to play, distribute, and even sell for free! This book will help you.
  • Mastering Unity 2D Game Development This is the newest book in my list with a 2nd edition slated for December 2016. The author Ashley Godbold put a lot of effort into both C# and Unity explanations with detailed examples for each chapter.
  • Free Ebook – Unity Programming for Human Beings. We are stoked to announce the launch of our free ebook Unity Programming for Human Beings. Founder of Zenva. In over 230 pages of awesomeness, the book starts from zero and covers all the way to building simple 2D and 3D games with Unity. Some of the topics covered in the course are.
  1. Unity 2017 2d Game Development Projects Pdf
  2. Unity 2d Game Development Pdf Download
  3. Mastering Unity 2d Game Development Pdf Free
  4. Unity 2d Book
  5. Mastering Unity 2d Game Development Pdf Free Download
  6. Unity Engine

While many books focus on 3D game creation with Unity, the easiest market for an independent developer to thrive in is 2D games. 2D games are generally cheaper to produce, more feasible for small teams, and more likely to be completed. The complete beginner's guide to Do-It-Yourself game development with the powerful Unity game engine! Completely updated for Unity 2018 ALL NEW chapters on: Timeline Sequences, 2D World Creation, Full Game Creation. Unity 2D Tutorial It used to be quite hard making a 2D game in Unity 3D. The basic idea was to apply textures. Add to your project the remaining image files you downloaded: background_CB.png, enemy_Apple.png, and kitkat_andy.png. Reid Perkins-Buzo!DIG 4905 VG&S Page 4 of 23. Mastering Unity 2D Game Development Book Description: Who This Book Is For. If you have C# knowledge but now want to become truly confident in creating fully functional 2D RPG games with Unity, then this book will show you everything you need to know.

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  • By Mike Geig
  • Published May 18, 2018 by Sams. Part of the Sams Teach Yourself series.

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About

Features

  • The complete beginner's guide to Do-It-Yourself game development with the powerful Unity game engine!
  • Completely updated for Unity 2018
  • ALL NEW chapters on: Timeline Sequences, 2D World Creation, Full Game Creation
  • Teaches through hands-on projects, with strong visual elements complementing Unity's drag-and-drop approach

Description

  • Copyright 2018
  • Dimensions: 7' x 9-1/8'
  • Pages: 464
  • Edition: 3rd
  • Book
  • ISBN-10: 0-13-499813-8
  • ISBN-13: 978-0-13-499813-8

In just 24 lessons of one hour or less, Sams Teach Yourself Unity Game Development in 24 Hours will help you master the Unity 2018 game engine at the heart of Ori and the Blind Forest, Firewatch, Monument Valley, and many other sizzling-hot games! This book’s straightforward, step-by-step approach teaches you everything from the absolute basics through sophisticated game physics, animation, and mobile device deployment
techniques. Every lesson builds on what you’ve already learned, giving you a rock-solid foundation for real-world success.


Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the most common Unity game development tasks.
Practical, hands-on examples show you how to apply what you learn.
Quizzes and exercises help you test your knowledge and stretch your skills.
Notes and Tips point out shortcuts and solutions


Learn how to…

  • Get up and running fast with the Unity 2018 game engine and editor
  • Work efficiently with Unity’s graphical asset pipeline
  • Make the most of lights and cameras
  • Sculpt stunning worlds with Unity’s terrain and environmental tools
  • Script tasks ranging from capturing input to building complex behaviors
  • Quickly create repeatable, reusable game objects with prefabs
  • Implement easy, intuitive game user interfaces
  • Control players through built-in and custom character controllers
  • Build realistic physical and trigger collisions
  • Leverage the full power of Unity’s Animation and new Timeline systems
  • Integrate complex audio into your games
  • Use mobile device accelerometers and multi-touch displays
  • Build engaging 2D games with Unity’s 2D tools and Tilemap
  • Apply the “finishing touches” and deploy your games


Downloads

Downloads

Download the companion files from the author's site.

Extras

Author's Site

Visit the author's site at fixbyproximity.com/.

Sample Content

Online Sample Chapter

Table of Contents

HOUR 1: Introduction to Unity 1
Installing Unity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Getting to Know the Unity Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Navigating the Unity Scene View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
QA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
HOUR 2: Game Objects 23
Dimensions and Coordinate Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Game Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Transforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
QA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
HOUR 3: Models, Materials, and Textures 39
The Basics of Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Textures, Shaders, and Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
QA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
HOUR 4: Terrain and Environments 53
Terrain Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Terrain Textures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Generating Trees and Grass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Character Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
QA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
HOUR 5: Lights and Cameras 77
Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
QA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
HOUR 6: Game 1: Amazing Racer 99
Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Creating the Game World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Gamification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Playtesting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
QA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
HOUR 7: Scripting, Part 1 115
Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Conditionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Iteration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
QA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
HOUR 8: Scripting, Part 2 137
Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Accessing Local Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Accessing Other Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
QA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
HOUR 9: Collision 155
Rigidbodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Enabling Collision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Triggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Raycasting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
QA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
HOUR 10: Game 2: Chaos Ball 167
Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
The Arena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Game Entities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
The Control Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Improving the Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
QA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
HOUR 11: Prefabs 183
Prefab Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Working with Prefabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
HOUR 12: 2D Game Tools 197
The Basics of 2D Games. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Orthographic Cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Adding Sprites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Draw Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
2D Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
HOUR 13: 2D Tilemap 213
The Basics of Tilemaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Palettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Tiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Tilemaps and Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
HOUR 14: User Interfaces 231
Basic UI Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
The Canvas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
UI Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Canvas Render Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
HOUR 15: Game 3: Captain Blaster 251
Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
The World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Improvements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
HOUR 16: Particle Systems 271
Particle Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Particle System Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
The Curves Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
HOUR 17: Animations 291
Animation Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Animation Types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Animation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
HOUR 18: Animators 307
Animator Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Configuring Your Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Creating an Animator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Scripting Animators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
HOUR 19: Timeline 331
Timeline Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Working with Timelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Going Beyond Simple Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
HOUR 20: Game 4: Gauntlet Runner 345
Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
The World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
The Entities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
The Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Room for Improvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
HOUR 21: Audio 365
Audio Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Audio Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Audio Scripting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Audio Mixers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
HOUR 22: Mobile Development 381
Preparing for Mobile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Accelerometers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
HOUR 23: Polish and Deploy 393
Managing Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Persisting Data and Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
Unity Player Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
Building Your Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
HOUR 24: Wrap-up 409
Accomplishments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Your 19 Hours of Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Where to Go from Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Resources Available to You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
9780134998138, TOC, 4/16/2018

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Video games have only been around for ~50 years and they’ve taken the world by storm. Most people grew up with games and many want to eventually work in game development. There are many big gaming engines but Unity is perhaps the most well known choice.

Unity 2d Game Development Pdf Download

There are dozens of books on this topic covering Unity, C#, and the philosophy behind game design. With so much to learn and so many resources how do you even get started?

I’ve curated the 10 best Unity programming books that range from a complete beginner’s level all the way up to advanced Unity/C# cookbooks. No matter what your knowledge of Unity development there’s bound to be a book here to help you push that knowledge further.

Best Choice For Beginners

If I had to recommend one Unity book for a complete beginner it’d be Unity Game Development in 24 Hours which is part of the Sams Teach Yourself series. It holds your hand with Unity and covers everything in great detail.

However this book will not teach you C# in any manner of speaking, so you may want to pair this with an intro C# book like C#: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide.

1. Unity Game Development in 24 Hours

All the basics of Unity are covered in this comprehensive guide to the software. Sams Teach Yourself Unity Game Development in 24 Hours explains the Unity UI from start to finish including menus, workflows, and final production pipeline assets used in pro game studios.

The book does not cover much about C# but it’s also not a book strictly made for C# development. You can enter this book with prior programming experience, although it’s certainly not necessary to get the most from this text.

This book is really a guide to the Unity interface. So if you’re completely unfamiliar with the software I would give this a big recommendation for getting your feet wet.

2. Unity in Action: Multiplatform Game Development in C# with Unity 5

If you want a real guide teaching practical tips for game development then you want this book. Unity in Action covers both Unity and C# programming with practical tutorials through each chapter.

I actually did a small review of this book and found it to be an excellent title for game developers. The author teaches the basics of Unity followed by common game programming topics like 3D space, game worlds, rendering, and animation.

If you’re a complete beginner this book will present a learning curve. You should enter with some knowledge of C# to have the best experience.

But if you already have some programming knowledge in another language you can start with Unity in Action and still get a lot from the experience. Just be prepared to do research and solve your own problems when necessary.

3. Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development

Coming in with over 900+ pages this is one behemoth of a game programming book. The author explains concepts very well and Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development offers almost every subject you need to learn as a beginner.

You start with game theory and what it takes to create a good video game. This leads into basic C# programming concepts and eventually you learn how to construct eight individual games from scratch.

This book covers three primary topics: general game design/theory, C# programming, and the Unity engine. You should have at least some programming experience before picking up this book because it can be rather overwhelming.

But just like any “tough” programming book, you can work your way through this with perseverance and dedication.

4. Learning C# by Developing Games with Unity 5.x

This title just recently got updated with a 2nd edition covering the newest version of Unity. This includes some updated sections with more clarity and new screenshots from the Unity UI.

Learning C# by Developing Games with Unity 5.x spans 230 pages of intro material for C# game programming. You’ll learn how to build a real 2D sidescroller game from scratch with the Unity framework.

Even if you have zero programming experience you can still pick up this book and work through the lessons comfortably. It is rather short so it won’t teach you everything you need to know. But the author Greg Lukosek teaches common best practices so this will set you on the right path for thinking properly about game development.

5. Unity 5.x By Example

Complete beginners will enjoy this book as a pure Unity starting point. The author Alan Thorn teaches components and game objects with the Unity interface. You learn how to construct games from scratch including a shooter and a platformer.

Unity 5.x By Example follows the book’s name to a tee. You learn Unity by example over a series of game projects and real-world scenarios.

The book covers game styles, input controls, and the details of C# for game development.

However the later chapters require exercise files which you’ll need to acquire from Packt or from the author’s website. This may bother some people and they might want to go with a different Unity-oriented book with fewer required resources to start.

6. Unity AI Game Programming

If you’re already familiar with some game programming then you’ll know the importance of AI development. Onscreen players, enemies, and NPCs all need their own AIs to behave in a way that makes the game fun and challenging.

Unity AI Game Programming is currently in its 2nd edition spanning 237 pages in total. You’ll learn many detailed topics about state machine behaviors and sensory systems within Unity 5. The authors even cover NavMesh as it relates to professional game programming.

This is not an easy book by any means. You will need prior experience in Unity and C#, preferably experience put into actually making real games.

But once you’re ready for something a little more challenging I would highly recommend this book. It’ll make you think about how to approach artificial intelligence and you’ll learn the best methods for getting this stuff to work in a game environment for any platform.

When it comes to AI for game development I’d give this book a medal of honor for its quality writing and masterful depth of content.

7. Mastering Unity 2D Game Development

This is the newest book in my list with a 2nd edition slated for December 2016. The author Ashley Godbold put a lot of effort into both C# and Unity explanations with detailed examples for each chapter.

Mastering Unity 2D Game Development teaches you how to work with 2D sprites for real game environments. You learn how to create an RPG game with characters, environments, and programmed interactions.

Before getting this book you should already be familiar with C# programming and some game development. You don’t need to be an expert with Unity, although it doesn’t hurt to have a background working with the program.

Some game developers only want to focus on 2D games and this book is undeniably the best place to start with that.

Mastering Unity 2d Game Development Pdf Free

Also if you get this book be sure to avoid the 1st edition because that version covers Unity 4.6. The 2nd edition is brand new and updated for Unity 5.x including screenshots of the new interface.

8. Unity 5.x Shaders and Effects Cookbook

Because Unity is such a detailed program you often find dozens of cookbooks on various topics. Game programmers go through different phases of learning and sometimes it helps to focus on one thing at a time.

Shaders affect shading and these lighting effects are not easy to generate unless you know what you’re doing. Unity makes it a bit easier but you’ll need to learn the interface. This is where Unity 5.x Shaders and Effects Cookbook comes in to help you figure that stuff out.

Everything in this book covers 3D shading and it comes in the form of professional advice from real game agencies. You don’t just learn how 3D shading works. Instead you learn recipes that you can copy and reuse over and over in your game projects.

Topics include volumetric shaders and even detailed fur effects on animals. The book spans 240 pages but each chapter is packed to the brim with quality code snippets.

This book is definitely made for Unity and it’s not a simple beginner’s reference guide. You need some experience with Unity before picking up this book, although you can have no prior knowledge of shaders and still work through the snippets with relative ease.

9. Unity UI Cookbook

Digital interface designers will really love the Unity UI Cookbook for its level of detail and relatable language. This title written by Francesco Sapio offers 280+ pages of recipes for common game interface elements that appear on the screen.

You’ll learn how to build interface elements like health bars, item indicators, power up gauges, and you’ll even learn how to animate these UI elements on screen with Unity 5.

In later chapters you learn how to create a complex minimap which displays the overall game world in the corner of the screen(à la Grand Theft Auto). Most interfaces build on 3D but you can extrapolate this information to 2D as needed.

I give this book a very high rating but only for those who want to study UI design for Unity games. It is rather complex so you should have a background in Unity/C# before getting into the gritty details.

10. Unity 5.x Cookbook

At 570 pages this is truly the ultimate cookbook for Unity game developers. You’ll get recipes for both 2D and 3D game development involving shaders, physics, AI behavior, save states, and tons of other related features.

Unity 2d Book

The Unity 5.x Cookbook is just a must-have book for any serious Unity programmer. There’s no getting around the value this book offers.

Novices and beginners can learn a lot on the Internet, but eventually there’s a wall where the free information slows to a trickle. Premium courses offer great info but this cookbook is full of real actionable recipes for a cheaper price than any online course.

Mastering Unity 2d Game Development Pdf Free Download

However you should already have experience building games before you even consider getting this book. Programming experience in C# is vital, along with an understanding of the Unity 5.x interface.

But if you’re already somewhat comfortable building games in Unity then this cookbook will help you take your projects to the next level.

There is a lot to learn when it comes to game development. Unity as a program is just one, and C# often goes with it.

If you’re just getting started I sincerely recommend Sams Teach Yourself Unity Game Development in 24 Hours because it covers everything in Unity plus a bit of C#. From there you can dig further into Unity, C# programming, and overall game design with other books.

More advanced programmers who already know C# might start with a more comprehensive book like Unity in Action.

There is no single best or worst book in this collection. Some are just better targeted for your skill level than others.

But I think there’s definitely something in this list for everyone regardless of your prior experience. And if you don’t see a particular Unity book mentioned you can search for others to see what else you can find.

Unity Engine

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