Unity Game Development Essentials Review

We just finished our review of a beginner's guide to Unity and now, we have a more in-depth Unity book hitting the shelves called Unity Game Development Essentials. Unlike our last review, Unity Game Development Essentials is more of an in-depth book, but it's ironically shorter than the beginner's guide to Unity. Personally, I have to say it's just a tad bit more thorough than Unity 3D Game Development by Example, but that's just my opinion.

At the end of Unity Game Development Essentials, you'll have knowledge on how to create your own island equipped with a volcano, a bumpy terrain, and some mini-games on it. Let's get on with that full review of Unity Game Development Essentials!

My Background in 3D Game Development

Now I hope I don’t shock anyone, but I’m no complete genius at game development. I’ve only released one game to the masses (of course with the help of @egarayblas) and I expect more coming soon.

I’ve been an application programmer since the day I started programming, but with games, it’s an all new world. I got a Mac earlier this year for iOS game development and picked up Objective C extremely quickly. The first month of the development for the first game that I released was actually hitting the books and learning Objective C. About a month later, I was able to get a prototype working.

For 3D game development, I only have the experience of messing around in Unity. I’m by far no expert in 3D design or programming, so my views come from someone who’s used to game development, but hardly any 3D work.

Basic Rundown

Unity Game Development Essentials grasps the key concepts of Unity like scripting, particles, instantiation, and of course, physics. If it's just me, but I feel that Unity Game Development Essentials is more informative than Unity 3D Game Development by Example.

They call it 'essentials' because a good chunk of Unity's features are covered in this book. Unity Game Development Essentials not only covers the basis of how to use Unity and create a game with it, but one major thing in today's world is performance. The book does a great job explaining how things are done to save on resources like occlusion culling.

Throughout the entire book, Unity Game Development Essentials gives you a great exercise filled with everything Unity. From the very beginning of Unity Game Development Essentials to the end, you're only working in the 3D world of Unity; you're not going to be making any 2D games. Even though successful 2D games have been created using Unity, you will not learn how to do that. But essentially, if you know how to use the 3D parts of Unity, you should be able to make a 2D game just fine.

What's Covered?

Unity Game Development Essentials covers all of the essentials needed when creating any 3D game. How about we list 'em?

• Dynamic effects light sound, shadows, and of course, lighting
• Creating title screens to navigate your games
• Using particle systems to bring realistic effects
• Turn static 3D objects into interactive objects using animation and scripting
• Creating cameras to move a first person character around your 3D world
• Building a 3D island with terrains, volcanos, of course, with import 3D models from other programs
• Having multiple minigames to add interaction between the player and 3D objects
• And of course, learning how to use the Unity 3D interface

My Thoughts on the Book

I have to say, Unity Game Development Essentials couldn't have been written any better. I would say it's a tad bit faster of a pace than Unity 3D Game Development by Example, but actually, it plays out quite nicely at the end of the book. The author, Will Goldstone, started the book out fairly quickly while giving the user time to customize their island. In the very beginning, you learn how to create an island filled with all different kinds of textures (sandy, rocky, grassy), different elevations (the volcano), and of course, interactive games!

Even though this can be classified as a beginners book, advanced topics in Unity, which are actually easy to handle nowadays because of these advanced engines, are even covered! From particle systems to ray casting, all of the main vocabulary you should know is discussed. People think that the world of 3D gaming is hard, but in reality, it's really not. These engines, like Unity, take so much stress off the programmer and it really helps you focus on creating the game itself. You'll figure that out when you're working on the minigames the author will guide you through.

One great thing in computing today is most people are scared to touch any programming language; some may think that programming will be eliminated but in reality, it's never going away. The main thing, which Unity Game Development Essentials does focus on, is how to use the IDE, which in this case is Unity, to get most of the work done for you. Unity has lots of built in settings and practically, with a press of a button (seriously, no kiddin'), you can enable a physics engine that'll handle all of the work for you! Scripting isn't fun sometimes, just ask any developer, but this book makes it seem like you're writing very little code to do so much (if you're a developer, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about... try to replicate the same things Unity can do with OpenGL -- it's a bunch of code).

Is it really for beginners?

Yes, absolutely! Unity Game Development Essentials is focused for beginners actually! There's no too advanced topics covered in this book that'll give you a headache and it's just extremely easy to follow along. In fact, for a good portion of the book, you're working with Unity and not writing code! Unity is rather intimidating when you first open it up, but if you've seen that Topical Paradise island demo, and played around with it in Unity, you can manipulate any 3D object on the preview screen with the built in tools!

I have to say that Unity Game Development Essentials picks things up at a fast rate compared to Unity 3D Game Development by Example but not fast enough that you'll be banging your head on your computer (but seriously, don't try it). Everything is written clearly and in the perfect order for you to fully understand it.

If you're wanting to get a good grasp on the 3D programming world in Unity, I would recommend for you to go grab Unity Game Development Essentials right now! Because the other Unity book we reviewed, Unity 3D Game Development by Example, covered some 2D games also, it might slow you down on building that 3D game you've always wanted. Just don't expect to create the next Quake though!

Overall

I really enjoyed this book, more than Unity 3D Game Development by Example actually. If it's not just me, but I feel that this book, Unity Game Development Essentials, is more "hands on". You get to freely create your own island however you like it and work with that in the book. You'll learn how to create your own 3D island instead of using someone else's model. I actually like that; it's more customizable and freely open to your own imagination!

There's no bad feelings I have about this book. It's very open, it's extremely easy to follow, and best of all, it's fun; who doesn't love working in 3D? I highly recommend Unity Game Development Essentials for beginner programmers or even programmers coming from other programming languages. You'll have a fun time with going along with this book because you're creating an island here!