Mastering Game Design with Unity 2021: Immersive Workflows, Visual Scripting, Physics Engine, GameObjects, Player Progression, Publishing, and a Lot More

by Scott Tykoski

Length: 540 pages
Edition: 1
Language: English
Publisher: BPB Publications
Publication Date: 2022-11-15
ISBN-10: 9355512163
ISBN-13: 9789355512161
Sales Rank: #181745 (See Top 100 Books)

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Learn and Leverage the Power of Unity to Create Amazing Video Games!

Key Features

Discover everything to learn about Game Design, processes, and Unity’s 2D and 3D engines.
Less complicated step-by-step tutorials on building gameplay systems and improving their performance.
Dedicated help and support for developing prototypes, releasing games, and sharpening the user experience.

Description

The Unity Engine has been steadily evolving over the past few years into one of the most powerful resources for the game development community. Its feature-rich toolkit and user-friendliness make it an ideal foundation for budding game developers.

The book ‘Mastering Game Design with Unity 2021’ will walk you through creating a multimedia game from scratch, covering everything from the basics of game development to advanced design concepts. The book will help you to learn the ins and outs of scenes, game objects, input systems, physics, particles, and post-processing effects, and even get access to instructions to put your newfound skills to use. In addition, this book will help you to learn the fundamentals of game logic design, interactive narratives, game mechanics, storyboarding, and design structure in an easy-to-understand format from a coaching game expert.

Whether you’re brand new to the gaming industry or a seasoned developer looking to strengthen your Unity skills, this book will provide everything you need to know to design stunning 3D games, animations, 3D content, and virtual reality/augmented reality experiences in Unity 3D.

What you will learn

Use the Unity Game Editor and Assets to design and build 3D animations and games.
Understand important game design concepts across a variety of genres.
Take advantage of Unity’s pre-built UI, rendering, physics, and graphics systems.
Create custom gameplay systems and elements using C# scripting.
Figure out how to make an already existing prototype appear even better.

Who this book is for

This book is for aspiring game designers, animators, and professional graphic creators who wish to create games with spectacular 3D visuals and high-quality animation effects. Readers can go through the fundamentals of game design and then learn how to use them in Unity to make their own custom video game from scratch.

Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication Page
About the Author
Acknowledgement
Preface
Errata
Table of Contents
1. The Unity Engine
    Structure
    Objective
    Unity: The Broad Strokes
    Installing Unity
    Exploring Extras and Tutorials
    Our First Project
    Editor Overview
    The Scene and Game View Window
    The Scene
    The Hierarchy Window
    The Inspector Window
    All About GameObjects
    Placing Objects in the Scene
    Moving Objects Around
    The PLAY Button
    Your Second Object
    Using Visual Studio
    Putting it All to the test
    Optional Tool: Visual Scripting
    Conclusion
    Questions
    Key Terms
2. Components and Prefabs
    Structure
    Objective
    All about Components
    Component Examples
    Adding a Component to an Object
    The MonoBehaviour class
    Writing our ‘Player Controller’ Component
    Extending your Components in the Unity Editor
    A Hop, Skip, and a Jump
    Making and Spawning Prefabs
    Coin of the Realm
    Collision Detection
    Triggers
    Turning an Object into a Prefab
    Spawning More Coins
    Extra benefits of Prefabs
    Debug Messages
    Game Design 101: Iteration and White-Boxing
    Conclusion
    Questions
    Key Terms
3. The Basics of Combat
    Structure
    Objective
    Game Design 101: Risk and Reward
    Subsystems
    Making our Health System
    Let’s Storyboard: Taking damage
    Spikes: Your First Hazard
    The HealthModifier Component
    The Basic Bullet
    Damage Feedback
    The Game Session Manager
    Conclusion
    Questions
    Key Terms
4. Getting to Know UI
    Structure
    Objective
    Game Flow (UI) vs Gameplay Flow (Immersion)
    Game Flow Breakdown
    The Unity UI System
    Our Title Menu Canvas
    Title Menu: Adding the UI Elements
        Anchor Presets
        Title Menu: Adding the Script
        Title Menu: Button Actions
        Adding Scenes to the Build Settings
    A Basic HUD
        The HUD Component
    Game Over
    Conclusion
    Questions
    Key Terms
5. Mastering the Fundamentals
    Structure
    Objective
    The Importance of Milestones
    Getting Critical
    Mastering the Camera
    Leveling Up
    Tools of the Trade
    Designing our First Level
    Better Baddies
    Explosive Feedback
    Game Design 101: Permanence
    Hunting For Bugs
    Exporting ‘The Build’
    Conclusion
    Questions
    Key Terms
6. The Physics of Fun
    Overview
    Objective
    The Unity Physics System
    Physics Components
    Basic Collider Shapes
        Mesh Collider
    RigidBody
    Joints
    Tweaking Physics in Code
    Gameplay: Pushable Blocks
    Gameplay: Seesaw Platform
    Gameplay: Springboards
    Gameplay: Wind Zones Strike Again
    Utilizing Shadows
    Gameplay Palette
    Conclusion
    Key Terms
    Multiple Choice Questions
7. The Joy of Animation
    Structure
    Objective
    Principles of Animation
    Making A Basic Hero
    The ‘Idle’ Pose
    The Animation View
    Keyframes and Inbetweening
    Run Cycles
    Animations in Action
    Cleaning Up
    Conclusion
    Questions
    Key Terms
8. The Mind of the Enemy
    Structure
    The Thought Process
    Our Basic Enemy
        New Component: AIBrain
        UnityEvents and AI Actions
        Hunting Down the Player
        Setting up the AI Component
        NavMesh
        NavMesh Agents
            Testing our Enemy
    Conclusion
    Questions
    Key Terms
9. Forging Your Weapon System
    Structure
    Objectives
    Sticks and Stones
    Weapon Sandbox
    Equipping Your Weapon
    The Weapon Component
    Basics of Melee Combat
    Basics of Projectile Weaponry
    The ‘Knockback’ Effect
        Animating our Attacks
    Weapon Trails
    Game Design: Advanced Combat
    Conclusion
    Questions
    Key Terms
10. All About Audio
    Structure
    Objectives
    The Audio Components
        Audio Listener
        Audio Source
    Importing Music and SoundFX
    Importing Audio Clips
        Creating our Sound Manager
    The Basics of 3D Sound
        3D Sound on Items
    3D Sounds for Weapons
        Mastering with Audio Mixers
    Platform Considerations
    Conclusion
    Questions
    Key Terms
11. A Graphical Upgrade
    Structure
    Objectives
    Unity’s Art Tools
    Grabbing some Materials
    ProBuilder
    Building Blocks
    Grid Snapping and Asset Placement
    Building Level Prefabs
    KitBashing
    Skybox
    Distance Fog
    Keeping your Workspace Clean
    Post Processing
    Conclusion
    Questions
    Key Terms
12. So Many Particles
    Structure
    Objectives
    About Particle Effects
    Filling the 3D Space
    Weapon Particles
    Explosive Effects
    The Unity Particle Pack
    Conclusion
    Questions
    Key Terms
13. Mastering Player Progression
    Structure
    Objectives
    The Difficulty Curve
    Managing Difficulty
    Onboarding and Tutorials
    Teaching through Level Design
    Lighting the Way
        Teaching the Player
        Testing the Player
        Trials and Mastery
            Pacing
            Progression Trees
            Achievements
            New Game +
            World Map
    Conclusion
    Questions
    Key Terms
14. UX
    Structure
    Objectives
    UX?
    Better UI for a Better UX
    Iconography
    Typography
    World Space Prompts
    The First 10 Minutes
    Our Introductory Stage
    Achieving Victory
    A Smooth Transition
    Conclusion
    Questions
    Key Terms
15. 2D vs. 3D
    Structure
    Objectives
    2D vs. 3D
    Our 2D Sandbox
    Sprites
    Sprite Sheets
    Tilemaps
    Studying The Lost Crypt
    2D Physics and Movement
    2D Animation
    Cinemachine Cameras
    The Power of Parallax
    Conclusion
    Questions
    Key Terms
16. Mastering the Genres
    Structure
    Objectives
    Concerning Scope
    Sidescrollers and Platformers
    Top-Down Adventure
    FPS - First Person Shooters
    Third-Person Games
    RPGs - Role Playing Games
    Strategy Games
    Puzzle Games
    Creative Juxtaposition
    Player Expectations
    Conclusion
    Questions
    Key Terms
17. Platforms and Publishing
    Structure
    Objectives
    Your Platform of Choice
    PC / Mac / Linux
    Mobile Games
    Console Development
    WebGL
    VR/AR
    Publishing your Game
    Teaming Up with Publishers
    Conclusion
    Questions
    Key Terms
18. From Concept to Completion
    Structure
    Objectives
    Preproduction
    Design Docs
    Paper Prototyping
    Concept Art
    Mockups
    Getting Creative
    Project Management
    The Vertical Slice
    Play Testing
    Analytics
    Prioritizing Feedback
    Milestones, Momentum and Morale
    Early Access
    Marketing
    The Gold Master…and Beyond!
    Conclusion
    Questions
    Key Terms
Index