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Learning C# by Developing Games with Unity 2021
Learning C# by Developing Games with Unity 2021

Learning C# by Developing Games with Unity 2021: Kickstart your C# programming and Unity journey by building 3D games from scratch , Sixth Edition

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Learning C# by Developing Games with Unity 2021

Getting to Know Your Environment

Pop culture often markets computer programmers as outsiders, lone wolves, or geeky hackers. People possessing extraordinary mental gifts for algorithmic thought, little social IQ, and the odd anarchic bent. While this is not the case, there is something to the idea that learning to code fundamentally changes the way you look at the world. The good news is your naturally curious mind already wants to see these kinds of patterns in the world, and you may even come to enjoy this new way of thinking.

From the moment your eyes snap open in the morning to the last glimpse of your ceiling fan before you go to sleep, you're unconsciously using analytical skills that translate to programming—you're just missing the right language and syntax to map those life skills into code. You know your age, right? That's a variable. When you cross the street, I presume you look down the road in both directions before stepping off the curb like...

Technical requirements

Sometimes it's easier to start with what a thing isn't, rather than what it is. The goal of this book isn't to teach you everything there is to know about the Unity game engine or game development. By necessity, we'll cover these topics at a basic level at the beginning of our journey, and in more detail in Chapter 6, Getting Your Hands Dirty with Unity. However, these topics are included to provide a fun, accessible way to learn the C# programming language from the ground up.

Since this book is aimed at complete beginners to programming, if you have no previous experience with either C# or Unity, you're in the right place! If you've had some experience with the Unity Editor but not with programming, guess what? This is still the place to be. Even if you've dabbled in a bit of C# mixed with Unity, but want to explore some more intermediate or advanced topics, the later chapters of this book can provide you with what you...

Getting started with Unity 2021

If you don't have Unity installed, or are running an earlier version, follow these steps to set up your environment:

  1. Head over to https://www.unity.com/.
  2. Select Get started (shown in the following screenshot):

    Figure 1.1: Unity homepage

    This will take you to the Unity store page. Don't feel overwhelmed by this—you can get Unity completely for free!

    If the Unity homepage looks different for you than what you can see in Figure 1.1, you can go directly to https://store.unity.com.

  3. Select the Personal option. The other paid options offer more advanced functionality and services, but you can check these out on your own:

    Figure 1.2: Unity plans and pricing

  4. After selecting the Personal plan, you'll be asked if you're a first-time or returning user. Select Start here under First-time users:

    Figure 1.3: Start creating with the Unity...

Using C# with Unity

Going forward, it's important to think of Unity and C# as symbiotic entities. Unity is the engine where you'll create scripts and game objects, but the actual programming takes place in another program called Visual Studio. Don't worry about that right now—we'll get to that in a moment.

Working with C# scripts

Even though we haven't covered any basic programming concepts yet, they won't have a home until we know how to create an actual C# script in Unity. A C# script is a special kind of C# file in which you'll write C# code. These scripts can be used in Unity to do virtually anything, from responding to player input to creating game mechanics.

There are several ways to create C# scripts from the editor:

  • Select Assets | Create | C# Script
  • Right under the Project tab, select the + icon and choose C# Script
  • Right-click on the Assets folder in the Project tab and select Create | C# Script...

Exploring the documentation

The last topic we'll touch on in this first foray into Unity and C# scripts is documentation. Not sexy, I know, but it's important to form good habits early when dealing with new programming languages or development environments.

Accessing Unity's documentation

Once you start writing scripts in earnest, you'll be using Unity's documentation quite often, so it's beneficial to know how to access it early on. The Reference Manual will give you an overview of a component or topic, while specific programming examples can be found in the Scripting Reference.

Every game object (an item in the Hierarchy window) in a scene has a Transform component that controls its Position, Rotation, and Scale. To keep things simple, we'll just look up the camera's Transform component in the Reference Manual:

  1. In the Hierarchy tab, select the Main Camera game object
  2. Move over to the Inspector tab and click on...

Summary

We covered quite a bit of logistical information in this chapter, so I can understand if you're itching to write some code. Starting new projects, creating folders and scripts, and accessing documentation are topics that are easily forgotten in the excitement of a new adventure. Just remember that this chapter has a lot of resources you might need in the coming pages, so don't be afraid to come back and visit. Thinking like a programmer is a muscle: the more you work it, the stronger it gets.

In the next chapter, we'll start laying out the theory, vocabulary, and main concepts you'll need to prime your coding brain. Even though the material is conceptual, we'll still be writing our first lines of code in the LearningCurve script. Get ready!

Pop quiz – dealing with scripts

  1. What type of relationship do Unity and Visual Studio share?
  2. The Scripting Reference supplies example code in regards to using a particular Unity component or feature. Where can you find more detailed (non-code-related) information about Unity components?
  3. The Scripting Reference is a large document. How much of it do you have to memorize before attempting to write a script?
  4. When is the best time to name a C# script?

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Key benefits

  • Learn C# programming basics, terminology, and coding best practices
  • Become confident with Unity fundamentals and features in line with Unity 2021
  • Apply your C# knowledge in practice and build a working first-person shooter game prototype in Unity

Description

The Learning C# by Developing Games with Unity series has established itself as a popular choice for getting up to speed with C#, a powerful and versatile programming language with a wide array of applications in various domains. This bestselling franchise presents a clear path for learning C# programming from the ground up through the world of Unity game development. This sixth edition has been updated to introduce modern C# features with Unity 2021. A new chapter has also been added that covers reading and writing binary data from files, which will help you become proficient in handling errors and asynchronous operations. The book acquaints you with the core concepts of programming in C#, including variables, classes, and object-oriented programming. You will explore the fundamentals of Unity game development, including game design, lighting basics, player movement, camera controls, and collisions. You will write C# scripts for simple game mechanics, perform procedural programming, and add complexity to your games by introducing smart enemies and damage-causing projectiles. By the end of the book, you will have developed the skills to become proficient in C# programming and built a playable game prototype with the Unity game engine.

Who is this book for?

If you're a developer, programmer, hobbyist, or anyone who wants to get started with Unity and C# programming in a fun and engaging manner, this book is for you. You’ll still be able to follow along if you don’t have programming experience, but knowing the basics will help you get the most out of this book.

What you will learn

  • Follow simple steps and examples to create and implement C# scripts in Unity
  • Develop a 3D mindset to build games that come to life
  • Create basic game mechanics such as player controllers and shooting projectiles using C#
  • Divide your code into pluggable building blocks using interfaces, abstract classes, and class extensions
  • Become familiar with stacks, queues, exceptions, error handling, and other core C# concepts
  • Learn how to handle text, XML, and JSON data to save and load your game data
  • Explore the basics of AI for games and implement them to control enemy behavior
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Length: 428 pages
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Table of Contents

17 Chapters
Getting to Know Your Environment Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
The Building Blocks of Programming Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Diving into Variables, Types, and Methods Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Control Flow and Collection Types Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Working with Classes, Structs, and OOP Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Getting Your Hands Dirty with Unity Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Movement, Camera Controls, and Collisions Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Scripting Game Mechanics Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Basic AI and Enemy Behavior Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Revisiting Types, Methods, and Classes Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Introducing Stacks, Queues, and HashSets Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Saving, Loading, and Serializing Data Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Exploring Generics, Delegates, and Beyond Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
The Journey Continues Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Pop Quiz Answers Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Other Books You May Enjoy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Top Reviews
Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.7
(36 Ratings)
5 star 83.3%
4 star 11.1%
3 star 0%
2 star 2.8%
1 star 2.8%
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Thomas Lane Feb 11, 2022
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I can't speak more highly about this book and the author. I've searched far for a book that teaches Unity in the way this does.Unity's own tutorials while I believe are useful, tend to not show you the absolute base stuff which I feel like this book does perfectly, especially with dealing with primitives. Also the thing I really like about this book is that it starts you out with the coding and not making you navigate Unitys UI right off the bat. I feel like that is a vastly important decision that really makes this book perfect if you're the type of learning I am. To me, I learn more by making stuff work in code then with a GUI, and this book perfectly mixes the two with more of a reliance on the former.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Forrest Severson May 23, 2023
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This book is wonderful and helped me relearn Unity after getting out of the Army.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Jarvis Hill Jan 24, 2022
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Learning C# by Developing Games is a really great book to pick up if you're trying to get into unity development. The book initially walks you through everything you need to know to get started. The early chapters familiarized you with C# and Visual Studio editor. Then you’ll go over everything you need to know about the fundamentals of programming. You’ll review the basics like variables and methods. As you get deeper into the book you gain more in-depth knowledge. The book does a great job of teaching you how to control the flow of the code through the use of If and Switch conditional Statements which makes it easier to work with collections like Arrays, List, and Dictionaries. You’ll end up gaining a better understanding of Object Oriented Programing. Later chapters will explain the differences between Classes and Struct and went to use them. As you make your way towards the end of the book you will start to learn more complex things like How to code the Gameplay Mechanics, control and move your player, and how to code the Enemy AI’s movement and Behaviors. You even learn how to save and load the game's data using JSON and XML. This book is a great read and I highly recommend it.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Rich Tanner Nov 12, 2021
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This text is a great introduction to both Unity and to C#, and serves as a wonderful refresher if you’ve experience in either topic.I’ve been playing in both C# and Unity for years now, and I even found a few brand new tidbits among the fun projects within.I plan to assign this resource for future college courses, and, quite frankly, this is the textbook I wish I had written myself!Great work Harrison Ferrone and Packt!
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Jonathan Ball Jun 08, 2022
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This is a very inspirational and informative book. I already have some C# experience but had 0 experience with Unity and found it to be a fantastic intro. The simple game that you will build from this book is very exciting for a newcomer and I highly recommend it to anyone that loves video games and wants to become a .net / C# developer.This book is however not the be all and end all to C# programming as the author will even tell you so you will still need to keep learning C# after the book is done to become anything of a decent C# programmer.I did not buy this book from Amazon but from Packt publishing so that is why I am not a verified purchaser although Kindle is an amazing book reading app so perhaps have a look at the Kindle edition on Amazon.
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