Search icon CANCEL
Subscription
0
Cart icon
Your Cart (0 item)
Close icon
You have no products in your basket yet
Save more on your purchases! discount-offer-chevron-icon
Savings automatically calculated. No voucher code required.
Arrow left icon
Explore Products
Best Sellers
New Releases
Books
Videos
Audiobooks
Learning Hub
Newsletter Hub
Free Learning
Arrow right icon
timer SALE ENDS IN
0 Days
:
00 Hours
:
00 Minutes
:
00 Seconds
Mastering Unity 2D game development
Mastering Unity 2D game development

Mastering Unity 2D game development: Mastering Unity 2D Game Development will give your game development skills a boost and help you begin creating and building an RPG with Unity 2D game framework

eBook
Mex$899.99 Mex$1000.99
Paperback
Mex$1251.99
Subscription
Free Trial

What do you get with a Packt Subscription?

Free for first 7 days. $19.99 p/m after that. Cancel any time!
Product feature icon Unlimited ad-free access to the largest independent learning library in tech. Access this title and thousands more!
Product feature icon 50+ new titles added per month, including many first-to-market concepts and exclusive early access to books as they are being written.
Product feature icon Innovative learning tools, including AI book assistants, code context explainers, and text-to-speech.
Product feature icon Thousands of reference materials covering every tech concept you need to stay up to date.
Subscribe now
View plans & pricing
Table of content icon View table of contents Preview book icon Preview Book

Mastering Unity 2D game development

Chapter 1. Overview

Arguably, the most important part of any project is knowing where to start and what tools you have in your war chest before setting out to make your game. Here, we will walk through all the new features of the 2D system that were introduced in Version 4.3 of Unity.

Since this is the first chapter, let's cover how this book is structured. The main aim of this book is to build a fully functional Role Playing Game (RPG) style game framework and cover all the main aspects of any good and well-rounded RPG game, including the following features:

  • Character development and setup
  • Building your main game view
  • A wider world view
  • Events and encounters
  • Shopping and inventory systems
  • Battles
  • Skills, experience, and leveling

We will be visiting places such as the following:

  • Your home town, as shown in the following screenshot:
    Overview
  • The local shop, as shown in the following screenshot:
    Overview
  • The outside world, as shown in the following screenshot:
    Overview
  • Battling goblins in the dark forest, as shown in the following screenshot:
    Overview

In this chapter, we'll walk through what's available in the new 2D toolkit and talso what else Unity added to the toolset in 4.3. Then, kick off the next chapter with building the foundations of our project with some of the best practices in the industry, including guidance from the Unity team themselves (either direct from team members or from responses in the forums).

The following topics will be covered in this chapter:

  • Overview of the new 2D system
  • Rundown of the additional improvements in 4.3

Getting assets

Since creating games can become quite expensive these days, we'll use some of the best free assets out there. There are plenty of resources available to the game developers these days either as placement assets for the developer's use, whether they are full assets, or just a framework that you can tweak to get your desired result. There are a multitude of options.

Note

In the code bundle of this book, you'll get all the assets that you need to follow on during the creation of the game, and the site where it is available online will be listed with the instructions.

Some of the best sites to gather assets are described as follows:

  • Art: Art, especially 2D art, is generally easy to find on a budget; particularly for the placeholder art until you buy or create your own for the finished product (although I've seen many games created with some of these assets). Some good sites to start with are http://opengameart.org/ and http://open.commonly.cc/.
  • Audio: Right sound is a lot trickier to get. Free sites are okay, but they generally don't have the right sound you will want or you will end up digging through hundreds or more sounds to get a close match. A good website to start is at http://soundbible.com/.

Note

We won't actually be covering audio as part of this title, as not much has changed since the introduction of Unity 4.0. There are also some larger changes being introduced in Unity 5.0 to look out for, so keep your eyes peeled

Collection of sites

Some sites just hold a general collection of assets instead of specializing in specific areas. The best site for this, as everything is almost guaranteed to be free, is http://search.creativecommons.org/.

For an even wider list of resources, refer to the following blog post that is updated frequently with what's out there:

http://darkgenesis.zenithmoon.com/monster-set-of-free-resources-for-game-design/

Collection of sites
Left arrow icon Right arrow icon

Description

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.

What you will learn

  • Explore the new features introduced in Unity3D 4.3 by building your own RPG game Delve into the new sprite importing and rendering system Master the best parts of the new Sprite animation system and improved Mecanim features Make the most of your rendering with tags, layers, sprite sorting, and ordering Dissect the proper use of Delegates, Events, and Messaging, including tips and tricks, and build a full RPG conversation system Do battle with Mecanim-based AI and state machines Build for success with tips on marketing, monetization, and deployment Drive home the platform of choice and expand into deployment/editor extensions

Product Details

Country selected
Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Aug 26, 2014
Length: 474 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781849697347
Vendor :
Unity Technologies
Tools :

What do you get with a Packt Subscription?

Free for first 7 days. $19.99 p/m after that. Cancel any time!
Product feature icon Unlimited ad-free access to the largest independent learning library in tech. Access this title and thousands more!
Product feature icon 50+ new titles added per month, including many first-to-market concepts and exclusive early access to books as they are being written.
Product feature icon Innovative learning tools, including AI book assistants, code context explainers, and text-to-speech.
Product feature icon Thousands of reference materials covering every tech concept you need to stay up to date.
Subscribe now
View plans & pricing

Product Details

Publication date : Aug 26, 2014
Length: 474 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781849697347
Vendor :
Unity Technologies
Tools :

Packt Subscriptions

See our plans and pricing
Modal Close icon
$19.99 billed monthly
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Simple pricing, no contract
$199.99 billed annually
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Choose a DRM-free eBook or Video every month to keep
Feature tick icon PLUS own as many other DRM-free eBooks or Videos as you like for just Mex$85 each
Feature tick icon Exclusive print discounts
$279.99 billed in 18 months
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Choose a DRM-free eBook or Video every month to keep
Feature tick icon PLUS own as many other DRM-free eBooks or Videos as you like for just Mex$85 each
Feature tick icon Exclusive print discounts

Frequently bought together


Stars icon
Total Mex$ 2,256.98
Mastering Unity 2D game development
Mex$1251.99
Unity Game Development Blueprints
Mex$1004.99
Total Mex$ 2,256.98 Stars icon

Table of Contents

14 Chapters
1. Overview Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Building a Character Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Getting Animated Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. The Game World Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. NPCs and Interactions Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. The Big Wild World Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Encountering Enemies and Running Away Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Shopping for Weapons Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Getting Ready to Fight Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
10. Fight and Gain XP Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
11. Onward Wary Traveler Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
12. Deployment and Beyond Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
A. Additional Resources 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 Half star icon Empty star icon 3.8
(21 Ratings)
5 star 38.1%
4 star 23.8%
3 star 14.3%
2 star 23.8%
1 star 0%
Filter icon Filter
Top Reviews

Filter reviews by




Suraj May 18, 2024
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I just got it , thank you
Subscriber review Packt
Brett A. Brown Sep 14, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Excellent beginner book. Very clear instructions with lots of screenshots. By noon I could make my monkey dance!
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Heleen Durston Nov 11, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Another Unity game engine book from Packtpub was released in October, “Mastering Unity 2D Game Development” by Simon Jackson. This is an intermediate to advanced guide to using the 2D features of Unity. The book centers around creating a 2D RPG complete with world map, a conversation system, a store, and the beginnings of a battle system. When the book was initially released there were a variety of typos and show-stopping problems with the book and code. Packtpub has recently reissued the book and code and now everything works well. Chapter 1 is an overview of the updates that occurred in Unity 4.3. I went through the book using Unity 4.6 beta and had no issues. “Mastering Unity 2D Game Development” is definitely meant for those with some experience using Unity and in particular the C# programming language. Many links are provided for reference throughout the book; but knowing how to use coroutines and delegates will definitely help you complete the examples in the book. Chapters 2 and 3 explain how to set up the foundation of the RPG project and begin with having you create a 2D game character and animate it. Importing sprites and using the Sprite editor are discussed and then Unity’s Mecanim animation system is explained while the main character gets animated. In chapter 4 the background for your initial scene is created and then populated with some trees, rocks and even store and house sprites. This chapter also talks about transitioning from the background edges to another scene that you will set-up. Chapter 5 is a heavily scripting-oriented chapter and has you create some NPCs and then set-up a conversation system. This chapter also discusses co-routines and how to use them in Unity. Chapter 6 discusses places online to have maps drawn for you and alternately gives advice on how to create your own game world map. The world map for the game is placed in your project and a nice fade-in technique is used to transition between the world map and the local scene for your player. In chapter 7 a battle system is created and the book explains how to have goblins randomly spawn in your scene. In chapter 8 a shop is created so that you can purchase a sword to fight the goblins from chapter 7. Both chapters discuss the creation of an inventory system and how to add the sword stats as a bonus to the battle system. Chapter 9 talks about using a state system for the battle and also programming a user interface system to keep the player informed about the battle. Everything seemed to work fine using the ‘old’ user interface system in Unity 4.6 beta. For those that don’t know the UI was quite significantly updated in Unity 4.6; but all the code in the books seems to work fine. Chapter 10 is all about creating particle systems for the battles in your RPG and chapter 11 discusses expanding the Unity editor to create some nice menus for your game. I found chapter 11 a really interesting read as I was not aware that you could expand Unity that much for your own purposes. Chapter 12 concludes the book with information on building your game for different platforms. There is also a lot of links listed presenting information on a variety of tutorials and tools for working with Unity. This is a great book for Unity and one that I will keep around for reference on how to do a lot of programming in Unity. I am really pleased that I had a chance to read the book and try the code. The link to the book on Packtpub is https://www.packtpub.com/game-development/mastering-unity-2d-game-development. You can also find the download with all the assets for the RPG project there and a PDF that has all the pictures from the book. Simon Jackson has a website at http://darkgenesis.zenithmoon.com/ and a forum for the book at http://darkgenesis.zenithmoon.com/DarkGenesisForums/forum/book-forums/ .
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Shaun Walsh Nov 10, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
So far so good. Havent made it too far into the book yet, but of all the Unity books I have read so far, this one is by far the best. Everything is broke down nice and simple, and there are plenty of illustrations to go along with it. Author is well versed and thorough. My only complaint (not about the book) but is with the kindle version. Please fix your format so that highlighted text works please.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Muhammad Bilal Sep 01, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
great for people interested in game development
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Get free access to Packt library with over 7500+ books and video courses for 7 days!
Start Free Trial

FAQs

What is included in a Packt subscription? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

A subscription provides you with full access to view all Packt and licnesed content online, this includes exclusive access to Early Access titles. Depending on the tier chosen you can also earn credits and discounts to use for owning content

How can I cancel my subscription? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

To cancel your subscription with us simply go to the account page - found in the top right of the page or at https://subscription.packtpub.com/my-account/subscription - From here you will see the ‘cancel subscription’ button in the grey box with your subscription information in.

What are credits? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Credits can be earned from reading 40 section of any title within the payment cycle - a month starting from the day of subscription payment. You also earn a Credit every month if you subscribe to our annual or 18 month plans. Credits can be used to buy books DRM free, the same way that you would pay for a book. Your credits can be found in the subscription homepage - subscription.packtpub.com - clicking on ‘the my’ library dropdown and selecting ‘credits’.

What happens if an Early Access Course is cancelled? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Projects are rarely cancelled, but sometimes it's unavoidable. If an Early Access course is cancelled or excessively delayed, you can exchange your purchase for another course. For further details, please contact us here.

Where can I send feedback about an Early Access title? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

If you have any feedback about the product you're reading, or Early Access in general, then please fill out a contact form here and we'll make sure the feedback gets to the right team. 

Can I download the code files for Early Access titles? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

We try to ensure that all books in Early Access have code available to use, download, and fork on GitHub. This helps us be more agile in the development of the book, and helps keep the often changing code base of new versions and new technologies as up to date as possible. Unfortunately, however, there will be rare cases when it is not possible for us to have downloadable code samples available until publication.

When we publish the book, the code files will also be available to download from the Packt website.

How accurate is the publication date? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

The publication date is as accurate as we can be at any point in the project. Unfortunately, delays can happen. Often those delays are out of our control, such as changes to the technology code base or delays in the tech release. We do our best to give you an accurate estimate of the publication date at any given time, and as more chapters are delivered, the more accurate the delivery date will become.

How will I know when new chapters are ready? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

We'll let you know every time there has been an update to a course that you've bought in Early Access. You'll get an email to let you know there has been a new chapter, or a change to a previous chapter. The new chapters are automatically added to your account, so you can also check back there any time you're ready and download or read them online.

I am a Packt subscriber, do I get Early Access? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Yes, all Early Access content is fully available through your subscription. You will need to have a paid for or active trial subscription in order to access all titles.

How is Early Access delivered? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Early Access is currently only available as a PDF or through our online reader. As we make changes or add new chapters, the files in your Packt account will be updated so you can download them again or view them online immediately.

How do I buy Early Access content? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Early Access is a way of us getting our content to you quicker, but the method of buying the Early Access course is still the same. Just find the course you want to buy, go through the check-out steps, and you’ll get a confirmation email from us with information and a link to the relevant Early Access courses.

What is Early Access? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Keeping up to date with the latest technology is difficult; new versions, new frameworks, new techniques. This feature gives you a head-start to our content, as it's being created. With Early Access you'll receive each chapter as it's written, and get regular updates throughout the product's development, as well as the final course as soon as it's ready.We created Early Access as a means of giving you the information you need, as soon as it's available. As we go through the process of developing a course, 99% of it can be ready but we can't publish until that last 1% falls in to place. Early Access helps to unlock the potential of our content early, to help you start your learning when you need it most. You not only get access to every chapter as it's delivered, edited, and updated, but you'll also get the finalized, DRM-free product to download in any format you want when it's published. As a member of Packt, you'll also be eligible for our exclusive offers, including a free course every day, and discounts on new and popular titles.