Ouya Unity Game Development: Understanding Unity means you can quickly get the know-how to develop games for the Android-based Ouya console. This is the guide that will take you all the way from setting up the software to monetizing your games.

Gary Riches

$19.99 per month

4.6 (9 Ratings)

Paperback Oct 2013 118 pages 1st Edition

Gary Riches

$19.99 per month

4.6 (9 Ratings)

Paperback Oct 2013 118 pages 1st Edition

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Key benefits

Learn how to create and polish your game, and then monetize it with in-app purchases
Discover what's required to make your game run on Android phones and tablets
A step-by-step guide that will teach you how to build a fun, challenging game from scratch

Description

Ouya is a microconsole running its own version of the Android operating system. The console features an exclusive Ouya store for applications and games designed specifically for the Ouya platform. It runs a modified version of Android 4.1 Jellybean, and is open to rooting without voiding the warranty. All systems can be used as development kits which allow any Ouya owner to be a developer without any licensing fee. Ouya Unity Game Development offers detailed, easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions which will help you learn the ins and outs of Ouya development in Unity.From connecting your device with Android Debug Bridge to publishing it on the Ouya Developer Portal, this book will explain the processes involved in creating a game from scratch. As you progress through the book, you will learn about scenes, prefabs, sounds, models, and animations. By the end of the seventh chapter, you will have a 3D game with multiple levels, the possibility of in-app purchases, and controller support that runs on both the Ouya and an Android phone. Starting with an introduction to Ouya, you will learn how to set up an environment and render game levels on Ouya. You will learn how to change levels and how to save the current level. You will then dive into Ouya controller integration and character animation. This book will also teach you the workings of audio source components, and will show you how to add textures to prefabs. Finally, you will learn how you can monetize the game. By the end of this book, you will have the game running on Ouya and geared up to create games on your own.

Who is this book for?

This book is for game developers who are interested in developing games for the Ouya console on the Unity game engine. It is assumed that you have a basic understanding of Unity.

What you will learn

Download and set up the software to get started with Ouya and explore its features
Render levels based on array data, create your character, and move it with the Ouya controller
Play sounds, add effects, and improve the virtual experience of the game
Implement in-app purchases in the game in order to monetize the game in a more effective manner
Port your game to Android phones and tablets

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Frequently bought together

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Total $ 130.97

L. R. Nov 29, 2013

This book is intended first for everyone interested in a quick start guide to develop 3D games using Unity, Android and Ouya (Android-based game console). Also for those that want to develop their own video game to be used on a game console. More than home-brew, this book shows you how to develop a true 3D video game that aims to being used in the Ouya game console and therefore being published in the Ouya market place.The book starts with a chapter that contains a brief introduction to video games history, the first days, problems and current days evolution of the video games including the explosion of apps and video games for mobile phones. Including the history of Ouya, that has been created through a successful kick-starter campaign that has made of Ouya an emergent actor in the video game consoles for gamers and for indie developers.The following chapter describes how to install and configure the entire development environment required to develop: Android SDK, Java SDK, Android NDK, Ouya DK and Unity.The book then introduces you to Unity: how to program using Boo, C# or Unity Script, explaining the pros and contras for each one of them. It then describes how to setup the scenes, create scripts with MonoDevelop, define the sequence of the scenes and creating and managing game levels. Therefore the book provides examples that shows you how to use, place, texture and display prefabs within the scenes, how to use the camera, how to create, animate and make a character to move responding to the PC keyboard, Ouya game controls and touchscreens. It also provides examples about how to treat the physics in game like collisions, pushing game objects and other player movements, how to manage the level goals and the navigation between levels.Finally it explores the option to make your game available at the Ouya market place. It describes how to modify your game to provide first a trial that can be upgraded to a full game and also how to make in-app purchases. It also explains how you can port your game using the existing Unity project to Android in a very few and clear steps.Personally I find this book very useful and I get really surprised how fast I can start to use Unity, create a first game and port it to Android only making a few changes. This book has provided me several hints about planned portability that I will employ in my future developments.This book shows you how to game develop using Unity for Ouya nevertheless I've selected this book mainly because I'm interested on Unity development for Android. This book has provided me with a complete step-by-step guide. I recommend this book to everyone that is interested in a fast learning guide to learn how to develop 3D games using Unity with Ouya and Android.

Amazon Verified review

Tim Dec 10, 2013

I found the content of this book both fun and enlightening. The author, Gary Riches, does a remarkable job of presenting the topics discussed in a very approachable format, using language that is simple enough for a beginner without making the book unapproachable by an experienced programmer.Overall, the book has very few down points. Personally, I did not like the presentation of the first chapter which gives a very brief look at the history of the video game industry. This seems to be a running trend in game development books and quite frankly I feel it detracts from the book ever so slightly. For anyone that is not interested in the brief lesson in history or those that are already familiar with the history of the video game industry, I would recommend simply skipping the first chapter and moving on to the truly useful content that starts with Chapter 2.From Chapter 2 forward the book really shows its true colors as a useful reference book for both beginners that need to learn the basics of Unity and for more experienced Unity developers that are interested in porting projects to the Ouya console.Experienced users will find the book’s project simple enough that they can have the full project completed and running on an Ouya in a very short amount of time. For complete beginners, the project contains enough material that you should be very comfortable with the Unity editor and its basic capabilities when the project is complete.In regards to the code that is written throughout the book, the author chose the C# programming language; I can’t say enough that this is an amazing choice and I wish that C# would become the standard language for books on developing in Unity. In fact, the author even addresses why C# is a superior choice for developing Unity projects in Chapter 3 as he discusses the basic properties of the three languages you can use with Unity: Boo, UnityScript, and C#.Although the book is short in length, it is by no means lacking in technical details. The author has a nice approach on everything from setting up the software to creating the mechanics for the game, which will leave you very comfortable with the material that was presented. I particularly enjoyed how the author addressed common problems that can arise throughout everything in the book. These quick bits of insight regarding troubleshooting are something that I feel should be included in every book that aims to introduce concepts across multiple portions of an integrated development kit like Unity. Everything from Ouya specific settings to common missteps in creating interactive objects within the game includes these little snippets that point you to the most common problems that can arise so you don’t have to go back through every step along the way to find the problem.All in all, if you are an experienced Unity developer, this book will give you insights you may need for developing for the Ouya console. If you are a beginner, this book will open you up to the possibilities of developing for multiple platforms with Unity in a very short period of time.

Amazon Verified review

Nicolas Garcia Jan 29, 2016

No es un libro sobre Unity 3D al uso y es más bien corto pero puede venir muy bien si ya tienes unos conocimientos mínimos de Unity y quieres añadirle ese extra para manejar el controlador de la Ouya, aceptar micropagos y mucho más. Yo lo compré en combinación con otro de Unity y me ha venido muy bien para empezar a probar mis proyectos en el pequeño cubo.

Amazon Verified review

Corey Blackburn Dec 20, 2013

You are probably here because you've heard of this new piece of technology called the Ouya, and you want to develop games for it. Unfortunately as is always the case with new technology there isn't much information available out yet. Well this book is for you so if you're looking to deploy your game on Ouya I recommend you check it out.The author starts out with a brief history of how video games came to be. Personally, I think this is best left to it's own book, as there is more information to cover than this book has spare pages for. At the end of this chapter it goes over the history of Ouya and it's release.Next the author goes into a comprehensive set up for getting unity ready to deploy to the Ouya. The author is very through and the guide is easy to follow.Even though the book assumes that you have a basic understanding of Unity this next chapter gives a great overview of Unity. Starting with explaining the three different scripting languages available(Boo, C# and UnityScript) and why the author chooses C#. Then he goes over the project structure, setting up your scenes, scripts with MonoDevelop and ends with creating our first level.Now that the groundwork is laid out the next two chapters we focus on making our game. The author walks us through moving the camera and the player, adding controller support, loading in the player model and adding animation. The code is explained as we go and is even commented. Now that we got a rough playable game, we go over polishing it up. We are taught how to add texture to our prefabs, make a skysphere, how to add more levels and check for level completion and add sounds to our game.In case you were wanting to make some money from inside our game the author now walks us through setting up In-app purchases. This chapter is ended by explaining how to submit our game. Yay, we've done it!As if that wasn't enough the author now guides us through one of Unity's most powerful features, cross-platform development. The author explains platform dependent compilation and then guides us through the changes we need to make so that our game runs on both Ouya and other Android devices.The source code is nicely commented, easy to read and understand. The project runs smoothly right off the bat without having to fix any errors.Overall this was an excellent book. It was complete and topics were explained very well and even cover common fail points. We set up Unity to deploy to Ouya, made a game and polished it, we added in-app purchases, and then we learned how to make our game run cross-platform on other android devices. If you're looking to deploy your game on Ouya or want a comprehensive introduction to development with Unity I would recommend this book.

Amazon Verified review

RUBEN D. HOYOS U. Dec 07, 2013

Excellent book, have good content, the technical part is very complete. The source code is very useful. The basic project worked perfect, was able to publish in the console. CONGRATULATIONS!

Amazon Verified review

Ouya Unity Game Development: Understanding Unity means you can quickly get the know-how to develop games for the Android-based Ouya console. This is the guide that will take you all the way from setting up the software to monetizing your games.

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