Learning 2D Game Development with Unity: A Hands-On Guide to Game Creation (Paperback)

The Unity Engine Tutorial for Any Game Creator

Unity is now the world’s #1 game engine, thanks to its affordability, continuous improvements, and amazing global community. With Unity, you can design, code, and author your game once, and then deploy it to multiple platforms, reaching huge audiences and earning maximum returns. Learning 2D Game Development with Unity® will help you master Unity and build powerful skills for success in today’s game industry. It also includes a bonus rundown of the new GUI tools introduced in Unity’s version 4.6 beta.

With this indispensable guide, you’ll gain a solid, practical understanding of the Unity engine as you build a complete, 2D platform-style game, hands-on. The step-by-step project will get you started fast, whether you’re moving to Unity from other engines or are new to game development.

This tutorial covers the entire development process, from initial concept, plans, and designs to the final steps of building and deploying your game. It illuminates Unity’s newly integrated 2D toolset, covering sprites, 2D physics, game scripts, audio, and animations. Throughout, it focuses on the simplest and lowest-cost approaches to game development, relying on free software and assets. Everything you’ll need is provided.

Register your book at informit.com/title/9780321957726 to access assets, code listings, and video tutorials on the companion website.

Learn How To

• Set up your Unity development environment and navigate its tools
• Create and import assets and packages you can add to your game
• Set up game sprites and create atlas sheets using the new Unity 2D tools
• Animate sprites using keyframes, animation controllers, and scripting
• Build a 2D game world from beginning to end
• Establish player control
• Construct movements that “feel right”
• Set up player physics and colliders
• Create and apply classic gameplay systems
• Implement hazards and tune difficulty
• Apply audio and particle effects to the game
• Create intuitive game menus and interface elements
• Debug code and provide smooth error handling
• Organize game resources and optimize game performance
• Publish your game to the web for others to see and play

Matthew Johnson, principal 3D artist at Firebrand Games, has worked in game development for more than seven years, contributing to more than a dozen AAA racing games, including Nascar, Hot Wheels, and the Need for Speed series. He has helped publish titles on a variety of platforms, including PC, Wii-U, iOS, Android, and Steam.

James A. Henley has spent a decade working on major titles and franchises including Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Star Wars, and Skylanders. He entered the industry as a Neverwinter Nights modder, transforming his love of gaming into a professional career at BioWare, spending eight years with its Edmonton and Austin studios in multiple design roles.