Introduction to Unity

By John Bura, Alexandra Kropova and Glauco Pires

Do you want to make your own 2D or 3D game? Unity is the Number One free program for building VR games. In this book, we use Unity and C# to create several games from scratch.

The first part of this book is an introduction to Unity for those who have never used it before. You learn the interface, set up scenes, and make game objects. We create a 2D game where a player shoots a bullet at a wall to trigger an explosion.

In Part Two, we create a 3D shooter game where a player enters a castle and attacks enemies. You learn how to customize the appearance and behavior of objects using C# scripts. You learn crucial concepts of coding in C# for Unity: variables, methods, input, and more.

By the end of this book, you have a 2D bullet explosion game and a 3D VR shooter game that you can show off in your portfolio.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 3, 2017
• ISBN: 9781365869297

Book preview

Introduction to Unity

Introduction to Unity

by John Bura and Glauco Pires

Copyright

© 2017 Mammoth Interactive, Inc. All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-1-365-86929-7

Printed in Canada.

Published by Mammoth Interactive, Inc., 218 – 111 West Broadway, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V5Y 1P4.

Mammoth Interactive books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use.

Content Creators: John Bura and Glauco Pires

Transcriber/Editor: Alexandra Kropova

April 2017: First Edition

About the Author

When game enthusiast John Bura wanted to learn game development back in 2009, he could not find any classes to take. So he purchased a DVD set and learned that way. He learned how to build a game with an efficiency he had never seen in any of his university classes.

John felt compelled to share his new-found enthusiasm for this self-guided approach to learning. He founded Mammoth Interactive, with the goal that he would take online education to the next level. And so evolved Mammoth Interactive's holistic approach to teaching that did not just aim at someone who wanted to fine-tune their skills.

John's goal was to teach everyone, from your eight-year-old cousin to your eighty-year-old grandparent. Anyone can be a game developer. All that jargon can be replaced with practical, useful projects that students create alongside the instructor.

Since 2009, over 300,000 students have enrolled in Mammoth Interactive. And they love it. Go to www.mammothinteractive.com to get free stuff, courses, books, apps, games, t-shirts, daily deals, and more!

www.mammothinteractive.com

Introduction

In this book, you will learn how to use Unity and C# to create several games from scratch. The first part of this book is an introduction to Unity for those who have never used it before. Unity is the Number One free program for building virtual reality (VR) games.

In Pat One, we will create a 2D game where a player shoots a bullet at a wall to trigger an explosion. You will learn how to set up a scene, add objects, and change the appearance of your game in Unity. You will also learn how to import packages from the Asset Store.

In Part Two, we will create a 3D shooter game where a player enters a castle and attacks enemies. You will learn how to use the C# programming language to create scripts for your games. Thus you will be able to customize the behavior and appearance of your game objects.

By the end of this book, you will have practical games that you can show off in your portfolio. Ready to begin?

Part 1: Unity Editor 5

If you want to make a VR game, Unity is the program for you. The Unity engine comes with built-in models, materials, and more, which you can use to make your own 2D or 3D games.

Unity is the most popular platform for building VR games. You can build a variety of 2D and 3D games with its user-friendly interface.

In Part One, we will cover features of the Unity engine. We will look at 3D models, simple shapes like cubes and spheres. We will look at how to navigate throughout a scene, add shapes, and change appearances.

Chapter 1: Downloading Unity

To download Unity, visit www.unity3d.com. On the homepage, press the button Get Unity now.

You will be taken to a page containing versions of Unity that you can download. The Personal version is free. You can publish games to the App Store with this version. Click on the Download Now button in the Personal bar.

Press Download Installer, which will download the helper file UnityDownloaderAssistant. Double-click the file, and open the Unity Download Assistant file that appears.

Press the Open button from the pop-up that appears. Then press Continue from the installation instructions. Read the terms of service, and press Continue and Agree if you agree with them.

Then you will see options on which Unity components you wish to download. Ensure that the top three items are selected (Unity 5.4.3f1, Documentation, and Standard Assets). You can select additional components to install extra files.

Press Continue. Once the files are installed, you can open Unity!

Chapter 2: Introduction to Unity

To make a new project in Unity, click on NEW in the top right of Unity's start screen.

In the start screen, you can adjust some of the project's settings.

Give the project a name and location. The Location field refers to the folder in which you want to save the project. It is good practice to create a new folder just for your Unity projects so that you can easily find them.

Have the 3D rendering mode enabled. Press the Create Project button. Unity will create a folder with the same name as your project name in the location you specified.

The Unity Editor will open. Your screen will look like the following:

The left sidebar is the Hierarchy window. This is like the hierarchy you have in your operating system. For example, in your Pictures folder, you may have sub-folders of events that group together photos.

The Hierarchy lists the names of the objects in the game's scene. Each object can have its own hierarchy. Currently, we have the items Main Camera and Directional Light, which are game objects. Anything that changes how a game works visually or internally, such as a player, enemy, or explosion, should be in a game object.

You can see the objects listed in the Hierarchy in the Scene window, which is the window in the center of your screen. The Scene displays the virtual world you build for a game.

Right-click in the Scene window. The cursor will change to an icon of an eye, as evident in the next image. While holding the right mouse button, you can move the cursor to look around the Scene.

Another way to navigate the Scene is to press the W, A, S, and D keys on your keyboard while holding the right mouse button. This is like the left, right, forward, and back arrow controls on a video game handheld.

Click on Main Camera in the Hierarchy. Arrows will appear around the camera symbol in the Scene.

The Main Camera renders (draws) the game for the player. It can be thought of as a player. While Main Camera is selected, there is a Camera Preview box in the bottom right of the scene. The Camera Preview shows the scene from the perspective of a player.

To see the scene from a player's point of view, click on the Game tab beside the Scene tab. The Game window will open, as in the following screenshot.

Re-open the Scene window. Click on Directional Light in the Hierarchy. Arrows will appear around the Directional Light's symbol in the Scene. The Directional Light emits light rays. You can change this game object to change the lighting of a scene.

The window to the right of the Scene contains the Inspector. This window shows details of a selected item, such as a game object in the Scene or a file in our project.

Click on Main Camera. The Inspector will fill with attributes of Main Camera that you can change. At the top is the name of the game object.

The Tag tab allows you to label the object. The Layer tab is not often changed for Main Camera because