Unity 3D Game Development by Example Beginner's Guide

Table of Contents

Unity 3D Game Development by Example

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Time for action - heading

What just happened?

Have a go hero - heading

Reader feedback

Customer support

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. That's One Fancy Hammer!

Introducing Unity 3D

Unity takes over the world

Browser-based 3D? Welcome to the future

Time for action - install the Unity Web Player

Welcome to Unity 3D!

What can I build with Unity?

FusionFall

Completely hammered

Should we try to build FusionFall?

Another option

Off-Road Velociraptor Safari

Fewer features, more promise

Maybe we should build Off-Road Velociraptor Safari?

I bent my Wooglie

Big Fun Racing

Diceworks

Walk before you can run (or double jump)

There's no such thing as finished

Stop! Hammer time

Explore Demo island

The wonders of technology!

The Scene window

The Game window

The Hierarchy

The Project panel

The Inspector

Invade Island Demo as a paratrooper

Layers and layout dropdowns

Playback controls

Scene controls

Don't stop there live a little!

Summary

Big ambition, tiny games

2. Let's Start with the Sky

That little lightbulb

The siren song of 3D

Features versus content

A game with no features

Mechanic versus skin

Trapped in your own skin

That singular piece of joy

One percent inspiration

Motherload

Heads up!

Artillery Live!

Pong

The mechanic that launched a thousand games

Have a go hero - redesign your favorite games

Toy or story

Pop quiz finding that singular piece of joy

Redefining the sky

Summary

Let's begin

3. Game #1: Ticker Taker

Kick up a new Unity project

Where did everything go?

'Tis volley

Keep the dream alive

Slash and burn!

The many faces of keep-up

Creating the ball and the hitter

Time for action - create the ball

What just happened that's all there is to it?

A ball by any other name

Time for action - rename the ball

Origin story

XYZ/RGB

Time for action - move the ball into the sky

Time for action - shrink the ball

Time for action - save your Scene

Time for action - add the Paddle

What's a Mesh?

Poly wanna crack your game performance?

Keeping yourself in the dark

Time for action - add a light

Time for action - move and rotate the light

Have a go hero - let there be (additional) light

Extra credit

Are you a luminary?

Who turned out the lights?

Darkness reigns

Time for action - test your game

Let's get physical

Time for action - add physics to your game

Understanding the gravity of the situation

More bounce to the ounce

Time for action - make the ball bouncy

Have a go hero - DIY physic materials

Summary

Following the script

4. Code Comfort

What is code?

Time for action - write your first Unity Script

A leap of faith

Lick it and stick it

Disappear Me!

What just happened?

It's all Greek to me

You'll never go hungry again

With great sandwich comes great responsibility

Examining the code

Time for action - find the Mesh Renderer component

Time for action - make the ball reappear

Ding!

Time for action - journey to the Unity Script Reference

The Renderer class

Have a go hero - pulling the wings off flies

What's another word for huh?

It's been fun

Time for action - unstick the Script

Gone, but not forgotten

Why code?

Equip your baby bird

Time for action - create a new MouseFollow Script

What just happened?

A capital idea

Animating with code

Time for action - animate the Paddle

What just happened - what witchcraft is this?

Why didn't the paddle animate before?

Pick a word (almost) any word

Screen Coordinates versus World Coordinates

Move the Paddle

Worst. Game. Ever.

See the matrix

Time for action - animate the Paddle

A tiny bit o' math

Tracking the numbers

Futzing with the numbers

Time for action - log the new number

She's A-Work!

Somebody get me a bucket

Time for action - declare a variable to store the screen midpoint

What just happened we've Gone too Var

Using all three dees

Time for action - follow the Y position of the mouse

A keep-up game for robots

Once more into the breach

Time for action - revisit the Unity Language Reference

Our work here is done

Time for action - add the sample code to your Script

One final tweak

What's a quaternion?

Wait, what's a quaternion?

WHAT THE HECK IS A QUATERNION??

Educated guesses

More on Slerp

Right on target

Have a go hero - time to break stuff

Keep it up

Beyond the game mechanic

5. Game #2: Robot Repair

You'll totally flip

A blank slate

You're making a scene

Time for action - set up two Scenes

No right answer

Time for action - prepare the GUI

The beat of your own drum

Time for action - create and link a custom GUI skin

What just happened?

Time for action - create a button UI control

What just happened?

Have a go hero - no sense sitting around on your button

Want font?

Cover your assets

Time for action - nix the mipmapping

Front and center

Time for action - center the button

What just happened investigating the code

To the game!

Time for action - add both scenes to the build list

Set the stage for robots

Time for action - prepare the game Scene

The game plan

Have some class!

Time for action - store the essentials

Start me up

Going loopy

The anatomy of a loop

To nest is best

Seeing is believing

Time for action - create an area to store the grid

Have a go hero - don't take my word for it!

Build that grid

What just happened grokking the code

Now you're playing with power!

6. Game #2: Robot Repair Part 2

From zero to game in one chapter

Finding your center

Time for action - center the game grid vertically

What just happened?

Time for action - center the game grid horizontally

What just happened coding like a ninja

Down to the nitty griddy

Do the random card shuffle

Time for action - prepare to build the deck

Let's break some robots

Time for action - build the deck

What just happened dissecting the bits

Time for action - modify the img argument

What just happened?

What exactly is this?

Have a go hero - grokketh-thou Random.Range()?

Random reigns supreme

Second dragon down

Time to totally flip

Time for action - make the cards two-sided

Time for action - build the card-flipping function

Time for action - build the card-flipping function

What just happened dissecting the flip

Pumpkin eater

What just happened?

Stabby McDragonpoker rides again

Game and match

Time for action - ID the cards

What just happened?

Time for action - compare the IDs

What just happened?

On to the final boss

Endgame

Time for action - check for victory

What just happened?

Have a go hero - extra credit

Endgame

Bring. It. On.

7. Don't Be a Clock Blocker

Apply pressure

Time for action - prepare the clock script

Time for more action prepare the clock text

Still time for action change the clock text color

Time for action - rides again create a font texture and material

Time for action - what's with the tiny font?

What just happened - was that seriously magic?

Time for action - prepare the clock code

What just happened that's a whole lotta nothing

Time for action - create the countdown logic

Time for action - display the time on-screen

What just happened what about that terrifying code?

Picture it

Time for action - grab the picture clock graphics

What just happened you can do that?

Time for action - flex those GUI muscles

What just happened how does it work?

The incredible shrinking clock

Keep your fork there's pie!

Pop quiz how do we build it?

How they did it

Time for action - rig up the textures

Time for action - write the pie chart Script

What just happened?

Time for action - commence operation pie clock

What just happened explaining away the loose ends

Time for action - positioning and scaling the clock

Have a go hero - rock out with your clock out

Unfinished business

8. Ticker Taker

Welcome to Snoozeville

Model behavior

Time for action - explore the models

Time for action - hands up!

What just happened size matters

Time for action - change the FBX import scale settings

Time for action - make the Mesh Colliders convex

Time for action - make the Hands and Tray follow the Mouse

What just happened monkey see, monkey do

Time for action - get your heart on

Time for action - ditch the Ball and Paddle

What just happened bypass the aorta

Time for action - material witness

What just happened understanding Materials

Have a go hero - add Materials to the other models

This Just In: This Game Blows

Time for action - multiple erections

Time for action - create a font texture

Time for action - create the HeartBounce Script

What just happened charting a collision course

Time for action - tag the tray

Time for action - tweak the bounce

What just happened storing velocity

Time for action - keeping track of the bounces

Time for action - add the lose condition

What just happened understanding the code

Time for action - add the Play Again button

What just happened?

Ticker Taken

9. Game #3: The Break-Up

Time for action - bombs away!

Time for action - poke those particles

Time for action - create a Spark Material

Have a go hero - time to ignite your creative Spark

Time for action - prefabulous

What just happened what's a Prefab?

Time for action - lights, camera, apartment

Time for action - add the character

Time for action - register the animations

Time for action - script the character

What just happened stepping through the step code

Time for action - open the Pod Bay Door, Hal

Time for action - collision-enable the Character

Time for action - re-Prefab the Prefab

Time for action - apocalypse now?

Time for action - go boom

Time for action - the point of impact

Time for action - hook up the explosion

Summary

10. Game #3: The Break-Up Part 2

Time for action - amass some glass

Time for action - create a Particle System

What just happened getting smashed

Time for action - make it edgier!

What just happened I fall to pieces

Time for action - contain the explosion

What just happened duped?

Time for action - let's get lazy

What just happened FallingObject: The PuppetMaster

Very variable?

Terminal velocity is a myth bombs fall faster

What just happened when Game Objects collide?

Time for action - tag the objects

Time for action - write the collision detection code

Time for action - animation interrupts

What just happened the impenetrable stare

Time for action - add facial explosions

What just happened raindrops keep 'sploding on my head

Time for action - make some noise

Time for action - add sounds to the FallingObjectScript

What's the catch?

Have a go hero - sound off

Time for action - mix it up a bit

Have a go hero - filling in the gaps

Summary

11. Game #4: Shoot the Moon

Time for action - duplicate your game project

Time for action - space this sucker up a bit

Time for action - enter the hero

Time for action - it's a hit!

Time for action - bring on the bad guys

Time for action - do some housekeeping

Time for action - fixing the fall

Time for action - tweak the hero

What just happened hooray for lazy!

Time for action - give up the func

Time for action - itchy trigger finger

Time for action - futurize the bullet

Time for action - building Halo

Time for action - fire!

Time for action - Code Do-Si-Do

What just happened eat lead

Time for action - the maaagic of aaaarguments

Time for action - add the most important part of any spaceshooter

Last year's model

Have a go hero - filling in the empty space

Summary

More hospitality

12. Action!

Open heart surgery

Time for action - haul in the hallway

Time for action - meet me at camera two

Time for action - adjust the Main Camera

Time for action - deck the halls

Time for action - turn on the lights

Time for action - set up the camera rig

Time for action - animate the bouncer

What just happened red and raging

Time for action - I like to move it move it

Have a go hero - bounce your brains out

Time for action - animate the runner

What just happened holy hospital rampage, Batman!

Time for action - how to handle Nurse Slipperfoot

Time for action - you spin me right round

Have a go hero - give Robo-Nurse a soul

Have a go hero - use your new-found powers for good

Time for action - deploy your game

Time to grow

Beyond the book

A. References

Online resources

Offline resources

Free development tools

Graphics

Sound

Content sites

Game Portals

Index

Unity 3D Game Development by Example

Unity 3D Game Development by Example

Copyright © 2010 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: September 2010

Production Reference: 1170910

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd. 32 Lincoln Road Olton Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK.

ISBN 978-1-849690-54-6

www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by Ed Maclean (<edmaclean@gmail.com> )

Credits

Author

Ryan Henson Creighton

Reviewers

Aaron Cross

Clifford Peters

Chico Queiroz

Acquisition Editor

David Barnes

Development Editor

Dhiraj Chandiramani

Technical Editor

Namita Sahni

Copy Editor

Lakshmi Menon

Indexer

Monica Ajmera Mehta

Editorial Team Leaders

Aditya Belpathak

Project Team Leader

Lata Basantani

Project Coordinator

Srimoyee Ghoshal

Proofreaders

Lynda Sliwoski

Chris Smith

Jonathan Todd

Production Coordinator

Arvindkumar Gupta

Cover Work

Arvindkumar Gupta

About the Author

Ryan Henson Creighton is a veteran game developer, and the founder of Untold Entertainment Inc. (http://www.untoldentertainment.com/blog) where he creates games and applications for kids, teens, tweens, and preschoolers. Prior to founding Untold, Ryan worked as the Senior Game Developer at Canadian media conglomerate Corus Entertainment, creating advergames and original properties for YTV and Treehouse TV using Flash. Ryan is hard at work developing a suite of original products with Untold Entertainment. He maintains one of the most active and enjoyable blogs in the industry.

When Ryan is not developing games, he's goofing off with his two little girls and his fun-loving wife in downtown Toronto.

Big thanks to Cheryl, Cassandra, and Isabel for their love, their support, and their cinnamon rolls. Thanks to Jean-Guy Niquet for introducing me to Unity; to Jim McMajorSupporter McGinley for help with the book outline and ongoing mentorship; to the technical reviewers and Packt staff for letting me leave a few jokes in the book; and to David Barnes, for having such a great sense of humor in the first place. Special thanks to Michael Garforth and friends from the #Unity3D IRC channel on Freenode. I also want to thank Mom, God, and all the usual suspects.

About the Reviewers

Aaron Cross is a freelance video game developer based in Wellington, New Zealand. A successful musician and music producer, film-maker, and 3D artist, he switched his focus to game development in 2006. He has since produced four video game titles, and has provided art and programming solutions to Unity developers across the globe, from Canada and the U.K. to as far south as the Australian heritage sites on the continent of Antarctica.

As well as commercial games, he has developed simulations for medical training, architectural visualization, science and research, conservation, and visual reconstructions for evidence used in court cases, using the Unity game engine.

He can be contacted through his website:http://deepwater3d.com.

Clifford Peters is an average Unity user who has enjoyed using Unity over the past few years. He plans to one day become a professional Unity user and to be able to use Unity in his career. To help realize this goal, Clifford is going to college to increase his knowledge in the fields of Math and Computer Science.

Clifford has also helped to review the Unity book: Unity Game Development Essentials, Packt Publishing.

Chico Queiroz is a multimedia designer living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Having completed an MA degree in Digital Games Design from the University for the Creative Arts at Farnham, Chico has worked in areas such as webgames and advergames design and development. He has also published articles in academic game conferences and websites such as gameology.org, gamasutra.com, and gamecareerguide.com.

Chico currently works as a Digital Designer at the Computer Graphics Technology Group (TeCGraf), a laboratory within the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro where he also works as a lecturer, teaching subjects such as 3D modeling and image editing to design students.

Thank you Ana and Alice for all the love and support.

Preface

Game Developer has rapidly replaced firetruck as the number one thing that kids want to be when they grow up. Gone are the days when aspiring developers needed a university education, a stack of punch cards, and a room-sized computer to program a simple game. With digital distribution and the availability of inexpensive (or free) games development tools like Unity 3D, the democratization of game development is well underway.

But just as becoming a firetruck is fraught with perils, so too is game development. Too often, aspiring developers underestimate the sheer enormity of the multidisciplinary task ahead of them. They bite off far more than they can chew, and eventually drift away from their game development dreams to become lawyers or dental hygienists. It's tragic. This book bridges the gap between I wanna make games! and I just made a bunch of games! by focusing on small, simple projects that you can complete before you reach the bottom of a bag of corn chips.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, That's One Fancy Hammer!, introduces you to Unity 3D an amazing game engine that enables you to create games and deploy them to a number of different devices, including (at the time of writing) the Web, PCs, iOS platforms, and WiiWare, with modules for Android and Xbox Live Arcade deployment in the works. You'll play a number of browser-based Unity 3D games to get a sense of what the engine can handle, from a massively-multiplayer online game all the way down to a simple kart racer. You'll download and install your own copy of Unity 3D, and mess around with the beautiful Island Demo that ships with the product.

Chapter 2, Let's Start with the Sky, explores the difference between a game's skin and its mechanic. Using examples from video game history, including Worms, Mario Tennis, and Scorched Earth, we'll uncover the small, singular piece of joy upon which more complicated and impressive games are based. By concentrating on the building blocks of video games, we'll learn how to distil an unwieldy behemoth of a game concept down to a manageable starter project.

Chapter 3, Game #1: Ticker Taker, puts you in the pilot seat of your first Unity 3D game project. We'll explore the Unity environment and learn how to create and place primitives, add Components like physic materials and rigidbodies, and make a ball bounce on a paddle using Unity's built-in physics engine without ever breaking a sweat.

Chapter 4, Code Comfort, continues the keep-up game project by gently introducing scripting. Just by writing a few simple, thoroughly-explained lines of code, you can make the paddle follow the mouse around the screen to add some interactivity to the game. This chapter includes a crash course in game scripting that will renew your excitement for programming where high school computer classes may have failed you.

Chapter 5, Game#2: Robot Repair, introduces an often-overlooked aspect of game development: front-of-house User Interface design the buttons, logos, screens, dials, bars, and sliders that sit in front of your game is a complete discipline unto itself. Unity 3D includes a very meaty Graphical User Interface system that allows you to create controls and fiddly bits to usher your players through your game. We'll explore this system, and start building a complete two-dimensional game with it! By the end of this chapter, you'll be halfway to completing Robot Repair, a colorful matching game with a twist.

Chapter 6, Game#2: Robot Repair Part 2, picks up where the last chapter left off. We'll add interactivity to our GUI-based game, and add important tools to our game development tool belt, including drawing random numbers and limiting player control. When you're finished with this chapter, you'll have a completely playable game using only the Unity GUI system, and you'll have enough initial knowledge to explore the system yourself to create new control schemes for your games.

Chapter 7, Don't be a Clock Blocker, is a standalone chapter that shows you how to build three different game clocks: a number-based clock, a depleting bar clock, and a cool pie wedge clock, all of which use the same underlying code. You can then add one of these clocks to any of the game projects in this book, or reuse the code in a game of your own.

Chapter 8, Ticker Taker, revisits the keep-up game from earlier chapters and replaces the simple primitives with 3D models. You'll learn how to create materials and apply them to models that you import from external art packages. You'll also learn how to detect collisions between Game Objects, and how to print score results to the screen. By the end of this chapter, you'll be well on your way to building Ticker Taker a game where you bounce a still-beating human heart on a hospital dinner tray in a mad dash for the transplant ward!

Chapter 9, Game#3: The Break-Up is a wild ride through Unity's built-in particle system that enables you to create effects like smoke, fire, water, explosions, and magic. We'll learn how to add sparks and explosions to a 3D bomb model, and how to use scripting to play and stop animations on a 3D character. You'll need to know this stuff to complete The Break-Up a catch game that has you grabbing falling beer steins and dodging explosives tossed out the window by your jilted girlfriend.

Chapter 10, Game#3: The Break-Up Part 2, completes The Break-Up game from the previous chapter. You'll learn how to reuse scripts on multiple different Game Objects, and how to build Prefabs, which enable you to modify a whole army of objects with a single click. You'll also learn to add sound effects to your games for a much more engaging experience.

Chapter 11, Game #4: Shoot the Moon, fulfills the promise of Chapter 2 by taking you through a re-skin exercise on The Break-Up. By swapping out a few models, changing the background, and adding a shooting mechanic, you'll turn a game about catching beer steins on terra firma into an action-packed space shooter! In this chapter, you'll learn how to set up a two-camera composite shot, how to use code to animate Game Objects, and how to re-jig your code to save time and effort.

Chapter 12, Action!, takes you triumphantly back to Ticker Taker for the coup de grace: a bouncing camera rig built with Unity's built-in animation system that flies through a model of a hospital interior. By using the two-camera composite from The Break-Up, you'll create the illusion that the player is actually running through the hospital bouncing a heart on a tin tray. The chapter ends with a refresher on bundling your project and deploying it to the Web so that your millions of adoring fans can finally experience your masterpiece.

What you need for this book

You'll need to be in possession of a sturdy hat, a desk chair equipped with a seatbelt, and an array of delicious snack foods that won't get these pages all cheesy (if you're reading the e-book version, you're all set). Early chapters walk you through downloading and installing Unity 3D (http://unity3d.com/unity/download/). A list of resources and links to additional software can be found in the appendix.

Who this book is for

If you've ever wanted to develop games, but have never felt smart enough to deal with complex programming, this book is for you. It's also a great kickstart for developers coming from other tools like Flash, Unreal Engine, and Game Maker Pro.

Conventions

In this book, you will find several headings appearing frequently.

To give clear instructions of how to complete a procedure or task, we use:

Time for action - heading

Action 1

Action 2

Action 3

Instructions often need some extra explanation so that they make sense, so they are followed with:

What just happened?

This heading explains the working of tasks or instructions that you have just completed.

You will also find some other learning aids in the book, including:

Have a go hero - heading

These set practical challenges and give you ideas for experimenting with what you have learned.

You will also find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and explanations of their meanings.

Code words in text are shown as follows: Find the BuildGrid() function.

A block of code is set as follows:

function Update () {

renderer.enabled = false;

}

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

var smooth