Unity 3D and PlayMaker Essentials: Game Development from Concept to Publishing

In introducing new students to video game development, there are two crucial components to consider: design and implementation. Unity 3D and PlayMaker Essentials: Game Development from Concept to Publishing provides theoretical background on topics such as characters, stories, level design, interface design, audio, game mechanics, and tools and skills needed. Each chapter focuses on a specific topic, with topics building upon each other so that by the end of the book you will have looked into all the subjects relevant to creating your own game. The book transitions from discussion to demonstrations of how to implement techniques and concepts into practice by using Unity3D and PlayMaker. Download boxes are included throughout the book where you can get the version of the game project under discussion or other content to add to the project, as well as any supplementary video tutorials that have been developed. Addressing both theoretical and practical aspects, Unity 3D and PlayMaker Essentials enables you to understand how to create a game by having you make a game. By gradually completing your own design document through the course of the book, you will become familiar with core design principles while learning the practical skills needed to bring your unique game to life.

Table of Contents:
BACKGROUND Introduction Who Plays Games? How Are Games Made? Who Can Make Games? What Types of Games Are There? Summary Vocabulary Review Quiz Exercises Design Document Design Documents Introduction to the Design Document Sections of the Design Document Summary Vocabulary Review Quiz Exercises Design Document Using Unity and PlayMaker Installing Unity Unity’s Interface Using Unity Installing PlayMaker PlayMaker’s Interface State Machines Using PlayMaker Summary Vocabulary Review Quiz Exercises Design Document BUILDING BLOCKS Characters The Purpose of Characters Do Games Need Characters? Traditional Character Types Game Character Types Character Design Character Asset Design Importing Assets in Unity Character Control Systems Summary Vocabulary Review Quiz Exercises Design Document Non-Player Characters What Is Artificial Intelligence? Some Different Types of Artificial Intelligence Selecting an Artificial Intelligence System Designing a Threshold Guardian Implementing the Threshold Guardian Prefabs Summary Vocabulary Review Quiz Exercises Design Document Story What Is a Story? Does My Game Need a Story? How to Tell a Story The Building Blocks of a Story Aristotle and the Greeks The Return of Joseph Campbell Story Design Putting the Story into the Game Summary Vocabulary Review Quiz Exercises Design Document Environment Environments for Stories Environments for Games Creating the Terrain in Unity Dressing a Terrain with Standard Content Adding Imported Assets Lighting the Environment Boundaries Summary Vocabulary Review Quiz Exercises Design Document Mechanics What Are Game Mechanics? Where Do Mechanics Come From? Designing Our Mechanics Implementing Our Mechanics Summary Vocabulary Review Quiz Exercises Design Document BRINGING IT TOGETHER Audio How Audio Is Used in Games Finding Audio Introduction to Audacity Audio in Unity Using PlayMaker to Play Audio Summary Vocabulary Review Quiz Exercises Design Document The User Interface The Uses of User Interfaces User Interface Design The User Interface System of Unity Updating the User Interface with PlayMaker Summary Vocabulary Review Quiz Exercises Design Document Testing, Tweaking, and Publishing What Is Testing? Fixing and Tweaking Building the Game Summary Vocabulary Review Quiz Exercises Design Document