Unity Games by Tutorials – 17 Chapters Now Available!
We’re excited to tell you that the fourth and final early access release of Unity Games by Tutorials is out with a full 17 chapters and a brand-new game: Runestrife! By Chris Belanger.
This is a free update for those who have pre-ordered Unity Games by Tutorials.
If you haven’t pre-ordered Unity Games by Tutorials yet, read on to see how to get your copy!
What’s New in this Release?
We’ve added three new chapters that teach you how to build a great 3D tower defense-style game:
Learn how to create paths on your 3D tower defense map.
Add some action to your towers to fight off advancing waves of enemies!
Get up close and personal in virtual reality!
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Chapter 18, Making a Tower Defense Game:: Learn how to use manager classes, create utility scripts to make your life easier, and make enemies spawn on a predetermined path.
Learn how to create paths on your 3D tower defense map.
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Chapter 19, Making Towers: Carry on with your game; learn how to create waves of enemies, make towers that shoot projectiles, craft a UI that binds everything together, and create winning and losing logic.
Add some action to your towers to fight off advancing waves of enemies!
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Chapter 20, Virtual Reality: Make your game virtual-reality ready by transforming Runestrife into a VR game. Learn how to use the popular Oculus Rift and HTC Vive devices with Unity.
Get up close and personal in virtual reality!
Learn how to create paths on your 3D tower defense map.
Add some action to your towers to fight off advancing waves of enemies!
Get up close and personal in virtual reality!
What is Unity?
Unity is a a professional game engine used to create games like City Skylines, Hearthstone, the Long Dark, and more.
Unity’s aim is to “democratize” game development, by providing a AAA-level engine to independent game developers in a way that is both affordable and accessible.
Here are our top 5 reasons why Unity is great:
- It’s free to use. If you’re an indie game developer, you can download and start using Unity for free, which is great when you’re just learning.
- It’s cross-platform. With Unity, you make your game once and you can build it for a variety of platforms, including Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and more.
- It has a visual editor. Unlike other game platforms where you have to type tons of code before you see anything on the screen, with Unity you can simply import an asset and drag and drop. This visual style of development is great for beginners and professionals alike, and makes game development fast and fun.
- Live debugging. With Unity you can click a button to preview your game instantly in the editor, and you can even modify game objects on the fly. For example, you can drag new enemies onto the level as you play it, tweak gameplay values and more, allowing for an iterative game design process.
- Unity is fun! You can think of Unity like a box of legos: the only limits are those of your own imagination.
Here’s our recommendation:
- If you are an experienced iOS developer making a simple game and want to target iOS devices only, you may want to consider using one of Apple’s game frameworks. They are very easy to learn and leverage much of your existing iOS development experience.
- If you want to target non-iOS devices, or if you want to make games at a professional level, you may want to consider using Unity. Unity is much more powerful than the Apple game frameworks, and does not lock you into the iOS ecosystem, and that’s well worth the increased learning curve.
Here’s our recommendation:
- If you are an experienced iOS developer making a simple game and want to target iOS devices only, you may want to consider using one of Apple’s game frameworks. They are very easy to learn and leverage much of your existing iOS development experience.
- If you want to target non-iOS devices, or if you want to make games at a professional level, you may want to consider using Unity. Unity is much more powerful than the Apple game frameworks, and does not lock you into the iOS ecosystem, and that’s well worth the increased learning curve.
What Is Unity Games by Tutorials?
Unity Games by Tutorials is for complete beginners to Unity, or for those who’d like to bring their Unity skills to a professional level. Its goal is to teach you everything you need to know to make your own Unity games – via hands-on experience.
In Unity Games by Tutorials, you’ll learn how to build four games:
- A twin-stick shooter
- A first-person shooter
- A tower defense game (with VR support!)
- A 2D platfomer
Here’s a sneak peek of what you can look forward to in the full release:
Section I: Hello, Unity!
This section covers everything you need to know to get started with Unity. You’ll learn your way around the UI, how to work with game assets and physics, and create a 3D twin-stick combat game: Bobblehead Wars.
Here’s what you’ll cover while saving the world from creepy-crawly aliens:
- Chapter 1, Hello Unity: Learn how the Unity interface works and how to import assets into your project.
- Chapter 2, GameObjects: Learn about GameObjects and Prefabs by adding and laying out the initial objects for Bobblehead Wars.
- Chapter 3, Components: Learn how to use components to give your hero the ability to walk and blast away at the oncoming horde.
- Chapter 4, Physics: Learn the basics of game physics by adding collision detection and giving the hero the ability to turn on a dime.
- Chapter 5, GameManager and Pathfinding: Learn how to create the tools that spawn the aliens, and then make them chase after the hero.
- Chapter 6, Animations: Learn how to add animations to the marine and the aliens. It’s time for some shooting and chomping!
- Chapter 7, Sounds: Learn how to bring your game to life by adding background music and a variety of sound effects.
- Chapter 8, Finishing Touches: Learn how to add a winning and losing condition, and wrap up the game with some classy touches.