Beginning 3D Game Development with Unity 4 is perfect for those who would like to come to grips with programming Unity. You may be an artist who has learned 3D tools such as 3ds Max, Maya, or Cinema 4D, or you may come from 2D tools such as Photoshop and Illustrator. On the other hand, you may just want to familiarize yourself with programming games and the latest ideas in game production.

This book introduces key game production concepts in an artist-friendly way, and rapidly teaches the basic scripting skills you'll need with Unity. It goes on to show how you, as an independent game artist, can create interactive games, ideal in scope for today's casual and mobile markets, while also giving you a firm foundation in game logic and design.

• The first part of the book explains the logic involved in game interaction, and soon has you creating game assets through simple examples that you can build upon and gradually expand.
• In the second part, you'll build the foundations of a point-and-click style first-person adventure game—including reusable state management scripts, dialogue trees for character interaction, load/save functionality, a robust inventory system, and a bonus feature: a dynamically configured maze and mini-map.
• With the help of the provided 2D and 3D content, you'll learn to evaluate and deal with challenges in bite-sized pieces as the project progresses, gaining valuable problem-solving skills in interactive design.

By the end of the book, you will be able to actively use the Unity 3D game engine, having learned the necessary workflows to utilize your own assets. You will also have an assortment of reusable scripts and art assets with which to build future games.

What you’ll learn

• How to build interactive games that work on a variety of platforms
• Take the tour around Unity user interface fundamentals, scripting and more
• Create a test environment and gain control over functionality, cursor control, action objects, state management, object metadata, message text and more
• What is inventory logic and how to manage it
• How to handle 3D object visibility, effects and other special cases
• How to handle variety of menus and levels in your games development
• How to handle characters, scrollers, and more How to create or integrate a story/walkthrough
• How to use the new Mecanim animation

Who this book is for

Students or artists familiar with tools such as 3ds Max or Maya who want to create games for mobile platforms, computers, or consoles, but with little or no experience in scripting or the logic behind games development.

Table of Contents

01.    Introduction to Game Development

02.    Unity UI basics

03.    Introduction to Scripting

04.    Terrain Generation and Environment

05.    Exploring Navigation

06.    Cursor Control and Interaction

07.    Importing Assets

08.    Action Objects

09.    Managing State

10.    Exploring Transitions

11.    Physics and Special Effects

12.    Message Text and HUD

13.    Inventory Logic

14.    Managing Inventory

15.    Dialogue Trees

16.    Mecanim

17.    Game Environment

18.    Setting up the Game

19.    Menus and Levels