The basic engine, which is available as a free download below, offers everything you need to create your own games and deploy them to consoles, the PC or Mac, browser-based applications and, for an addition price, mobile devices. Unity offers a basic "Island" tutorial on it's website, though it really isn't enough if you want to get the most out of the engine.
Game Development with Unity won't make you a master by the time you're finished. Unity is a big engine and it will take hours, if not months, to get good with the systems. The book will, however, help you come to terms with the engine's core systems and get a basic grasp of the ins-and-outs.
Game Development with Unity introduces the key concepts to working with Unity, beginning with simple asset creation up to the last bits of polish such as lighting and particle effects. I've gone through numerous "tutorial" textbooks in the last few years, and really like how Game Development with Unity approaches the material. Topics are grouped into five larger sections, which collect similar topics in one place. Each section is then divided into chapters dedicated to specialized parts of the engine, such as character controls, shaders or A.I. controls.
The structure works incredibly well for the information presented. Although the book is meant more for beginners than seasoned developers, the format adds the flexibility of a general reference book in case someone needs to find a specific aspect of the engine.
The individual chapters are as straightforward as possible. Each introduces the topic then pushes through with information relevant to the game you're creating over the course of the book. The setup is great, though I wasn't super impressed with some of the explanations. Some effort is made to extend explanations beyond the example game, but they're still a little too contextual. Although the layout offers the flexibility of a reference text, I'm not sure if many developers will use Game Development with Unity as their primary resource. Then again, there are few "All Knowing, All Purpose" texts out there, so I can't fault Game Development with Unity for condensing some material. Like I tell my students, part of the job is knowing how to look up relevant information.
Although Game Development with Unity is meant for beginners, I would recommend getting familiar with coding before jumping into the book. Prior knowledge isn't mandatory, though it will help make sense of the jumble of numbers, symbols and words presented during examples. Unity natively supports C#, JavaScript and Boo (a version of Python). You're fine choosing either one, or all three if you want since Unity can operate with all - even with all three co-existing in the same project.
In addition to presenting information on using the engine, Game Development with Unity also makes an effort to let readers know that even though the book will teach you how to use Unity, it won't instantly make you a game DESIGNER. One of my biggest pet peeves with game development books is when it promises to make you a "great game designer" just by reading the book. It's even worse when a tutorial book is making the promise. The first few sections, as well as parts in later sections, are dedicated to covering why certain decisions are made about the tutorial game. Game Development with Unity also includes a sample design document, one of the unsung parts of game development.
Despite being a little out of date (Unity 3.0 was recently released, the book covers Unity 2.0), Game Development with Unity is an easy recommendation for aspiring game developers or anyone interested in figuring out how the technology works.
