You’ll be pleased to know that I have teamed up with Packt Publishing and we are organizing a Giveaway for you. Three lucky winners stand a chance to win a copy of my book Unity 3.x Game Development Essentials. Keep reading to find out how you can be one of the Lucky Winners.
Overview of Unity 3.x Game Development Essentials
Kick start your game development, and build ready-to-play 3D games with ease.
Understand key concepts in game design including scripting, physics, instantiation, particle effects, and more.
Read more about this book and download free Sample Chapter
How to Enter?
All you need to do is head over to the book page (Unity 3.x Game Development Essentials book page) and look through the product description of the book and drop a line via the comments below to let us know what interests you the most about the book. It’s that simple. UPDATE: Please be aware that all comments on my blog are checked by hand so if it does not seem that your comment is submitted, it is just waiting to be approved!
Product description for Unity 3.x Game Essentials book :
Television. A fickle mistress. For every great series, there are a thousand in the way, just milling around, clogging up the airwaves, and making it hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. Sometimes we don’t need any help – it’s easy enough to block out the slew of Everybody Loves Raymond’s Two and a Half pricks lowest common denominator comedies, or the oh my god they subverted a stereotype to make a working class white family drama – but often, you just want to sit down and say damn it give me something that is well written, that stimulates rather than pacifies and makes it worth not going outside and interacting with the real world.
So I’ve been lucky enough to spot a few of such gems that people have passed on to me and I always think I should do the same and return the favour, so here are my big ten TV shows that I’ve seen in the past few years that if you missed, then you’re surely missing out.
The Obvious
Before we get into this list, I’m going to throw out some obvious ones that I think people might say ‘hey you left out..’ because I think I most folks will have heard of them and if they haven’t seen them, then they should know better! ok here goes – The Wire (http://amzn.to/sNmbTH), The Prisoner (1967) (http://amzn.to/tVx0sm), Oz (http://amzn.to/sjv90r), The Sopranos (http://amzn.to/w0MQU5), Firefly (http://amzn.to/v61Vuo), Quantum Leap (http://amzn.to/tz3Gol).. and okay so most of anything else I would mention here are in The Ten below so lets stop this list here.
The Honorable Mentions
Lets not get into this the whys and why nots but these didn’t make it into the rest of the list, but here’s some great filler..
Justified – Kind of like a cartoon, friendly mix of Burn Notice and Deadwood with Olyphant oddly embodying a modern day Seth Bullock. (http://amzn.to/tbCgjx)
Stargate Universe – think the Meat of BSG, Lost, Firely and several other shows turned into a slight less tasty but still fun pâté (http://amzn.to/t71wpd)
30 Rock – don’t get me wrong, this show IS hilarious, and well written but its not quite in the superawesome list – its just great. (http://amzn.to/tpmUTt)
Eastbound & Down – this tale of a former baseball star with all the attitude of Ron Burgundy, down on his luck, is fantastic if you’re a fan of the crass side of things. And I am. (http://amzn.to/uaGWCX)
Hung – Thomas ‘I just want my kids back’ Jane plays a school teacher who after splitting with his wife suffers a house fire that drains him of his cash, and has to turn to the world’s oldest profession, with hil-ar-ious consequences. (http://amzn.to/uD7PiZ)
True Blood – Great first two seasons, third one sucks (see I did a vampire joke, don’t hold it against me) fourth one.. slightly better I guess?.. (http://amzn.to/thUBnW)
Curb Your Enthusiasm – Larry David (Seinfeld co-creator/writer) stars as himself in this tour de force of cringeworthy comedy. You’ll love Larry but after 8 seasons of things going wrong for him, the format, although consistent is a little exhausting. That said, when he nails it, he nails it like no other writer. (http://amzn.to/sU4F0U)
The Life and Times of Tim – a very ‘The Office’ inspired awkwardness based show, this cartoon from HBO has a similar formula of impending doom for its protagonist to Curb… but sadly for Tim, he never quiet comes up smelling of roses in the way Larry often does. Brilliant writing, timing and character voicing make this one a winner. (http://amzn.to/rHgGui)
Dexter – A cool a quirky show, that continues to keep me guessing, but has never got ‘serious’ per se.. but still an awesome concept, premise: Forensics officer is secretly a serial killer who kills murderers before his team gets to them. (http://amzn.to/thJwX0)
The Walking Dead – An adaption of Robert Kirkman’s fantastic awesome comic series, with the amazing Frank Darabont directing its first season, this is well worth checking – though I think for those who have read the comics its hard not to draw parallels and grumble about narrative changes (http://amzn.to/t73TC1)
The Ten
1. Breaking Bad
Part of the AMC network you’ll likely have heard of via shows such as Mad Men, Breaking Bad is easily one of the most original shows I have ever seen. The main point here is that the idea for the show is original – it isn’t a ‘cop show’ or a ‘hospital drama’ or a ‘gangster show’ – its something unique and like a great novel has evolved beautifully and insightfully thus far over 3 seasons.
Breaking Bad centers around Walter White – a gifted scientist turned high school teacher, who upon discovering he has cancer turns to cooking meth in order to make money to secretly pay his medical bills. Portrayed by Bryan Cranston, who you’ll recognise.. well nearly.. as Malcolm in the Middle’s dad, the other main protagonist is Jesse, a high school drop out who acts as catalyst for White’s meth cooking.
The show develops like so many fail to, at a pace that leaves you wanting just enough to keep coming back, and not so much that every episode must be action packed, or an intense cliffhanger. This should be more difficult for a non-episodic show but Breaking Bad delights with a unique world in small town america, larger-than-life but not cartoon characters and is generally awesome from top to bottom. It mixes comedy, drama and action all in an original way, and I can’t wait for it to return for it’s fourth season. If you’re new to the show, check out this teaser or take my word for it and go grab the DVDs here -
From David Simon, creator of timeless classic The Wire and the criminally overlooked Generation Kill comes Treme, a fantastic character driven show centered around New Orleans Post-Katrina.
With a fantastic cast including a star turn by John Goodman and uplifting performances by Steve Zahn (yes, really) and Wendell Pierce (who you’ll maybe know as Bunk from The Wire), the show represents a gamut of realistic emotion not seen in most screen drama. The sense of community, loss and rebirth here is inspiring, and naturally, being centered around New Orleans it features some fantastic music both performed and incidental throughout.
Take time to get to know these characters, and have your spirits lifted and heart broken by the twists and turns as the characters’ paths cross. Another fine example of David Simon’s ability to capture the real world without making you feel it is refracted by the lens and screen at all.
Take a look at the trailer below or for pity’s sake just go get the boxed set. Then get up to date with season 2, started recently on HBO.
A now long-running stalwart of the ShowTime network, the longevity of Weeds is thanks in part to a number of factors. This is a show that began as a simple sitcom about a single mother (father deceased) – Nancy, played by Mary Louise Parker – of two boys selling weed to make extra cash and support her family. This soon expanded as her ambitions grew and consequences spiralled out of her control. So back to those factors, as I pretentiously put it – so first off, its hilarious – and no its not one of those ‘oh drug jokes are hilarious, high times things – the drug element her is more of a catalyst for certain events, and is never the cause of the family’s woes.
That’s what makes it unique – Nancy, her sons Silas and Shane and the surrounding cast of supporting characters all gel together as a result of her actions – actions that are completely irresponsible and irredeemable, yet still, you still want her to succeed and want the family to forgive her and carry on.
In the course of the six seasons thus far, the family have been through a lot, burnt down a town and moved all over America, its one of those comedies that is hard to describe – brilliantly written, purile and vulgar all at the same time. This is not something you’d want to sit and watch with the grandparents. Take a look at the trailer below and decide for yourself, but for me this one is a keeper.. so why not get the first couple of seasons?
If ever there was an all-star series that lived up to being far more than the sum of its part, truly Boardwalk Empire is it. Ostensibly for fans of gangster period dramas upon watching you’ll soon realise there is much more to this show than that.
The brainchild of Terence Winter of The Sopranos fame, Boardwalk Empire pulls in such Hollywood talent into this HBO production as Steve Buscemi as lead player Enoch ‘Nucky’ Thompson the eponymous empire maker, Michael Pitt in a star turn as Jimmy Darmody – a WWII vet finding a new home in the emergent gangster scene, along with the likes of Al Capone. The show is also exec produced by Scorcese who directed the opening episode, which maintains the authentic feel of his recent success with Shutter Island.
Wire fans (“Omar come!”) will also delight in the criminally underused Michael K. Williams as Chalky White, and fans of Kelly MacDonald should applaud her balance of feisty and downplayed feminist fervor as Margaret Schroder, the show’s Peggy Olsen for sure.
I’ve tried to introduce this show to as many friends as possible and noticed many have dismissed it as a gangster drama, its really very little to do with that, downplaying the context of prohibition era America to focus on larger than life but truer than true characters with all the silverscreen quality and empathy of Shawshank era Darabont.
Surely by now you’ve heard enough? Get your brain around the trailer below or grab the box set here, go on, you’ll thank me!
Long since finished, somewhat overlooked at the time – and often beaten in TV folk lore by The Wire and NYPD Blue as a Cop Show classic – The Shield stands alone as an epic drama with more wit, grit, shock and hard-nosed tension than the average viewer can handle.
Shawn Ryan’s 7 season long epic tells the tale of Detective Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) and his Strike team, busting drug gangs, making their own rules and generally being rather bad-ass. Now this synopsis and indeed the opening episode may seem to be somewhat overacted, cliche and perhaps even haphazard in its conception. But by the end of the opening episode – without spoiling why – you will be hooked.
The show focuses on almost documentary style shooting, often with an incidental camera tracking in a first person style. But this is no Dog the Bounty Hunter – the writing and immense depth of the 4 main characters and their grapple with the spiralling consequences of Mackey’s decisions and the clashes with authority make the show totally unmissable. Special mention must go to CCH Pounder as Claudette Wyms, a perpetual thorn in Mackey’s side, Beniton Martinez as David Aceveda – the boss that must deal with the Strike team and Forrest Whitaker as Jon Kavanaugh – the agent that threatens to unravel all of Mackey’s best laid plans.
An ultimate anti-hero, Vic Mackey is surrounded by his team who truly espouse every angle of his conscience and really bring what would otherwise be a cliched thug to life. Give this show a chance and you’ll see why it is so highly acclaimed by the criminally small number of people who have seen it from start to finish.
Here is a trailer for the first series, and as ever – a single click away from buying an awesome tv show.
Another one of those shows you’ve either heard of and loved, or know nothing about. David Duchovny IS Hank Moody, and when I say that I mean its one of those career defining roles that will make you think ‘Hey its Hank! rather than, hey its that Mulder guy…’. Two parts The Fonz, to two parts Hunter S. Thompson and just one part Cliff Huxtable, Henry ‘Hank’ Moody is a troubled author of a cult book that became a bad romcom, Hank is a hopeless romantic and womaniser fighting with his Mr Hyde side, a devoted father and pining would-be husband to the stunning Natasha McElhone, Hank’s long suffering on-off muse.
Throw into the mix two of the best support characters ever – Charlie and Marcy, and a host of stand-in love interests and diversions that drive each season and you’ve got one of the funniest, best written crude comedies ever created. If you love the romanticised idea of a rock and roll lifestyle but know the far more powerful force of family values, this show will ring very true to you, I absolutely implore to you watch this show.
Take a look at the trailer below, and then take time out to get the first season box set here, you won’t regret it.
Where to start with Battlestar? Put simply its a fantastic character-driven drama, set in the context of a space conflict between humanity, and an alien / cyborg species called the Cylons. Forget the original 70s tv show this is based upon – though the premise of this series is devised as being a follow on from a previous conflict with that species. This unfolds beautifully in the pilot episode but to cut an epic and beautifully paced story short – humanity is effectively on the run in the huge ‘battlestar’ class ship, having escaped a ravaged home planet akin to earth. In their way of finding a new home planet is the constant threat of attack from the Cylons, and diminishing resources.
Add into the mix of this themes of deceit, betrayal, remarkable revelations, and characters so well thought out its hard to believe they’re in a sci fi context – not that I am dissing science fiction, but often the backdrop gets more development time in the hope of making it ‘believable’ than the characters do. This really is a show that must be seen to be believed and is easily the best space-based sci fi I’ve ever seen – forget Star Trek, Farscape, DS9, this is the real deal – and somehow manages to be gritty and stylish whilst effectively reimagining a world only previously represented in the somewhat hammy 70s incarnation. If you like sci-fi and you haven’t seen this, you are in for such a treat, get the full box set and get it oooonnn!
Here is an introductory trailer to give you a flavour of things..
Another congratulatory rant about the brilliance of David Simon and his team would be redundant, but suffice to say that the second major outing of the ‘The Wire’ team resulted in some of the most realistic feeling and sincere portrayal of modern warfare – very much taking the lead from Brian De Palma’s excellent Redacted.
Adapting the excellent war diary of embedded journalist Evan Wright (a fascinating read, recommended too!), the TV series follows 1st Recon Battalion Marines as they enter Iraq for the first time in 2003 (you know.. except for the other Iraq war we’re also not meant to remember, I digress) and whilst it features the character of Evan Wright, the focus really leans towards the soldiers themselves, showing them to be a close knit and often very vulnerable group of young men trying to survive. Don’t for one minute think that this means that Generation Kill is a sympathetic piece towards the US involvement in Iraq, it manages to remain largely neutral, only criticising – as the book does – the organisation of the army’s upper echelons of power for organisational failures.
With seminal performances from all involved, special note goes to Alexander Skarsgard (who you’ll likely remember as Eric Northman in True Blood, easily the only interesting thing about its third season) as the very balanced commander, and Lee Tergesen (who you should know from his amazing work in Oz) as Wright himself.
Only a mini-series, but with hour long episodes, its a long war, and a real chunk of quality drama to get your teeth into for sure. Take a look at the trailer below or just take my word for it and go get the boxed set here!
Not usually a fan of vegetable comparisons, but I have to in this case – Arrested Development is the comedy onion. A sitcom based around a disfunctional, previously endowed with money, and thrown into financial strife – the show gives you layer upon layer of in-jokes, references, self parody and originality. Narrated by none other than Ron Howard (of Happy Days fame), the show follows the Bluth family as main character Michael (Jason Bateman in an awesome but maybe typecast-making performance) tries to keep the family housing development business going as his father George (the awesome Jeffrey Tambor) is indicted for fraud. The rest of the family are incredible unique characters, from Gob, Michael’s ‘Illusionist’ brother (the amazing Will Arnett), to Tobias Funke, an incredible character played but the incredible stand up comic David Cross – the show is bursting with comedic power!
The show ran for 2 and a half seasons (the third was cut in half by Fox’s lack of understanding about digital distribution, but check out the amazing jokes at Fox’s expense as the writers had to tie things up) but a comeback movie is currently being produced that should take us back to the world of the Bluth’s once more. I’ll finish as I started by saying you really must watch this onion of a show – each time I rewatch it I notice something new I didn’t see first time around, so it really is the comedy that keeps giving, so please, for your own comedy sake – grab the full series.
Check out the first season trailer to get a feel for the show, but I defy you not to enjoy this!
Cocksucker! Cocksucker! offended? okay so maybe HBO’s seminal western drama Deadwood isn’t for you. In case you hadn’t guessed just yet, this series is no stranger to profanity, and along with a generally raw and realistic feel to the entire series – Deadwood’s remit is to blast you back to the old west, and is certainly does that. So lets get down to business for a second and clear up some misconceptions about this show – first off, its not about profanity or crudeness, they are simply as much a part of the scenery and feel of the show as the amazing characters, relationships and backdrops. Secondly, this show is unfinished – yes you heard right, it has no particular ‘ending’ as it was written with plans for continuity into a fourth season that never materialised.
But wait! what’s that I hear you cry? I haven’t told you anything about the show yet? Okay, sorry so I got a little carried away, I only just discovered the beauty of Deadwood myself, years behind the curve, oh well. Let me start over.
Deadwood is set in the infamous eponymous camp of the 1870s, a camp just finding its feet, forming a society, and battling to find its bloody way into civilization. Self proclaimed head of the camp, Al Swearengen (career best for Ian McShane) is owner of the Gem Saloon, the hub of the camp and center of Al’s world – he’s out to keep order and do what’s best for the camp, provided its best for him too. Seth Bullock – a rare and brilliant performance by Timothy Olyphant – is former sheriff of Montana and arrives in the pilot episode – a man of law and righteousness that was always bound to conflict with Al’s own law of the land. I’m starting to realise at this stage that there really are far too many wonderful characters to list, but an honorary mention must go to William Sandersson for his portrayal of ‘E.B. Farnum’ – Al’s right hand man, and a snivelling little weasel of a character who is as cunning and eloquent as he is stupid – he steals the show many a time with some fantastic writing.
Okay I’ve already said far too much, you need to watch all of this show. Its easily the best written period show I’ve ever seen, and a contender for the best show – full stop (that’s ‘period’ to you guys). Sure, you could watch the trailer below, but ideally you should go get the boxed set right now.
And that’s it! You’ve got plenty to be getting on with here right? Unless you’ve seen all of these shows, in which case, well done! now recommend me something ok?! Any thoughts warmly welcomed in the comments.
Okay so usually I hate it when people go on huge rants about large companies because let’s face it, the majority of the time they’re probably getting it right, and with a huge organisation, it’s pretty likely that a few people will have a bad experience. However, the beauty of being a hypocrite gives me a special license to acknowledge this, and write a rant anyway, good eh?
Setting the scene – its late October 2011, I’ve just seen some of the new features of the iPhone 4S (mostly the new camera optics), and having become a bit of an apple tech fanboy since moving to mac a couple of years ago, I thought I’d take the opportunity to upgrade early in my Vodafone contract, which ends July 2012, thus extending it to July 2014. So I called up and was excitedly told by vodafone upgrade team that I could indeed have a new iPhone 4S for £139. I thought this was a bit steep considering I was taking out another 24 months but being a mug I moved some savings and paid up anyway.
The very next day I was the proud recipient of an iPhone 4… wait.. this isn’t a 4S at all.. its the same as the one I already own, an iPhone 4. Three phone calls later I had someone admit that they’d sent the wrong one, to their disgruntlement I had an email that proved I did indeed ORDER the right one, though this was Vodafone guy’s first assumption that he stuck to for a good half hour. They then agreed to pick up this incorrect handset but informed me they no longer had stock of the iPhone 4S model I had ordered and paid for, this would be in ‘hopefully mid next week’.
Three weeks later nothing had happened, I had been patiently waiting and called again to be told they did not know they had to pick up the handset but that it would probably be done ‘next couple of weeks’ but ‘we really can’t tell where you are in the queue of people waiting for stock’ and why don’t I try going to a store as they have stock, and they’d be fine with me taking the handset there so long as ‘you make sure they call us when you hand it over’ – great, so I’m now vodafone middle management? what’s the pay like? Again, being a mug I tried this to no avail, most stores were out of stock each time I visited – fair enough, if apple don’t ship to Vodafone, then sure, they can’t provide them I thought.
But, after several friends getting iPhone 4S via Vodafone I was beginning to realise how stupid I was being. Calling just before Christmas, a full two months post-purchase-and-wrong-handset-delivery I was told ‘yeah we’re still out of stock but we can’t sort it out its too close to christmas, call us in January’ – fantastic. So I dutifully called on the 4th of January and after a nice half hour on the phone I was told that ‘We’re very sorry it appears you were stuck in a returns thing that we have’ – quote unquote. ‘What does that mean?’ I daringly inquired. ‘Well it just means you never would have got your new phone, so let me see what I can do about that’. Ten minutes later my operative returns to tell me they can try and get it sorted and we’re sorry this happened. Then I made my next mistake.
The next mistake was thinking ‘it’ll be better if I stop all of this now’ – I know you’d think this would make sense. So I said ‘Okay I’ll be in my office tomorrow, the handset is there – refund my £171.74 now (cost of handset plus some nonsense admin fee they’d slapped on to extend the contract early, despite the fact that only benefits them), pickup the handset then and cancel my extended contract to 2014′, they said fine, refunded my £171.74 (a week later actually, you thought ‘now’ means right away? silly!) and then said ‘Call us back to make sure we have cancelled the new contract once its been picked up, I mean I could check it but i’m not in monday’ – again I’m thrown into handling the affairs of their staff for some bizarre reason. So I thought okay fine, money on its way back, handset being picked up tomorrow, all is well.
Twenty minutes later, my colleagues are on the phone saying DPD have turned up to pickup a phone handset, and where is it. I managed to instruct them as to where it was buried in my draws of my desk and get it to the DPD guy before he left the building, but wowzers – even a simple pickup date was too much to ask to get right? that was interesting. So it was picked up, great I thought, that’s that over with.
Today (well over a week later) I remembered to call back, so, having donned my Vodafone manager’s uniform, I dialled and explained the above, sans the sarcastic hyperbole I’ve thrown in for your enjoyment. I was then told ‘yeah so the warehouse don’t have confirmation they have received it back yet and obviously as it was the 4th it should be there, what you’ll have to do is take the DPD paperwork into a store and show it to them’.
Really? I have to prove you picked up the phone you gave me by mistake? Apparently so. More updates to follow but needless to say this has been a ludicrous ride that if even one member of staff I’d spoken to had looked at the notes on their system and thought ‘Hey this guy has had a crap experience with us, I should do something about it for him’ then a lot of the above could have been averted. I’m curious to know if its the same with all of the phone providers, but in the 9 years I was with Orange prior to joining Vodafone in 2010, I never had problems like this.
UPDATE
Having posted this rant on the Facebook wall of Vodafone UK, the very helpful Holly at Vodafone got in touch to help smooth things over. They are now allowing me to prove the phone was sent to the via scan and email instead of going to a store and explaining the whole story – thank god, and have kindly offered to refund my current month’s bill for the bad experience I’ve had with them – fair enough. A victory for the power of moaning, social media and those who do their jobs helpfully and professionally!
For a change this festive boxing day I went with family and newly extended family to Romford dog races. Took the 5D mk II and the Canon 70-200mm lens for some shots of the dogs in action, pretty pleased with the results, check out the slideshow below -
IT IS DONE! After a few technical hitches at the publishing stage, my new book is ready and out now. If you’re interested in learning game development with Unity (or Unity 3D, as its often mis-called!) then I hope you’ll take a look at my book to get yourself rolling. You can grab it from Amazon, amongst other places online, and its available in print, ebook and kindle.
This release is the second edition of my book, but is a complete overhaul. However, I wanted to show off, so here are some awesome folks who took the time to review my first book, reviews below relate to that, and not the new edition.
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5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Have For The Budding Game Developer, October 7, 2009
By Jacob Williams (Alabama, USA) – See all my reviews
This review is from: Unity Game Development Essentials (Paperback)
For those of you wishing to join the growing ranks of Game Developers, this book is for you. The author assumes no prior game development knowledge and guides you straight through the trenches. Using the Unity Game Engine as the development platform, the author really does prove that game development is not only for the elite or professional programmers. As a Unity game developer myself, I highly recommend this book to not only those who have been toying around with the idea of creating a game, but also those who want to learn a new trick or two with Unity.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Unity Demystified, October 7, 2009
By John Tripodo (California, USA) – See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Unity Game Development Essentials (Paperback)
I wish all development books were written in this style. The author starts from ground zero using Unity and keeps building on the previous chapter until you end up with a complete game with physics, menus, sounds, animations, game play … After completing this book I had the confidence to move on to start making my first Unity game!
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5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for those wanting to learn Unity!, October 7, 2009
By Tom Higgins “HiggyB” (San Francisco, CA USA) – See all my reviews
This review is from: Unity Game Development Essentials (Paperback)
Will has done a great job writing a book that covers all the important bases. Anyone wanting to use Unity as their new game development tool would be wise to get this book!
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5.0 out of 5 stars Unity Game Development Essentials is here. Now Read the F***ing Manual, November 19, 2009
By diamondtearz (Atlanta, GA) – real name Manuel Saint Victor – See all my reviews
This review is from: Unity Game Development Essentials (Paperback)
Will Goldstone’s Unity Game Development Essentials (UGDE) has arrived. It’s the first book about the Unity Game Engine by the person whose videos were the first and most comprehensive Unity videos to date. Will also runs [...] and [...] is a crisp and detailed primer into the powerful Unity engine, 3D programing and game development all at once. Will shares his hard-earned insight and productivity tips as he guides you through learning the Unity IDE. In the early chapters you will learn the various tools available for developing realistic terrains complete with varied trees and grass. You’ll take a deep dive into the First Person Controller and its components including the CharacterController. As Will puts it, “If you know how something is put together then you’re able to fix it when something goes wrong”.
Unity Game Development Essentials guides the learner through importing a 3D model into Unity with animations intact. You can then control the animations from the code. Speaking of code. You’ll cover how to use Javascript to add functionality to your game from requiring the player to have met conditions to earn rewards to deciding if he’ll be warm by bonfire for the night. Will explains it in such a way that developers coming from a Flash background will feel at home enough to reach for Control-Enter. Everything from making your variables accessible from the Unity workspace to manipulating your public static variables from other objects and updating your Heads-up display receives a generous yet concise coverage. Subtle reminders and reviews of key procedures help you walk away from the book with a habits that will make you productive and a foundation that prepares you for exploring the Unityverse.
One of my favorite parts of the book is the coverage of Collision detection. You first use colliders, with an initial examination of “isTrigger” then use Raycasting finally followed by a deeper discussion of the role of “isTrigger”. This is reviewed and summarized in the section of the book that made crystal clear the previously elusive decision-making algorithm between OnCollisionEnter(), OnTriggerEnter() and RayCasting.
My only complaint about this book is that I wish it could have gone on to some of the more advanced topics. I’ve read tutorials about physics and springs, and animation but the clarity that Unity Game Development Essentials provides is unmatched and I would love to be as comfortable in those advanced topics as this book has made me with the topics covered. On another note- the clarity of this book and the thorough coverage of a standard set of approaches sets expectations. As this book get more well deserved circulation asking a question that is explained within might earn someone a serving of RTFM. I wish I could have taken the 3 short days that it took me to read this book several months and many long fruitless and error filled nights ago. The first book in the Unity Game Development arena sets the bar high.
If you’re a Flash developer interested in 3D in Actionscript you may also want to read Papervision3D Essentials by Paul Tondeur. It’s a great book to ease the transition into 3D thinking and provides a lot of information that applies equally to 3D development in Unity.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading, October 29, 2009
By Peter Tulipan (Valley Village, CA USA) – See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Unity Game Development Essentials (Paperback)
Will Goldstone has a way of clarifying and simplifying concepts that at first seem obscure. He’s a natural teacher and his book is a great primer for those serious about delving into the Unity game engine. And for those new to scripting, it will all begin to make sense after working through his exercises. There’s a lot to learn to master Unity, but this is a great place to start. I keep wishing I had Will sitting by my side while I learn to use Unity, but in a way, I guess I do since his book is sitting next to my computer keyboard as I write this.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Never Listen to Critics – This Is a Fantastic Book!, April 3, 2011
By Bill Lundgren – See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
This review is from: Unity Game Development Essentials (Paperback)
When I considered purchasing Will Goldstone’s Unity Game Development Essentials, I read a number of reviews first. Several of them complained that Will only builds a single project during the course of the book. What that complaint doesn’t tell you is just how much Will makes sure you’ve learned when that project is complete.
It is very clear, to me at least, how much consideration the author had for us newbies with both the depth and breadth of exposure to Unity 3D gained by building that one project. In several instances, multiple approaches to solving problems were discussed (as there is never just one solution to anything.) Trade-offs in choosing a given solution over another were clearly explained. I don’t know if this same level of knowledge could have been presented with multiple, smaller projects. The presentation of the knowledge is very carefully executed. No confusion, just a building desire to get coding and fire up Photoshop and Maya!!!
I found this book very approachable, easy to read, and packed with goodies to push me up the learning curve quickly, which is why I bought this plus six other books on Unity 3D in the first place. I am REALLY glad I didn’t succumb to the negative reviews and found out for myself. If I had, I would have missed something very helpful.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Great introduction to 3D game development w/Unity, October 8, 2009
By Brent Arnold “iBrent” (USA) – See all my reviews
This review is from: Unity Game Development Essentials (Paperback)
This is a great read! Easy to follow, and great examples. As a Flash developer, I appreciate Will’s description of Unity terms in relation to Flash/ActionScript terms. He walks you through each example with screenshots and encouragement to experiment on your own.
Highly recommended for anyone looking to begin their career in the exciting world of 3D game development.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Guide To Unity, March 6, 2010
By J. R. Cardona “Hiperia3D News” – See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Unity Game Development Essentials (Paperback)
A book that can be considered the best and quickest way to start building games and virtual sceneries with Unity, the game engine behind exciting games and the stunning virtual world of Nurien.
As “Unity Game Development Essentials” says, you will:
“Build fully functional, professional 3D games with realistic environments, sound, dynamic effects, and more!”
Will Goldstone is the author of this book. He’s a game developer and interactive web designer, and online tutor based in the south of England. He is specialized in many interactive disciplines.
He has been working with Unity from the first versions that were released, and worked in its promotion since that beginning, and developed games for the Apple iPhone platform.
The book has around 300 pages, and is a brilliant intro to building sceneries and games with the Unity engine.
The word “engine” may be discouraging for those without a programming background, but as the book tells, what distinguishes Unity from others is the edition tool that is provided with this engine. In this editor, most of the tasks are achieved through drag & drop.
Sometimes coding is necessary, and the book provides this code and explains every step. You can also download the book examples from Packt Publishing’s site.
For this coding, the book uses the simplest language that Unity can use for scripting: JavaScript. Unity can use other computer languages, but this is by far the most accessible for many people. If you are not a programmer it doesn’t matter because the book makes scripting very easy for newcomers, explaining everything in simple language.
And if you have never developed a game, it’s not a problem, because if you just enjoy playing games you will discover how you already are familiar to many game concepts, and the book introduces you to all you need to know.
The book starts explaining all that you need to know about Unity’s interface, basic concepts, and common terms.
Then, you start building from the very beginning. Reading the book, you will create a graphic adventure game in a desert island, with arcade elements and mini-games inside the general game plot.
You will create an island using the built-in terrain editor, add the player character controls, and learn how to use collision to trigger events inside the game. You will also learn code reuse and object reuse via the prefabs, that are like types of 3D game elements that you define to be used over and over.
You will familiarize yourself with professional game concepts like instantiation (create objects from prefabs and add them dynamically through scripts) for example to make coconuts fall from palm trees.
Particle effects are present in Unity, and with them you will create things like fire and smoke, or comet trails.
And as every game you will need to add 2D elements like menus, or messages for the player. The author tells you the different ways to make this, so you can select and use the best techniques.
Unity is quite cross-platform. There are even Unity versions for Wii and iPhone. You can build a game and then make the executables and files for Windows PC, Mac, or even for a web player that can run your game embedded in a web page.
The book ends telling you how to compile your game, and after that it even tells you how to find beta-testers for it, and where to send your game in case you want to share it with other Unity developers and players.
To summarize: this book is a essential manual for Unity. If you want to start building games or virtual sceneries using this powerful engine, the quickest way is to buy this book, follow the chapters, and get to know everything in the shortest time.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Essentially Perfect, November 4, 2011
By MLC – See all my reviews
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This review is from: Unity Game Development Essentials (Paperback)
Will Goldstone has created a little masterpiece with this book. Now, two years after it was published, it is still applicable and has aged well. Part of this is due to Unity’s stable paradigm that all of the subsequent versions have been built on. It is perfect to get the complete view of how a simple 3D game would be made in Unity. From building the terrain, to explaining when to use collisions versus triggers, and then wrapping it all up with some interacting scripts. The scripts are accessible for most budding programmers (and us old pros) and show a few fun ways to impart action, such as, conditional logic (eg: “if there are enough batteries allow the door to open”) and scoring.
So, if you want to see the big picture with real examples, this one is it, and it still “works” well with the latest version (3.4.2 as of this writing – basic or pro versions).
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5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book, October 7, 2011
By kulture – See all my reviews
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This review is from: Unity Game Development Essentials (Paperback)
look no further… this is the book you are looking for to learn unity 3d… sure there is no advance techniques or a complex game to build… but man… i learned so much from it..
if you don’t have any prior experience on unity this is the book for you..
I usually don’t leave reviews…. actually this is my first review ever… it’s a very short one, but full of sincere.
this book rocks!
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5.0 out of 5 stars Very Clear & Concise Book, September 9, 2011
By Mr. O. M. Odutola “seun” (romford road , London) – See all my reviews
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This review is from: Unity Game Development Essentials (Paperback)
I wouldn’t bore you with a long review. To put it plain and simple, this is a very good book and well paced. I would recommend it for a beginner as it slowly takes you through what is needed to catch up to speed with Unity. However, notice I rated it 5 stars because that is what is it, but I must point out that if you are learning unity with Unity 3.0 or above be aware that the book seems to use Unity 2.9 (if am correct) and below thus, when you get to topics such as writing scripts – you would notice the book uses examples on FPS Walker Scripts (to be found in 2.9 and below) where as it’s been changed to (Character Controller Script in 3.0 and above) as of writing I haven’t seen a well documented tutorial on the Character Controller Scripts. Hope this helps
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5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book! A must-have!, November 24, 2010
By Kevin – See all my reviews
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This review is from: Unity Game Development Essentials (Paperback)
This book is a must-have for anyone wanting to jump into Unity development. Within an hour of receiving the book I had a 3D world created and was feeling pretty comfortable navigating my way through the Unity menus and panels. Within two hours I was controlling the game objects through scripting. I’ve been a software engineer for over 20 years, but I believe even a novice can jump in with this book and be up to speed in no time. Excellent book!
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5.0 out of 5 stars Very practical., November 16, 2010
By Antonio Santos Moreno (Puebla, Pue. Mexico) – See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
This review is from: Unity Game Development Essentials (Paperback)
Hi, I found this book very practical for a rather novice in this area like myself. I was able to follow the instructions given by the author very easily, which really gave me a great start to the Unity game engine (even for a non native English speaker like me).
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5.0 out of 5 stars A great book, April 27, 2010
By Richard W. Edwards (Los Angeles, CA) – See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
This review is from: Unity Game Development Essentials (Paperback)
I’m a senior animator at a game company. After working through the exercises in this book, I have a much greater understanding of what is going on over on the programmer side of the fence. I’m able to have much more productive conversations with the programmers I work with and even make a useful suggestion or two.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding, March 23, 2010
By D. R. Smith (Brooklyn, NY) – See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Unity Game Development Essentials (Paperback)
Will Goldstone does a great job of taking a fairly complex topic and breaking it into bite size chunks. As a complete Unity Newbie and a new Java programmer, I found Mr. Goldstone’s book to be the best introduction to Unity 3d. Specifically I recommend using this book before doing the online tutorials from the official Unity 3D site and supplementing this book with a basic Java reference. The online support that Mr. Goldstone and the publisher offer is also well documented and very helpful.
Please note: I really liked this book, I have no affiliation with Mr. Goldstone or Packt Publishing.
Enjoy building your games.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent introduction to the Unity platform, March 21, 2010
By The Pope Must Diet (Los Angeles) – See all my reviews
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This review is from: Unity Game Development Essentials (Paperback)
This is the best introduction to Unity development I’ve seen. Previous to this, I had gone through Unity’s own platform game tutorial. I found this book to be of similar scope with a bit more depth and more information on things like GUIs and deployment. It’s not a comprehensive guide to Unity, or even a book about real world Unity development…but it’s the absolute best guide to getting started.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Unity learning at probably its best, February 28, 2010
By Andre M. Thibodeau “Hotpocket of Doom” (Midwest US) – See all my reviews (REAL NAME) Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
This review is from: Unity Game Development Essentials (Paperback)
Originally I was learning Unity by the unity3d website, going through their own tutorials and such. However there was something lacking. I have no real coding background (only basic language) so my knowledge was limited. What this book does is explain more of the terminology and the reason behinds certain aspects of Unity better then the unity tutorials. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn unity but lacks the coding background.
this book is 1337
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5.0 out of 5 stars Best Game Development Book ever!, April 15, 2010
By James D. Cullen (Denton Tx) – See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
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This review is from: Unity Game Development Essentials (Paperback)
I would like to say that I have read many books on game development. This is the best book on game development I have ever read! I started with no knowledge of the Unity Engine. The book starts very basic and proceeds to a finished game! I still refer to the book often!
There were great parts that I hadn’t thought of(Fog effect)
The book explained the process so well, I was able to incorporate fog into my game!
I could go on forever about this book. This book should be the first book for anyone interested in game design!
This book took me from a frustrated wannabe to actually creating a game with confidence!
Jim Cullen
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5.0 out of 5 stars Great reference, November 15, 2009
By Phil Thorn “Fulltilt 3d” (Kettering, OH) – See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
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This review is from: Unity Game Development Essentials (Paperback)
This book is exactly what I was looking for. There is a lot of reference material for Unity out there but to have a project-based book as well written and thought out as this is priceless.
If you, like me have recently gotten into video production thanks to the awesome new generation of Digital SLRs – the Canon 5D mkII, the 550D and the Nikon D700 to name a few – then you’ll likely have faced some of the challenges in getting them to play nice with existing filming conventions. One source of inspiration for such things has been Philip Bloom’s awesome blog – check that out for sure. Now I’ve pimped Bloom, let’s get to the point!
I was doing a video shoot for my job (I work for Unity Technologies, developer of Unity Game Engine) and I needed to get some nice slider shots in addition to standard piece to camera static tripod shots. So I looked into my options and discovered rather few… Many folks online are ‘rolling their own solution and it struck me that there is the high end of the market – Kessler Crane’s Pocket Dolly series, and the more affordable Scottish developed ‘Glidetrack’ – RRP around £200 btw. In a rush I nearly bought a Glidetrack – but after calling, tweeting and emailing asking to buy one direct, with no response, I resolved to simply rent one from a local hire company in London. This cost around £50 for the day plus insurance, and the results were, in short, very disappointing. Having little experience in operating a slider or dolly was likely a hindrance, but the main this that struck me about the Glidetrack was the inability to control or dampen movement.. maybe its my arthritis ridden hands from a youth spent gaming, but I found it tough to operate.
So, with Kessler’s products starting at around £600 with shipping, despite their perfection – I resolved to find my own solution. I’ve seen many folks using various means of building their own slider, but I don’t have much of an engineering background, or access to a friend or place that has the right kind of parts.
Then, whilst visiting my dad I noticed an old rowing machine (A York Fitness R510) I knew for a fact he’d neglected to set sail on for many a year, and he said I could happily butcher it to save him ‘a trip to the tip’. Cheers Dad! So armed with a hacksaw, some bolts and a set of allen keys, I set about turning a rowing machine, and an old tripod I never used anymore, into a slider! Here’s what I did!
Step 1 – Fitness be gone!
First off the end of the rowing machine that has the pulley and handles needed removing, along with the piston underneath. This reassuringly got rid of a good amount of the weight too, and the seat itself was simply to remove as its just two bolts that sit it onto the sliding plate.
You can see in the image above that the plate is neatly made of some skate-like wheels that run inside the metal housing of the runner of the machine, so it makes it very fit for purpose.
Step 2 – Ditch the stands
The last steps to creating this slider will be to add mounts for a tripod to fit at each end of the slider, so we have no use for the stands at each end that previously raised the rowing machine a foot off the floor, so time to unbolt and use force where necessary!
This leaves you with something like this -
Step 3 – Tripod Hacking
Then came the problem of mounting a camera onto this otherwise flat panel. Having a few cheap old tripods around, I remembered one was in the garage and decided to use the two bolt holes that formerly held the seat in place to hold the tripod on top.
I removed one tripod leg and flattened the other two, as well as sawing off the main shaft of the tripod that raises it up and down. The remaining two legs were cut down to size, and a pedestal drill was used to cut through, and I then bolted this onto the plate -
Step 4 – Final tweaks
As for taking apart the rower.. that’s done and i’ve now got this -
So I’ve still yet to weld some metal plates on the bottom and mill a hole for a tripod bolt – I think this is a 1/4 inch whitworth hole – tested with another bolt and should be fine. Aside from that I can still use it at present and have made this quick test with my Canon 550D -
So current issues are:
Needs dampening as any imperfection of the rollers is transferred straight to camera
Still needs metal plates welding for tripod attach
The slider main part is slightly bowed, and needs twisting slightly to true it
After many months of reworking, the update of my book, Unity Game Development Essentials, is nearly ready to unleash on the world!
What started off as a small update has turned into quite an overhaul of the book not only in practice but also with the addition of lots of new content and the use of C# as well as Javascript throughout. I’m really pleased with how the book has shaped up as a result of this update and am pleased to say I hope it will be a great introduction for new users wishing to get started game development, or those with development background making the move to Unity.
More info posted soon, but for now you can take a look at the book on the Packt publishing website -
Now you all know I love a *good* tutorial site. There’s a world of tutorials on the internet, but many of them fall into the all too simple traps of teaching in an online medium – not to get into these in too much detail but its usually things like planning, timing, length of lessons, approach, and demands of the user.
So I’m always thrilled when I come across a tutorial site that I feel really NAILS a topic and delivers it in a way that will bring new people to that field – that’s what tutorials are for after all right? enabling!! however buzzword / lame that sounds. The last time I encountered something like this it was the very excellent Video Copilot – if you want to learn visual fx in Adobe After Effects, this is the place to go – Andrew Kramer is the name to remember – he’s the guy making all the tutorials there, and mostly for free. I was once very happy to see a comment on one of my videos that called me the “Andrew Kramer of Unity tutorials” – I may not agree but I hope to aspire to that for sure.
So waffle aside let me introduce you to Matt Kohr, who has created this wonderful site ‘CTRLPaint.com‘ – if you want to get into painting with your tablet and photoshop then this is the place to start – its gotten me back into artwork and I’m really pleased with that – granted you’ll need a wacom tablet for this, but with the Bamboo tablet coming in at around £70 nowadays these things are more affordable – and if you’re planning on a career in any kind of IT – you should definitely ditch the mouse ASAP – trust me, its cured my previously rather bad RSI. So take a look at ctrl paint, and drop Matt some nice comments telling him what an awesome job he is doing please!
You’ll be pleased to know that I have teamed up with Packt Publishing and we are organizing a Giveaway for you. Three lucky winners stand a chance to win a copy of my book Unity 3.x Game Development Essentials. Keep reading to find out how you can be one of the Lucky Winners.
3. Weeds
6. Californication
