Will GoldstoneUnity Dev. Tutor. Musicist. Designer.

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.

Hey why not buy it today? http://tinyurl.com/84rgtkx

Reviews of the first edition (source: Amazon.com)

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
Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
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
Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
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
Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
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
Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
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
Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
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)
Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)
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.