Hands-On Unity 2022 Game Development - Third Edition: Learn to use the latest Unity 2022 features to create your first video game in the simplest way possible

I've been working with Unity since 2015, so I can't offer a true beginner's experience. However, I have largely focused on 2D games, and have been using this book as way to dip my toe into 3D and I've not previously used many of the tools that Nicolas outlines here.The book begins with the absolute basics - how to install Unity and set up your game project. From there, you'll walk through some more basics to familiarize you with the 3D Scene Editor. After the first couple of chapters to get you comfortable with Unity and 3D, the rest of the book is focused on building a full project from start to finish. So, while this book could definitely be used as a reference, I think it would most suitably be used to gain the insights from building the project that's outlined.I am not fully through the book, but my personal experience with this book has been positive so far. I skimmed the first chapter, as I was already familiar with installing Unity and creating a Project. The 3D recap was a good refresher/intro to working with 3D in Unity, I felt that it covered enough information without going into so much detail as to get boring. Working through the Project feels informative, and the pacing for each chapter feels just right to me. When it comes to writing code, it will be a mix of Visual Scripting and C#. This has been an interesting learning experience for me as well as I had not used Visual Scripting before, and I feel that it has been a good introduction. As with most Packt books on software development you'll get access to the code and assets for each chapter, so if you get stuck you can always reference that.Overall, this is a great book if you want to level up your Unity 3D skills, or if you are looking to learn Unity development and come out the other end with a finished project.

I have a ton of Packt books in regards to Game Development as usually they are my goto for brushing on on past skills that I haven't use in a while. For instance, the chapter on lighting and URP is a great refresher if you haven't done it in a while. Also some other chapters I thought were great that they added were about FSM and Shader Graph. In some of the past Unity Packt books that I own they really didn't discuss Shader Graph or FSM's unless I had a specific book regarding patterns and designs.Overall this book is a good purchase and highly recommend compared to some of the older ones.

If you're a beginner or intermediate user to the Unity engine, this book will help guide you through what Unity has to offer in making a 3D video game. The author Nicolas Alejandro Borromeo designed this book to be user friendly by keeping things as simple as possible while showing how to use different components that will be used in making a game. He introduces you to systems like ProBuilder and Terrain to design your scene, while using the new Input system to handle the player's movement as he wants you to get comfortable using this system for future game developments projects you may work on in the future. Another system he introduces you to is the UI Toolkit which handles the User Interface we see onscreen. While he shows you the standard way of creating user interface, he also introduces you to this UI Toolkit to prepare you on how it will be used as Unity will be replacing the standard way of creating UI with this toolkit. One other system he introduces you to is Visual Scripting. This system is designed for those who don't know how to program, but want to be able to control how their game is played. He shows how to control the player, enemies, and shooting mechanic in this demo game using both C# and Visual Scripting so you have the best of both worlds in learning how to program your game.You learn how to use Lighting, Sound, Particle systems, Post Processing, Animations using the Animator, Cinemachine and Timelines. In the end he goes over optimization using the Profiler, Frame Debugger and Memory profiler with debugging to show the importance of using these tools to help you make a performant efficient game. Final thing he touches on is Augmented Reality by creating a simple game for mobile devices.Nicolas does a great job in giving insightful advice as you go through each chapter to inform you where you should go to next to learn more about the topic you're learning at that moment. This book is an easy read and follow along for those who want to finish the demo game he used in this book. This book is definitely an excellent reference book to have in your collection as you go through your game development journey. Well done Nicolas!

Hands-On Unity 2022 Game Development is an excellent resources for beginners and those with some prior knowledge of Unity. The earlier chapters are used to get you familiar and comfortable with the software, but it also does cater to more advanced users with the later topics. (There are some caveats though, more on that later...)The book covers many topics from basics such as:- Setting up your first Unity project using Unity Hub- Scene & GameObject editing and manipulation- Importing assets...to more advanced topics such as:- Building out UI for your game- Creating AI for enemies- Using ShaderGraph and Visual FX graph to create a water shader/particles- Implementing post processing FX'sIt even covers the basis of an AR project if that's something that interests you. It covers a wide range of topics that will help you create a complete Unity game that you can share/publish for others to play through. The inclusion of an AR project is a nice touch, adding that extra dimension to the learning experience.What I most appreciate about this book, is the approach the author takes to teaching Unity game development. The book is well-structured for those looking to create their first game with Unity, with clear and concise explanations of key concepts and features of Unity. The step-by-step instructions and code examples are easy to follow and are explained well. Sometimes even offering useful tidbits of information to more advanced users like in Chapter 12 which was about lighting. The author explained a bit about the rendering process behind lighting and shadow calculations. Specifically what and how 'Shadow Acne' forms, and how to mitigate the visual artifact using the depth bias property. The book contains many tinkets of information that I appreciated.Additionally, the book includes practical tips and best practices for developing games in Unity, which shouldn't be a surprise seeing as the author works for Unity Technologies as a consultant, so you'd expect them to know their tools properly or at least take a sensible approach to their software. And they do achieve that. The author does a good job of balancing breadth with depth, providing enough information to give readers a good understanding of each topic without overwhelming them. Enjoyable pace.The early chapters provide a solid foundation in the basics of Unity game development, and the later chapters build upon that knowledge with more advanced topics. However, as I alluded to before, the book does not go into great depth on any one topic, more experienced users might need to seek out additional resources that are a bit more specific or specialized.In regards to the code, it isn't bloated and doesn't come with redundant comments, though I would of liked to see commented code instead of seeing it explained in words prior (but that's a personal nit pick). My bigger issue with the code is that it tends to favor visual scripting over more traditional code scripting. There's no problem with visual scripting and is often a debatable topic in the community. But it makes me presume that this book is more beginner-orientated or rather trying to be more friendly/accessible when it comes to easing the reader to the topic of scripting. Take what you will from that.The physical book version is likely my favorite version. It comes with a free e-book for when and if you want to take the book on the go. (Though you'll likely be attached to a workstation regardless, but the easy search functionality and reference is incredibly handy and much appreciated).All the project files and code can be found online on GitHub as well: https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Hands-On-Unity-2022-Game-Development-Third-EditionThe book also provides a PDF for color images in-case they are necessary, but I haven't had the need for them. You can read through the book just fine without them. So in terms of presentation and usability, it's very friendly in terms of how content and information is presented and delivered.Overall, I highly recommend this book for beginners that are looking to delve into Unity to build out their first game. I'd love to see deeper dives into some of the more advanced topics, though that's not what this book claims to be. If you're an advanced user looking for more information about a sub category of Unity, you'll be better off getting a book specific for that sub category. This book does however act as a primer and eases readers into a wide variety of topics which is an incredibly valuable resources for users new to Unity. I also think more advanced users can still learn a couple things from this book, so regardless where you are on the Unity game development journey, this book is definitely worth checking out.