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Before We Begin

Welcome to the second edition of Hands-On Game Development Patterns with Unity; this edition is not merely a revision of the previous version, but a complete upgrade of the original book. After the first edition came out, I was fortunate to get a lot of constructive feedback, which inspired me to improve the structure of this new edition. As we will review in the following sections, this book concentrates on the "hands-on" aspect of the title; in other words, we are going to get our hands dirty and work on implementing systems and features for a fully playable prototype of a game with design patterns. This new approach to the book's structure will be more tangible and also more enjoyable. It's more fun to work on a playable game than with random code examples. So, before we begin, in the following sections, I will establish specific parameters to the book's content and overall approach.

Let's quickly review the topics we are going to see in this chapter, as follows:

Notes about the new edition
The philosophy of the book
What are design patterns?
Which subjects aren't covered in this book?
The game project

The game project

Throughout this book, we will be working continuously on a single game project example. The working title of the game is Edge Racer. As the title may indicate, it's a racing game; to be more specific, it's a futuristic racing game in which the player drives high-speed motorcycles. We will review the core concepts of the game in more detail in Chapter 2, The Game Design Document. But before continuing, I wish to list the reasons I decided on a racing game instead of another type of game—for example, a role-playing game (RPG)—as follows:

Simplicity: Racing games have a simple premise—get to the finish line as fast as possible without crashing. Because this book is not about game design but game programming, I wanted a simple type of game that will permit us to focus on learning about software design patterns and not get bogged down with the implementation details of complex game mechanics.
Fun: I've worked on various games of many different genres, and I always found that racing games are the most fun to develop because they are enjoyable to test. In racing games, you can speed-run to specific parts of the game and quickly reproduce bugs or test new features. Unlike other games with deep game mechanics and large maps, such as RPGs, racing games are usually quicker to debug.
Performance: The main challenge of programming a racing game is maintaining a consistent frame rate as you add more features and content. So, I find working on racing games forces you to maintain good game-programmer habits by always keeping an eye on how fast your code is running and not just making it more readable.
Personal: There's also a personal reason for me choosing a racing game—it's because it's my favorite genre. I love playing racing games and I love making them.

In conclusion, the game industry produces various products in many genres and sub-genres, but a racing game is a good reference point for us to start learning about design patterns in Unity because it's a simple context and forces us to keep an eye on keeping code clean and fast.

Description

This book is written for every game developer ready to tackle the bigger picture and start working with advanced programming techniques and design patterns in Unity. Game Development Patterns with Unity 2021 is an introduction to the core principles of reusable software patterns and how to employ them to build components efficiently. In this second edition, you'll tackle design patterns with the help of a practical example; a playable racing game prototype where you’ll get to apply all your newfound knowledge. Notable updates also include a game design document (GDD), a Unity programming primer, and the downloadable source code of a complete prototype. Your journey will start by learning about overall design of the core game mechanics and systems. You’ll discover tried-and-tested software patterns to code essential components of a game in a structured manner, and start using classic design patterns to utilize Unity's unique API features. As you progress, you'll also identify the negative impacts of bad architectural decisions and understand how to overcome them with simple but effective practices. By the end of this Unity book, the way you develop Unity games will change – you’ll adapt a more structured, scalable, and optimized process that will help you take the next step in your career.

What you will learn

Structure professional Unity code using industry-standard development patterns Identify the right patterns for implementing specific game mechanics or features Develop configurable core game mechanics and ingredients that can be modified without writing a single line of code Review practical object-oriented programming (OOP) techniques and learn how they re used in the context of a Unity project Build unique game development systems such as a level editor Explore ways to adapt traditional design patterns for use with the Unity API

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