Getting Started with Unity 2018 - Third Edition

A game engine can be defined as a set of tools that provide the functionality you need to develop and deploy video games. There is no single industry-accepted definition for game engines. That is largely due to the varied nature of them and their uses. Typically, game engines have at least the following set of features:

The basic concept of game engines is that they provide a powerful set of tools to handle much of the grunt work of game development, allowing developers to focus on game aesthetics and gameplay. In the early days of video games, each game was coded from scratch without a game engine's libraries or capabilities. Instead of reinventing the wheel for each game, game engines started to emerge, making it easier for game studios to churn out games.

Game engines are not general-purpose software suites that can create any game imaginable. They are highly specialized and, although very flexible, are intended for a specific range of game genres. For example, the Ego Game Technology Engine by Codemasters is used primarily for creating racing games; Pyrogenesis, by Wildfire Games, is used for creating real-time-strategy (RTS) games; the Silent Storm Engine, by Nival Interactive, is used predominately for turn-base tactics games; and ONScripter, by Naomi Takahashi, is used for creating visual novels and first-person adventure games. 

Game engines for specific game genres

There are a plethora of game engines available; many of them are free, some are open source, and others are proprietary. Selecting the right game engine for your game project is a critical pre-development step. Not every game engine will work for your game, and no single game engine will work for every game. Fortunately, we have a lot of options available to us. 

When deciding on which game engine to use for a given game project, consider the typical characterization of games in the primary genre that your game is a part of. 

Note

We use the phrase primary genre because many modern games blur the genre lines and incorporate characteristics of two or more genres. This genre blurring can result in new and innovative games.

First-person shooters (FPS)

This game genre has a long list of successful titles; here are some of them:

• Battlefield
• Bioshock
• Borderlands
• Call of Duty
• Destiny
• Doom
• HalfLife
• Halo
• Left4Dead
• Overwatch
• Rainbow Six

FPS games are created with the intent of immersing the player in the game world. They are playing as a character and, to obtain the desired level of immersion, animations, audio, and graphics quality are critically important. Special attention is given to the character's arms and weapons:

These games are typically characterized by the following:

• Large 3D segmented game worlds (indoors and outdoors)
• Character travels primarily on foot
• Some vehicle usage
• Standard camera and aiming controls
• Realistic animations
• Large and realistic inventory of hand-held objects (weaponry)
• Non-player characters (NPCs) with realistic artificial intelligence
• Single and multi-player modes

Third-person games

Third-person games are games where the player character is nearly or completely visible in the game scene. This genre includes third-person shooters (TPS) and third-person action/adventure. That means that a considerable effort needs to be focused on a character's appearance and animations. These games are based on the third-person character perspective as illustrated here:

Here are some of the more successful and popular third-person games:

• Dead Space
• Gears of War
• Grand Theft Auto
• Prince of Persia
• Rainbow Six
• Resident Evil
• SOCOM
• Splinter Cell
• Uncharted

These games are typically characterized by the following, in addition to the characteristics listed in the previous section for FPS games:

• Emphasis on the player character
• Camera that follows the player
• Player-controlled character motion sequences
• Full-bodied animations
• Character and camera rotation

Other game genres

There are a large number of other game genres, such as shooters, platformers, vehicle games, fighting, strategy, war, simulation, and puzzle. The difficulty in identifying a particular game's genre lies in the multiple ways in which game genres are classified. For example, you can have a TPS game that is also a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) and, because it has a large number of puzzles, it can be added to the puzzle genre.

This is not something to be terribly concerned about. It is important to be able to identify what the key components of your game will be so that you can select the best available game engine for your project.

The Unity game engine was created by David Helgason, Nicolas Francis, and Joachim Ante in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2004. They created the game engine to develop games, but ended up focusing on the game engine. Here is a brief look at its release history.

With so many game engine options available for both 2D and 3D game development, you might wonder why you should select Unity. The first release in 2005 introduced us to an excellent game engine that has been continually improved upon over the last decade with new features, support, and enhancements. With each new release, developers are presented with more functionality to help them develop stunning games.

Unity Technologies, the creators of Unity, is a well-established company dedicated to continual improvement of the game engine. As new processing technologies and platforms arise, Unity support will not be far behind. As with all Unity features, excellent official documentation accompanies all new functionality and features.

Being able to use a free version of the game engine without having to pay royalties is a game changer. Individuals, hobbyists, and small studios can make games using the same powerful game engine as large studios. In addition, the robust feature set and Unity community are additional factors that make Unity the right choice for your game development projects. 

System requirements has two parts. The first refers to what hardware and software you need in order to use Unity for game development. The second refers to the hardware and software you need to run a game developed in Unity. While these requirements might change, the requirements, as of Unity 2017, are detailed in the next two sections.

Getting your hands on Unity is relatively straightforward. Start by visiting the Unity site at https://unity3d.com. In the top-right corner, as shown here, you will see a link to Get Unity:

That link takes you to the https://store.unity.com page where you can click on the Try Personal link as part of the Personal plan option.

You will be taken to the Download Unity Personal page. You should review the information on that page to be sure that you qualify for the Personal Plan.

Once you acknowledge your eligibility, the Download Installer button will be enabled.

The installer downloads very quickly. It is just an installer and not the game engine itself. We will review the installation process in the next section.

In the previous section, you downloaded the Unity Installer. Locate that file, likely in your downloads folder, and launch the program. 

For the remaining steps, and throughout this book, we will use Unity running on macOS. The steps and processes for installing and using Unity are the same for both systems; the interfaces might vary slightly in appearance.

Once you launch the Download Assistant, your computer might present you with a security prompt:

Once you accept the security warning, and after clicking the Open button, you will see the Introduction pane. Click the Continue button.

Next, you will see the Software License Agreement pane (not shown here). You can read, print, and save the Software License Agreement. Click the Continue button to proceed. This will result in a popup asking you if you consent to the terms of the software license agreement. If you do agree, click the Agree button.

The next step is the Unity component selection screen. By default, all components will be selected. You will see how much space is required for these components to be installed on your computer and how much space you have left. You can disable components you know you will not need right away and install them later. Alternatively, you can install all components if space is not an issue:

In order to follow along with this book's tutorials, you will need to, at a minimum, select the following components:

In addition, the following components are highly recommended:

Next, you will select an installation destination and click the Continue button.

The Download Assistant will start downloading the components you previously identified (not shown here). If you have a slow internet connection, this could take a while.

This is a good time to create your free Unity ID. If you still have Unity open in your browser, you will see the person icon in the top-right of their page. If you do not see that icon, you can revisit https://unity3d.com. When you click on the icon, you will see a new interface with a Create a Unity ID button. Click that button and fill out the registration form:

You will need your account to use the Unity Asset Store, even for obtaining free content.

Once all components have been downloaded and installed, you will be notified by the Download Assistant.

When you first launch Unity, you will need to select a license. Unity is now successfully installed on your computer and you are ready to use it.

In this chapter, we explored game engines and looked at four different game engines to support our foundational knowledge about game engines. We also looked at the history of Unity and how it evolved from one release to the next. In addition, we discovered Unity's key capabilities and features. Unity's system requirements for developing Unity games was covered, as were the system requirements for running them. Finally, we downloaded and installed Unity.

In Chapter 2, The Unity Interface, we will provide details on the Unity Editor's User Interface. You will learn about the various views, windows, layouts, and transform tools.