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    A Beginner's Guide to 2D Platform Games with Unity: Beginners' Guides, #1
    A Beginner's Guide to 2D Platform Games with Unity: Beginners' Guides, #1
    A Beginner's Guide to 2D Platform Games with Unity: Beginners' Guides, #1
    Ebook181 pages2 hours

    A Beginner's Guide to 2D Platform Games with Unity: Beginners' Guides, #1

    By Patrick Felicia

    ()

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    About this ebook

    ** Buy this book today and create your first platformer game with Unity in no time **

    In this book, the first in the "Beginner's Guide" series, you will create a simple 2D platform game, create challenging gameplay and learn techniques to code more in less time.

    This book can be read as a standalone (you don't need to have read the previous books in the series, although it may help) and focuses on: scoring system and lives (e.g., keeping track of the score across the game), user interface (menus and in-game information for 2D games), character movement (e.g., walk, run, jump, crouch, etc.), character interaction (i.e., collect objects or avoid other objects), playful game-mechanics (e.g., bouncing objects, moving platforms, time-limited level, collapsing bridges, etc.) and improving C# programming skills (e.g., important and useful functions and principles that you can reuse in your own games).


    The main idea behind this book is to save you some headaches when you need to create your 2D platformer and to help you to find the time to actually code your game, by explaining simple and effective ways and best coding practices that you can use easily to create more code (and games) in less time with less stress and more fun.

    >> Buy this book now and get started on creating your 2D platformer right away!


    The content of each chapter is as follows:

     

     

    • Chapter 1, Creating a Simple Level, shows you how to create a simple level for a platformer game including the main character, a mini-map, platforms, cameras following the player, and sprites that you can collect or avoid.
    • Chapter 2, Managing Score, Lives, and Levels, explains how it is possible to manage the score and the number of lives across your scenes; you will also learn how to load new scenes based on conditions, and to also minimize your development time by using prefabs.
    • Chapter 3, Adding Sound and Displaying Values Onscreen, explains how you can add audio to your game, and display and update information onscreen (e.g., number of lives or score).
    • Chapter 4, Adding Challenging Gameplay, shows and explains how to make your platform game more challenging by adding engaging game mechanics (e.g., moving platforms, teleportation, etc.).
    • Chapter 5 provides answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) related to the topics covered in this book.
    • Chapter 6 summarizes the topics covered in the book and provides you with more information on the next steps.


    The method explained in this book has been tried-and-tested, and I can guarantee that after reading this book, you will be able to create your own 2D platform games; this is because the book includes step-by-step instructions, plenty of screenshots and explanations, and a format that is easy to read (just like a friend or a friendly instructor would explain coding to you: in a casual way, yet concise, accurate, and informative). The method used in this book is the same used in the books in the series called "Unity from Zero to Proficiency", a very successful series for which many readers have already given a 5 stars rating, based on the content and the methodology used to teach Unity.

    After buying the book, you also get access to the author, if you have any question, and to plenty of free add-ons worth over $100 exclusively made available to you including a member area with weekly updates, a private Facebook group where you can post your questions, over 25 tutorials (video and text), cheat sheets, discounted paperback copies, and much more!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPatrick Felicia
    Release dateSep 20, 2018
    ISBN9781520118178
    A Beginner's Guide to 2D Platform Games with Unity: Beginners' Guides, #1
    Author

    Patrick Felicia

    Patrick Felicia is a lecturer and researcher at Waterford Institute of Technology, where he teaches and supervises undergraduate and postgraduate students. He obtained his MSc in Multimedia Technology in 2003 and PhD in Computer Science in 2009 from University College Cork, Ireland. He has published several books and articles on the use of video games for educational purposes, including the Handbook of Research on Improving Learning and Motivation through Educational Games: Multidisciplinary Approaches (published by IGI), and Digital Games in Schools: a Handbook for Teachers, published by European Schoolnet. Patrick is also the Editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Game-Based Learning (IJGBL), and the Conference Director of the Irish Symposium on Game-Based Learning, a popular conference on games and learning organized throughout Ireland.

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      Book preview

      A Beginner's Guide to 2D Platform Games with Unity - Patrick Felicia

      Create a simple 2D platform game and learn to code in the process

      Patrick Felicia

      A Beginner’s Guide to

      2D Platform Games

      with Unity

      Copyright © 2016 Patrick Felicia

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in retrieval systems, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher (Patrick Felicia), except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

      Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either expressed or implied. Neither the author and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

      First published: December 2016

      Published by Patrick Felicia

      Credits

      Author: Patrick Felicia

      About the Author

      Patrick Felicia is a lecturer and researcher at Waterford Institute of Technology, where he teaches and supervises undergraduate and postgraduate students. He obtained his MSc in Multimedia Technology in 2003 and PhD in Computer Science in 2009 from University College Cork, Ireland. He has published several books and articles on the use of video games for educational purposes, including the Handbook of Research on Improving Learning and Motivation through Educational Games: Multidisciplinary Approaches (published by IGI), and Digital Games in Schools: a Handbook for Teachers, published by European Schoolnet. Patrick is also the Editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Game-Based Learning (IJGBL), and the Conference Director of the Irish Conference on Game-Based Learning, a popular conference on games and learning organized throughout Ireland.

      Support and Resources for this Book

      To complete the activities presented in this book you need to download the start-up pack on the companion website; it consists of free resources that you will need to complete your projects, including bonus material that will help you along the way (e.g., cheat sheets, introductory videos, code samples, and much more).

      Please open the following link:

      http://learntocreategames.com/2d-platform-games/

      In the section called "Download your Free Resource Pack, enter your email address and your first name, and click on the button labeled Yes, I want to receive my bonus pack".

      After a few seconds, you should receive a link to your free start-up pack.

      When you receive the link, you can download all the resources to your computer.

      This book is dedicated to Helena

      ––––––––

      [  ]

      Table of Contents

      1 Creating a Simple Level

      Introduction

      Adding the main character

      Following the player with cameras

      Creating a mini-map

      Adding objects to collect

      Adding obstacles

      Adding Physics properties

      Level Roundup

      2 Managing Score, Lives and Levels

      Introduction

      Using Prefabs

      Creating a new scene

      Changing Level

      Managing the number of lives

      Completing the structure of our game

      Creating a Splash Screen

      Creating the end screens (win and lose)

      Level Roundup

      3 Adding Sound and Displaying Values Onscreen

      Introduction

      Managing Lives and score throughout the game

      Adding a User Interface

      Adding sound

      Playing multiple sounds

      Level Roundup

      4 Adding Challenging Gameplay

      Introduction

      The time challenge

      Creating moving platforms.

      Creating magic doors

      Creating a shaky bridge

      Level Roundup

      5 Frequently Asked Questions

      Scenes

      Collisions

      Saving data or objects across scenes

      Sprites

      6 Thank you

      Preface

      After teaching Unity for over 5 years, I always thought it could be great to find a book that could get my students started with Unity in a few hours and that showed them how to master the core functionalities offered by this fantastic software.

      Many of the books that I found were too short and did not provide enough details on the why behind the actions recommended and taken; other books were highly theoretical, and I found that they lacked practicality and that they would not get my students’ full attention. In addition, I often found that game development may be preferred by those with a programming background but that those with an Arts background, even if they wanted to get to know how to create games, often had to face the issue of learning to code for the first time.

      As a result, I started to consider a format that would cover both: be approachable (even to the students with no programming background), keep students highly motivated and involved using an interesting project, cover the core functionalities available in Unity to get started with game programming, provide answers to common questions, and also provide, if need be, a considerable amount of details for some topics.

      I then created a book series entitled Unity From Zero to Proficiency that did just this. It gave readers the opportunity to play around with Unity’s core features, and essentially those that will make it possible to create an interesting 3D game rapidly. After reading this book series, many readers emailed me to let me know how the book series helped them; however, they also mentioned that what they also wanted was to be able to create a simple game from start to finish, publish it and share it with their friends, or learn more about other features such as Artificial Intelligence, Animations, or Shaders.

      This is the reason why I created this new book series entitled "A Beginner’s Guide"; it is for people who already have completed the first four books in the series called Unity From Zero to Proficiency, and who would like to focus on a particular aspect of their game development. This being said, this new book series assumes no prior knowledge on the part of the reader, and it will get you started quickly on a particular aspect of Unity.

      In this book, focused on 2D platformers, you will be completing a 2D platformer game and also code in C#. By completing each chapter, and by following step-by-step instructions, you will progressively create a complete 2D platformer game.

      You will also create a 2D game that includes many of the common techniques found in platformers, including: level design, object creation, moving platforms, magic doors, simple artificial intelligence, and a user interface.

      [  ]

      Content Covered by this Book

      Chapter 1, Creating a Simple Level, shows you how to create a simple level for a platformer game, including a main character, platforms, cameras following the player, and sprites that you can collect or avoid.

      Chapter 2, Managing Score, Lives and Levels, explains how it is possible to manage the score and the number of lives across your scenes; you will also learn how to load a new scene based on conditions, and to also minimize your development time by using prefabs.

      Chapter 3, Adding Sound and Displaying Values Onscreen, explains how you can simply add audio to your game, and display or update information onscreen (e.g., number of lives or score).

      Chapter 4, Adding Challenging Gameplay, shows and explains how to make your platform game more challenging by adding common game mechanics (e.g., platforms, magic doors, escalator, etc.).

      Chapter 5 provides answers to Frequently Asked Questions

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