Mastering Android Game Development with Unity

Title Page

Mastering Android Game Development with Unity

Exploit the advanced concepts of Unity to develop intriguing, high-end Android games

Siddharth Shekar

Wajahat Karim

  BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI

Copyright

Mastering Android Game Development

with Unity

Copyright © 2017 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

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First published: May 2017

Production reference: 1180517

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

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B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78355-077-7

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Credits

About the Authors

Siddharth Shekar is a game developer with over 5 years of experience in the game development industry and  11 years of experience in C++, C#, and other programming languages. He is adept at graphics libraries and game engines such as Unity and Unreal Engine. He has also published games on the app stores of iOS, Android, Amazon, and Windows.

Siddharth is the author of the books Learning Cocos2d-x Game Development, Learning iOS 8 Game Development Using Swift, and Cocos2d Cross-Platform Game Development Cookbook and the technical reviewer for iOS Programming Cookbook, all by Packt Publishing.

Currently, he is a lecturer at the games department at Media Design School, Auckland, New Zealand. He teaches graphics programming and PlayStation 4/PS Vita native game development and mentors final year production students.

To know more about Media Design School on their website. You can also find Siddharth on Twitter at @sidshekar.

I would like to thank my parents for supporting me in everything that I choose to do. I would also like to thank Media Design School for encouraging me to continue working on this book. Finally, I would like to thank Packt for putting this book together and offering me the opportunity to write this book.

Wajahat Karim is a seasoned mobile app and game developer with extensive experience in diversified technologies, as well as more than 7 years of software development experience.

Wajahat received his information and communication systems engineering degree from the NUST School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (SEECS), Islamabad, Pakistan. He has been working on games since he was 14 years old and is skilled in many platforms, including Android SDK, AndEngine, Adobe Flash, Adobe AIR, Game Maker, and Unity3D.

He is skilled, not only in programming and coding, but also in computer graphic designing tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Flash, and Autodesk Maya. Recently, he also worked with the government of Oman in Muscat, to create a real-time election monitoring app for Android and iOS for their Shura Elections, 2015. He has run multiple startups from time to time and has also worked in a virtual reality and augmented reality startup.

Currently, besides being a full-time development manager at a multinational company, he is working with a startup that allows Android developers to boost their app growth and reward their users through in-app perks.

Wajahat has deep passion in game development, entrepreneurship, and writing. He has previously coauthored the book Learning Android Intents by Packt Publishing.

You can reach Wajahat on his personal website.

First of all, I would like to thank to ALLAH (the Almighty) for everything and this life. I would like to thank a very good friend of mine, Fazal Hayat aka Faizi, who helped me initiate this book and made me believe that I could complete this book. I would also like to thank my lovely sisters, Navera Karim and Sumera Aijaz, who have always been proud of me and have always encouraged and motivated me to pursue my dreams and focus on the book. Not to forget, I would like to thank my father, Abdul Karim Memon, and my aunt who is more than a mother to me for their unlimited prayers, unconditional love, and untiring efforts to make me what I am today. I would also like to thank my friends, Ayaz Ahmed, Sheeraz Ahmed, Fayaz Ahmed, Azizullah Memon, Mubashir Hassan, Ali Hussain, Arslan Abro, and the new one on this list, Hasan Ali, who are more than brothers to me and add color to my life, making it funny and enjoyable.

A deep, heartfelt thanks goes to my wife, Gul Sanober, for her tireless and unconditional support and cooperation, which helped me focus on this book, and for her ongoing support that allows me to do what I truly enjoy in life. I have taken away a lot of her deserved hours to author this book, and I am grateful and proud to have her in my life as my partner.

Last but not least, I would like to say a big thank you to Packt Publishing for their support, their understanding throughout the book, and with their complete cooperation, their help in setting this whole project in motion, and believing in me for this book.

About the Reviewers

Asema Hassan is a game developer, AI researcher, and tutor. She is currently writing her master’s thesis at Otto von Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany. Her major research focus is on artificial intelligence in games. She also works part time at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, where she develops 3D VR simulations in Unity along with her team.

She previously worked in Pakistan's game industry for almost 3 years. At Agnitus, she worked as a software engineer for more than 2 years and developed various 2D/2.5D games for Android/iOS. She has deep knowledge of Unity Engine, C#, and C++.  She is also a supervisor for the PakGamers community, where her main responsibility is to guide new students on the game development process.

She likes to travel a lot and take photographs. You can find out more about her on http://asemahassan.blogspot.de.

I would like to thank Packt Publishing for giving me a chance to be a reviewer on this book and would also like to appreciate all efforts of the authors to make this book a good read.

Engin Polat has been involved in many large-scale and medium-scale projects on .NET technologies as a developer, architect, and consultant and has won many awards since 1999.

Since 2008, he has been conducting training for many large enterprises in Turkey on Windows development, web development, distributed application development, software architecture, mobile development, cloud development, and so on.

Apart from this, he organizes seminars and events in many universities in Turkey on .NET technologies, Windows platform development, cloud development, web development, game development, and so on.

He shares his experiences on his personal blog (http://www.enginpolat.com).

He has MCP, MCAD, MCSD, MCDBA, and MCT certifications.

In 2012, he was recognized as a Windows development MVP (Most Valuable Professional) by Microsoft, and in 2017, he got recognized as a Visual Studio and Development Technologies MVP too.

Between 2013 and 2015, he was recognized as a Nokia Developer Champion; very few people in the world are given this award. In 2015, he was recognized as the regional director by Microsoft.

He has worked on several books by Packt, including Mastering Cross Platform with Xamarin, Xamarin Blueprints, Xamarin by Example, and Mastering Xamarin UI Development.

I'd like to thank my dear wife, Yeliz, and my beautiful daughter, Melis Ada, for all the support they gave me while I was working on this book. I also want to give a warm welcome to the newest member of my family, my dear son, Utku Ege.

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Table of Contents

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Downloading the color images of this book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

Introduction to Android Game Development with Unity3D

Introduction to Android

Android versions

Google Play - the market store for Android

Unity3D and game engines

Unreal Engine

Adobe Flash professional

Game Maker Studio

Unity3D

Features of Unity3D

Basics of Unity game development

Unity editor interface

Scene View

Transform tools

Scene View navigation

Scene View control bar

Game View

Game View control bar

Hierarchy View

Project browser panel

Inspector panel

Configuration of empty game projects

Perky Penguin game

Perky Penguin gameplay

Adding the penguin

Importing the penguin Sprite

Creating penguin game object

Adding script behavior on penguin object

Limiting the penguin between screen bounds

Summary

Finishing the Perky Penguin 2D Game

Adding Particle Systems

What is a Particle System?

Basics of Particle System

Creating a rocket fire Particle Effect for a game

Adding game-level backgrounds

Camera management

Making the penguin move forward

Making the camera follow the Penguin

Prefabs and level management

Prefabs

Creating a Level Block Prefab

The level block generator concept

The BlockGenerator.cs code

Adding ice spikes to the game

Summary

Adding Player Character for an Action Fighting Game

Configuring Project for 3D Games in Unity

Importing 3D models

3D models

Modelling tools

Importing 3D models in Unity3D

Importing FBX Model

Applying textures and materials

Textures

Texture Importer

Applying texture in shaders

Shaders

Materials

Applying textures on a farmhouse model

Generic and humanoid rigs

What are humanoid characters?

Importing humanoid models

Configuring the avatar of humanoid models

Humanoid animation using Unity

Legacy Animation System

Mecanim animation system

Creating layer character for the fighting game

Summary

Enemy Characters with AI

Importing the player model

Player Animation Controller

Scripting player controls

Adding an enemy character

Enemy behavior and AI

Finalizing the fight

Summary

Gameplay, UI, and Effects

Finishing up gameplay

Understanding Unity uGUI

Adding GUI for health and gameover

Introduction to Particle Effects

Creating confetti Particle Effect

Summary

GameScene and SceneFlow

Adding buttons to the startScene

Organizing the folder structure

Adding a game restart button in the startScene

Adding a pause button to the startScene

Adding a main menu button to the startScene

Creating MainMenu scene

Summary

Gamestats, Social, IAP, and Ad Integration

Running the app on the device/ emulator

Android Developer Console

Adding achievements in the game

Saving game stats

Ad integration

In-App purchasing

Adding social media integration

Summary

Sound, Finishing Touches, and Publishing

Adding sound

Handling multiple resolutions

Optimizing the APK

Preparing the build for publishing

Publishing the game

Summary

Preface

Unity has come a long way from its humble beginnings; however, since the last couple of years, it has almost become an industry-wide used tool that almost all independent game developers use to develop their games. It is very easy to use to develop prototypes, and when you have a successful idea, it is flexible enough to expand the small prototype to a full-fledged game.

Despite its professional capacity, Unity is so simple to use that even a complete novice person can develop a basic game within a matter of hours. And with a little more effort, a very polished game can be developed with excellent lighting and animation.

With the current version, Unity makes game development even more accessible to everyone.

In this book, we will cover a variety of topics both in 2D and 3D game development. We will see how to develop a game similar to JetPack Joyride in 2D, and a 3D fighting game with full 3D animation, lighting, and camera. We will also see how to add buttons, text, and screen transitions. Finally, once we have created the game, we will see how to monetize it by adding in-app purchases and ads.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Introduction to Android Game Development with Unity3D, covers the basic concepts of Android game development, a brief history of Android games, the building blocks of Android games in Unity3D, and the basic flow of games.

Chapter 2, Finishing the Perky Penguin 2D Game, extends 2D game development by finishing the Jetpack Joyride clone game. The chapter introduces various topics, such as particle systems, camera management, prefabs, animations, triggers, colliders, and basic GUI systems.

Chapter 3, Player Character for Action Fighting Game, covers the basic setup for 3D action fighting game, importing models and textures, setting rigging for the characters, applying animations on models, and controlling the player character with a virtual on-screen joystick.

Chapter 4, Enemy Character with AI, covers the aspect of creating the enemy model of the game from importing models to applying animations to decision making with AI.

Chapter 5, Gameplay, UI, and Effects, shows how to finish the gameplay loop, add a UI,

add text for scoring the game, and add particle effects to the game.

Chapter 6, GameScene and SceneFlow, covers the creation of MainMenu Scene, explains Options Scene, and demonstrates how to transition between the scenes in the game.

Chapter 7, Gamestats, Social, IAP and Ad integration, demonstrates how to save in-game progress, add social media integration such as Facebook and Twitter, ad integration,

and In-App purchases to add monetization.

Chapter 8, Sound, Finishing Touches, and Publishing, lets us add finishing touches to the game and add sound. We will see how to run the game on the device and publish the game to the Android Play Store.

What you need for this book

You will need the latest version of Unity, which you can download from their website, and a computer that can run Unity. A basic understanding of C# is required as the code in this book is written in C#. Although the game can run on an Android emulator, to see the actual performance of the game, an Android device would be required.

Who this book is for

This book is geared toward novice or intermediate Unity3D developers who want to expand their knowledge of Unity3D and create high-end, complex Android games. You are expected to have a basic or intermediate understanding of Unity3D, working with its environment, basic concepts such as Game Objects and Prefabs, Unity Scripting using

C# or JavaScript, and how to develop basic 2D/3D games using Unity3D.

The book is very useful for those Unity developers who have created basic/simple games for Android and want to learn