ABSTRACT
Now that we have some background information on the various development tasks that need to be done and a basic overview of how to approach these, it is time to get our development environment configured and get to know our way around it. It is a common mistake to try to learn every aspect of a development tool in one go; as a result, in this chapter, we will focus on the basics that we need to know in order to get started with our game project. As we need to know more about either Unity or PlayMaker we will add to our knowledge base at that time, rather than try to get our heads around all of it right now. Just as creating games is an iterative development process, so too is learning the tools and techniques. Each new piece of knowledge will stand on the foundation of some previous piece that we have already gotten a good grip on. With these ideas in mind, in this chapter, we will focus on
• Getting and Installing Unity 3D • The User Interface of Unity 3D • Game Objects and Their Components • Projects and Scenes
• Getting and Adding PlayMaker to Our Project • The User Interface of PlayMaker • Finite State Machines in Design and Implementation
3.1 Installing Unity Before we can install the Unity game engine, it will have to be downloaded from the Unity website: https://www.unity3d.com. While at the website, it is worth it to take a few moments and browse around the links that are available in the top-level site navigation as seen in Figure 3.1. Unity provides a showcase gallery to view other products that have been made with Unity; they also have a hashtag (#madewithunity) for use with any Twitter posts to help get the word out not only on the Unity game engine but also on any project that you may be working on. Through this showcase link on the main page, you can browse through all of the games that have been posted with this hashtag. Browsing through this directory will reveal many interesting titles, and it is an encouraging process to play what others have made with Unity as it can help us stay focused and also realize that what we are trying to do is possible, if we stick with it.
