The Game Development Essentials should be an ideal book for anyone getting started with Unity3D. I have the first edition (for Unity 2.x) and it was good, quite complete and easy to follow. This updated edition should be very interesting as it will expand the coverage with some of the new features of the 3.x release of Unity. So regardless if you win or not, that book is recommended.

The iOS essentials is maybe not for everybody, but looking at the content and skimming through some of the reviews, it seems even worth it without an iOS device, since it also talks about optimization and organization of a game for more limited context. That might be very usable for the Webplayer, Flash and Android output as well.

While you can get started with the Unity 3.x Game Essentials book without spending anything at all (if you win it), beware that to be able to use the iOS Essentials, you need at least the Unity3D iOS version (basic or pro). And to test it on an actual device, you will also need the iOS developer license (and the device itself).

There’s a limited amount of theory out there, in regards to Unity development. I think these would be really great for someone like myself, who is starting out in the world of Unity game development for mobile devices, and wants to look at how people have laid out projects before.

I’ve been thinking about getting started with Unity for a while now, I’ve done a few things with other game engines but nothing worth all the effort put into it, I’m hoping getting started with Unity will change this.

I’ve been working with Unity for the past few months and am about to start a rather large research project revolving around it, so these books would be invaluable to me I’m sure. My biggest interest is in the art side of gaming, mostly character and environment design and development, so I’d really like to read more specifically on what Will Goldstone has to say in the sections on character-player interaction, dynamic interactive elements, and graphics optimization. Of course I hope to get into mobile development in the future, so I’m sure Wiebe’s reference would prove just as useful going forward.

Unity 3.X Game Development Essentials looks to be an excellent book for starting and intermediate Unity developers. It covers all the major topics necessary for a developer to complete a working game from scratch. I have a few other books from PACKT Publishing and their layout is excellent. They provide background on a topic and then step you through completion. This type of learning gives the reader the big picture and then steps through how to get there. I am currently working on a large project using unity and with C# scripting and this book along with the others will give a good foundation to complete the project.

I’m starting as a Unity developer in general so I think that “Unity 3.x Game Essentials” is more suitable for me. iOS book will be next if I find myself using Unity and being able to do magic on desktop.
Also the way the book constructed is perfect for me – examples I can modify, evolve, mutate into strange frankenstein games and use it against the world :)

I’m starting up as an indie programmer targeting iOS using Unity3D, and as such in need of a good starting point. Looking at the overview of these books tells me that everything I need to know for a starter is in there: programming in C#, controling particle systems through scripts, shaders on iOS and handling controls on touch devices. Getting one these books is likely to save me a month of research/learning time.

I purchased the first edition of “The Unity Game Development Essentials” in 2010.
I have learned a lot about Unity by reading it. In scripting particulary.
This new updated edition would be very usefull to me to better my knowledges of the 3.x version.

This is what I am looking for. A “school” type training tool for Unity.
A view of my Web page at http://www.arrcomm.org will show you what I have started in GameCore and am TOTALLY UNABLE to finish due to a “PRODUCE” command on the game engine does NOT exist in the newest version.
Two weeks trying to track down and locate anyone involved in the origination and continuation of GameCore has led to many “dead ends”.
Finally able to get an old email address of the CEO.

Unity was suggested by Arteria3D and he is right. UNITY is tops for making my 3D games.
I have spent over $3000 on models and classes for other languages, and I would like to FINISH what I START using UNITY.

Your books seem to be structured very well for beginners to advanced 3D workers. I love what I see in the Chapters.

I really love the abilty to Cross Platform. I use iPhone, iTouch and will be purchasing a “MAC” in order to program in iOS.

THANK YOU for getting these books in print. I detest .html classes, because I am not always in places for linking to internet and want to work on my game. !!!

Thank you

Would love to get get Unity 3.x Game Development Essentials. What interests me the most is the chapters on Rigid bodies – and how it shows how to use them to create physics-based gameplay mechanics, and the chapter on the animation editor (creating your own clips directly in the engine). The chapter on optimization looks very good as well.

I am a hobbyiest looking forward to learn more about the unity game engine as well as the mobile game development area.

I am particularly interested in the “IOS Performance Guide” and the Planning Ahead Chapters.

But I also read that the IOS Book is not complete from A-Z, so I am looking forward to complement it with the “Game Development Essentials” book.

Thank you for the chance to win one of these books.
Kind regards
Josh

Hello, I’m really interested in the Unity iOS Essentials book. I’m specifically interested in the performance chapter, and how to get the absolute best performance out of IOS devices. I’m also interested in the sections dealing with targetting multiple devices, as well as taking advantage of IOS hardware, such as the accelerometer.

Having what is essentially both a detailed tutorial and a reference book taking you from start to finish in creating a game with Unity would be a great asset. Digging though online references and tutorials, while helpful, is also quite time consuming for someone learning Unity in their spare time. Having it all in one concise location would be awesome.

Hi, just found out about these book, and they seem very worthwhile reads. I’d be interested in both the Unity iOS and Development Essentials book.

For the essentials book, I’d be interested most in the light mapping chapter as well as importing 3D assets. I’m going to start developing my own 3D assets and it seems pretty daunting. I’d also be interested in seeing just how general project script/component layouts work in the test project that is being developed as Unity is so flexible it sometimes creates some design dilemmas that a good example might alleviate.

For the iOS book, I’d be interested in the performance optimization recommendations, dialog creation/management system, and the final sections on setting up a database with PHP is going to be critical for me going forward. Also if this book can enlighten me any on programming shaders I’d like that as well.

Both books look like they contain valuable data.

The books seem really worth their money as they both contain both guidelines and examples of the work. The most interesting parts seem the lightmapping in the unity essentials and performance guidelines for the iOS development. As said above: both books look like they contain valuable data indeed :)

While I’d love both books, my main interest is the iOS Essentials for “Chapter 2: iOS Performance Guide” to see if there are any good tricks there I don’t know.

Always found game development quite interesting, since I started learning Unity I am hooked.
For the essentials book the things I’m most interested in are a good scripting overview, the player interactions and learning animations as well as developing GUI elements.
For the iOS book my main interest are platform specific differences and optimizations.

With Unity 3.x Game Development Essentials, the most interesting (and essential) parts for me are the coding in C# and UnityScript, the player interactions and the GUI development. I’d love to see if there are any new tips and tricks, especially for the GUI.