Developing Your First Game with Unity and C#

The article presents Unity as a 2D and 3D engine and framework for building game and app scenes, with cross-platform export, scriptable editor workflows, and a large Asset Store. It also explains that Unity is not primarily an asset-creation tool, even though third-party modeling and terrain tools extend what you can do inside it.

Reading notes

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• Unity provides a system for designing 2D, 2.5D, and 3D scenes for games and apps.
• It supports visual components and code, and exports to major mobile platforms and other targets.
• The Unity Asset Store is described as a major source for artwork, models, audio, plug-ins, shaders, textures, and scripting tools.
• Unity is not, by default, an asset-creation tool like Maya, 3DS Max, Blender, or Photoshop.
• Microsoft and Unity work together for platform support across Windows standalone, Windows Phone, Windows Store, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
• The editor runs on Windows, Linux, and OS X, and the same download can be used in free or pro mode.
• Unity code is written in C#, JavaScript/UnityScript, or Boo, while the engine itself is native C++.
• Game code runs on Mono or the .NET Framework, with iOS using AOT compilation instead of JIT.
• You can test a game in the IDE without exporting or building first.
• Unity uses MonoDevelop by default, but Visual Studio can be configured as the editor, with UnityVS for debugging.
• A Unity project is a folder-based project with Assets, Library, ProjectSettings, and Temp folders, and changes should be made through the editor rather than directly in the file system.
• Scenes hold the running content of a game, and a scene should be saved often.
• A GameObject is the base object in a scene, and its Transform controls position, rotation, and scale.
• Components add behavior and functionality to GameObjects, including rendering, audio, physics, particles, and scripts.
• A script component can be attached to a GameObject by dragging the script onto an object.
• MonoBehavior-derived classes commonly use Awake, Start, Update, and FixedUpdate.
• Update runs every frame, while FixedUpdate runs on a fixed timestep and is better for physics-related work.
• Unity creates code projects automatically for different script folders and compilation phases, including editor and firstpass assemblies.
• Building a game involves importing assets, writing code, testing in Unity, exporting to a platform, testing there, and deploying.