Books

Holistic Game Development with Unity 3ed

Master game design and digital art principles simultaneously with this all-in-one guide to creating games in the cutting-edge game engine Unity. Reworked for C# and Unity 2018 & 2019, and bursting with images and tutorials, Penny de Byl’s Holistic Game Development with Unity will help the reader gain the multidisciplinary skills needed to succeed in the independent game industry. Holistic Game Development with Unity includes new coverage on Augmented Reality, Networking, and Virtual Reality such as the Oculus Rift. Supplementary material, including instructional videos, discussion forums and art assets are provided in the companion website located at www.holistic3d.com. Learn to combine the beauty of art and the functionality of programming in de Byl’s third edition for Unity game development.

Key features:

Art and programming in Unity, the only one-stop shop for individual developers and small teams looking to tackle both tasks. Proven step-by-step tutorials show you how to design and structure an entire game in Unity with art assets. Revised to cover the Unity game engine versions 2018 and 2019. 

New coverage of Nav Meshes, Augmented Reality, Mobile Builds and Mecanim. An introduction to essential two- and three-dimensional mathematical and physics concepts.

A portfolio of royalty free reusable game mechanics.

Revamped and expanded accompanying website, www.holistic3d.com, features project source code, instructional videos, art assets, author blog, and discussion forums. Additional challenge questions and lesson plans are available online for an enhanced learning experience.

Looking for 2nd Edition Files?  Here they are.

Creating Procedural Artworks with Processing: A Holistic Guide

Creating Procedural Artworks with Processing is for those seeking to learn computer programming from the very basics to the more advanced concepts. It uses the Processing language to visualise the concepts through the production of computer graphics that illustrate the coding principles while being artworks in their own right. This book started as a set of tutorials for university level multimedia students to introduce them to computer programming through the development of artworks. It’s therefore presented in a non-threatening way that will ease the reader into programming.

Special features:

  • 10 chapters building on each other one concept at a time.
  • 20 practical laboratories for exploring digital art and programming concepts.
  • Over 35 detailed step by step hands on activities.
  • Over 95 questions to test your understanding.
  • Answers to all exercises and questions.

Holistic Mobile Game Development with Unity

An All-In-One Guide to Implementing Mechanics, Art Design and Programming for iOS and Android Games. Master mobile game design and development in this all-in-one guide to creating iOS and Android games in the cutting-edge game engine, Unity. By using Penny de Byl’s holistic method, you will learn about the principles of art, design, and code and gain multidisciplinary skills needed to succeed in the independent mobile games industry. In addition, hands-on exercises will help you throughout the process from design to publication in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

  • Over 70 practical step-by-step exercises recreating the game mechanics of contemporary mobile games, including Angry BirdsTemple RunYear WalkMinecraftCuriosity CubeFruit Ninja, and more.
  • Design principles, art, and programming in unison – the one-stop shop for indie developers requiring interdisciplinary skills in their small teams.
  • An introduction to essential two- and three-dimensional mathematics, geometry and physics concepts.
  • A portfolio of royalty free reusable game mechanics and assets.
  • Project source code, instructional videos, art assets, author blog, and teaching resources.
  • Challenge questions and lesson plans are available online for an enhanced learning experience.

Artificial Life Possibilities: A Star Trek Perspective

The Star Trek series has inspired not only armchair fans, but also the researchers who are trying to better the human race, developing the devices of the future, and struggling to conquer space travel. The Star Trek series was also the inspiration for this book, which examines the artificial intelligences portrayed in the shows. The question we’ll be asking throughout this book is, “How do we get from where we are now to the point where we are able to create truly exceptional artificial beings such as Holodeck characters, Lieutenant Commander Data, and the Emergency Medical Hologram?” In order to answer this, we’ll examine where we are right now and extrapolate where we are heading. Throughout the book a passion for Star Trek is integrated with academic research from the AI, A-Life, and Robotics domains, which are presented in an easy to understand way– bypassing the technobabble and mind-blowing mathematics. The book examines the characteristics and capabilities of Star Trek’s artificial life forms and compares them with current technologies in an attempt to predict if we’ll ever create such advanced beings. It is written to provide both the serious Trekker and the occasional voyeur with a handbook of the current techniques and devices available in the fields of artificial intelligence, robotics, and artificial life. It examines the development of artificial life forms such as Data and the EMH from the bottom up, including their physical creation programming, and metaphysical aspects such as personality and emotions to determine if such beings might some day be a reality. If you have ever wanted to know what a positronic brain is or how to write a personality subroutine then this is the book for you!