Hello,
I’m quite new to game development, but I’m a computer developer.
I would like to seriously learn how to develop games and I think that have a good reference book would be good.
I dont know if it is part of game design or game development but I’m searching for a book that covers basic game theoretical aspects such as normal maps, light baking, colliders, mesh, rendering, … and can explain me the patterns, methodologies, techniques, workflows and tricks behind the game development / design… it is better if it isn’t only abstract but it is also applied in Unity with some examples.
No books I can name, but GDC is a great resource. What helped me understand the technology better was learning about its evolution. The id guys have done multiple talks on multiple generations of their tech. It helped me immensely because I already understood the theories behind a lot of modern tech, but watching these talks made me understand WHY the tech works the way it does. Start with Romaro talking about doom, then Carmack on Quake, Brian Hook on Quake 3, then carmack again on id tech 5.
obviously, nothing is Unity specific, but ultimately a lot of the tech in most modern engines was pioneered by those guys. It’s since evolved past them, but that’ll at least get you the things you mentioned like bump maps, collision, and rendering pipelines.
I don’t think you’ll find one book that covers all of that, because they’re both huge topics and they’re at different layers of game development. One is background theory, the other is application with a specific tool.
For background theory, if you’re an existing software developer, I might suggest looking at Jason Gregory’s Game Engine Architecture? It’s really about building engines, but as a part of that it touches on all of the things you’ve asked about, the systems that they are used within, and how those systems work together.
Note that I say it “touches” on all of those things because many of them are topics worthy of whole books in their own right. A book such as Real Time Rendering can weigh in around a thousand pages all just on one of the topics from your list. So don’t wait until you know all of the background stuff before starting to apply it. You won’t ever know it all, and that’s fine.
Anyway, once you have some background, the Unity manual is my go-to resource for “does Unity do this thing and how do I use it?” I’ve not found a better 3rd party resource unless you’re looking for tutorials. If you are looking for tutorials then I’d still recommend Unity Learn (despite its issues) because 3rd party stuff is such a darn minefield.
As a side note, these are all implementation questions. Game design isn’t about how to implement a game, game design is about deciding on things such as the mechanics, rules, story, visual representation, controls, etc. of a game. In other words, deciding what the experience will be, separately from how to build that experience.
P.S. I have also found this course on Coursera that seems to be very valid and it covers a lot of different topics from game design to game development (with Unity) and more.
Game Design and Development Specialization Michigan State University
