Unity 3.x Game Development Essentials or Example Beginners Guide?

Excluding Unity iOS Essentials book, I got a giftcard on Christmas which was enough to buy one of these books. If I could only choose one of them, which book would a experienced unity3d user recommend to me? I’d expect that the books have links to source code as well. But I’d like to know if other forum members bought either of those.

Is not like you have plenty of choices for books on Unity3d…

I know only 2 books written for Unity; one from Will Goldstone (very well done if you are starting, I learned from his video tutorials in less than 2 days) and the other from Ryan Henson Creighton (a bit more oriented to the ones that knows the basics, I would read it after reading Will’s book), called game development by example.

Both available in ebook format if you like it. IF you are totally new get Will’s book, otherwise I would start with Ryan’s book.

Heard of a 3rd book but I never had the chance to check it (is called Unity 3 game development, or something like that)

Probably some website has sample chapters (google books?) so in case your bookstore has no copies to look at, you can see if you like the style and the motif of the books checking the sample chapters.

The situation is better on the training/videos front, since there are plenty of courses and videos (free and for a fee) that you can get from various sources (included the awesome tutorials from burgzergarcade and 3DBuzz; where you learn mainly coding stuff, which is the best part of making games with Unity IMO :smile:).

If anyone knows more books I would love to expand my knowledge on the topic.

Hi guys, thanks for the interest first off.

My new book - the Unity 3.x Game Development Essentials is naturally what I’d recommend - being rather biased! but I would also suggest that even if you have had a little experience, you may still pick a few things up from it. It is completely rewritten from its first edition, includes new content and also does all programming in C# and Javascript - other available books only focus on Javascript (as did my first edition), so I think that alone is worth investing in.

I won’t do much more of a hard sell but if you have any questions on books or any aspect of learning Unity, keep asking on here, or shout at me on twitter @willgoldstone or drop me a line will [at] unity3d dot com.

http://www.willgoldstone.com/blog/2011/12/new-book-out-now-unity-3-x-game-development-essentials/

Any other users have suggestions?

i’m waiting for this to come out:
http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Unity-Multi-Platform-Game-Development/dp/1118063376/ref=wl_it_dp_o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3I1PE3LOWRGNE&colid=3T9IB92PPM6RO
Supposed be more about the coding side of Unity and using Unity’s Library.

supposedly Walmart is going to carry it for like $29

Hi everyone,

This is my first post :slight_smile:

Out of the blue one day, I decided that I wanted to make a game. Simple indie thing, then onto my more ambitious project (with Ninjas). I saw some one on a forum ask what was the best game engine and one mention was Unity3D. I took a look, saw a free version, and away I went. Then the daunting task of “what the hell am I meant to do with this application” struck me.

Time to get a book and learn. After checking all the comments on Amazon I found that Game Development with Unity by Michelle Menard looked to be the best. I’m slowly reading it, and it’s like she’s sitting and chatting to you on how to use Unity and how to perform the basics, leading up to actually creating your first game.

A simple read, so far. I am up to Chapter 7. Once I get more practiced I’ll get Mr Goldstones book :wink: As this sounds a little more advanced.

Hope this helps.