foreword

I started programming games in 1982. It wasn’t easy. We had no internet. Resources were limited to a handful of mostly terrible books and magazines that offered fascinating but confusing code fragments, and as for game engines—well, there weren’t any! Coding games was a massive uphill battle.

How I envy you, reader, holding the power of this book in your hands. The Unity engine has done so much to open game programming up to so many people. Unity has managed to strike an excellent balance by being a powerful, professional game engine that’s still affordable and approachable for someone just getting started.

Approachable, that is, with the right guidance. I once spent time in a circus troupe run by a magician. He was kind enough to take me in and helped guide me toward becoming a good performer. “When you stand on a stage,” he pronounced, “you make a promise. And that promise is ‘I will not waste your time.’”

What I love most about Unity in Action is the “action” part. Joe Hocking wastes none of your time and gets you coding fast—and not just nonsense code, but interesting code that you can understand and build from, because he knows you don’t just want to read his book, and you don’t just want to program his examples—you want to be coding your own game.