Unity Certified Programmer Exam Guide: Pass the Unity certification exam with the help of expert tips and techniques, 2nd Edition

✍ Scribed by Philip Walker

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2022
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 767
• Edition: 2
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

A practical guide to Unity game scripting using C#, along with practice tests, exam tips, and easy-to-follow examples to help you pass the exam and become a professional Unity programmer

Key Features

• Learn essentials of game scripting with Unity and C# to customize aspects of your game
• Tackle challenges in Unity game development and the certification exam using effective techniques and solutions
• Prepare for the latest Unity certification exam using mock tests, exam tips, and self-assessment questions

Book Description

Unity Certified Programmer is a global certification program by Unity for anyone looking to become a professional Unity developer. The official Unity programmer exam will not only validate your Unity knowledge and skills, but will also enable you to be a part of the Unity community.

This study guide will start by building on your understanding of C# programming and taking you through the process of downloading and installing Unity. You’ll understand how Unity works and get to grips with the Unity exam’s core objectives. As you advance, you’ll enhance your skills by creating an enjoyable side-scrolling shooter game that can be played within the Unity Editor or any modern Android mobile device. This Unity book will test your knowledge with self-assessment questions and help you take your skills to an advanced level by working with Unity tools such as the animator, particle effects, lighting, UI/UX, scriptable objects, and debugging.

By the end of this book, you’ll have developed a solid understanding of the different tools in Unity and be able to create impressive Unity applications by making the most of its toolset.

What you will learn

• Discover techniques for writing modular, readable, and reusable scripts in Unity
• Implement and configure objects, physics, controls, and movements for your game projects
• Understand 2D and 3D animation and write scripts to interact and use Unity's rendering API
• Explore Unity APIs for adding lighting, materials, and textures to your apps
• Write Unity scripts for building interfaces for menu systems, UI navigation, application settings, and much more
• Focus on SOLID principles for writing clean and maintainable Unity applications

Who this book is for

This Unity engine book is for game developers, software developers, mobile app developers, and Unity developers who want to advance in their career and gain gaming industry certification. The book assumes basic knowledge of C# programming and the Unity engine.

Table of Contents

1. Setting Up and Structuring Our Project
2. Adding and Manipulating Objects
3. Managing Scripts and Taking a Mock Test
4. Applying Art, Animation, and Particles
5. Creating a Shop Scene for Our Game
6. Purchasing In-Game Items and Advertisements
7. Creating a Game Loop and Mock Test
8. Adding Custom Fonts and UI
9. Creating a 2D Shop Interface and In-Game HUD
10. Pausing the Game, Altering Sound, and a Mock Test
11. Storing Data and Audio Mixer
12. NavMesh, Timeline, and a Mock Test
13. Effects, Testing, Performance, and Alt Controls
14. Full Unity Programmer Mock Exam

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Title
Copyright and Credits
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Setting Up and Structuring Our Project
The core exam skills covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
The six core objectives
Programming core interactions
Working in the art pipeline
Developing application systems
Programming for the scene and environment design
Optimizing performance and platforms
Working in professional software development teams
Overview of design patterns
Builder
Singleton
Abstract Factory
Prototype 
Object Pool
Dependency Injection
The SOLID principles
Single responsibility principle
Open/closed principle
Liskov substitution principle
Interface segregation principle
Dependency inversion principle
Designing the Killer Wave game
Game design brief
The Killer Wave game framework
Framework
Setting up Unity
Starting our project through Unity Hub
The dashboard
Summary
Chapter 2: Adding and Manipulating Objects
Core exam skills covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Setting up our Unity project
Creating prefabs
Adding Rigidbody components and fixing game objects
Saving and publishing our work
Unity Editor Layout
Setting up our light
Introducing our interface – IActorTemplate
Introducing our ScriptableObject – SOActorModel
Creating a PlayerSpawner ScriptableObject asset
Creating an EnemySpawner ScriptableObject asset
Creating a PlayerBullet ScriptableObject Asset
Setting up our Player, PlayerSpawner, and PlayerBullet scripts
Setting up our PlayerSpawner script
Setting up our Input Manager
Setting up our Player script
Setting up our PlayerBullet script
Planning and creating our enemy
Setting up our EnemySpawner and Enemy scripts
Adding our script to the EnemySpawner game object
Setting up our enemy script
Summary
Chapter 3: Managing Scripts and Taking a Mock Test
The core exam skills covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Adding a Singleton design pattern
Adding the ResetScene() method
Adding the GameOver() method
Adding the BeginGame() method
Creating lives for the player
Scoring enemy hits
Preparing the code for the ScoreManager script
Setting up our ScoreManager script
Creating sounds for the player's bullets
Summary
Mock test
Chapter 4: Applying Art, Animation, and Particles
The core exam skills covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Adding visuals to the player's ship prefab
Creating a material for our player's ship prefab
Applying maps to our PlayerShip material
Adding neon lights to our PlayerShip prefab
Adding particles to our PlayerShip prefab
Creating a Particle Effect
Setting up the Emission section of our particle system
Setting up the Shape section of our particle system
Setting up the Force over Lifetime section of our particle system
Setting up the Renderer section of our particle system
Setting up the Texture Sheet Animation section of our particle system
Importing and animating the background
Adding an Animator Controller
Creating states in the Animator Controller
Animation
Animating our three-dimensional enemies
Summary
Chapter 5: Creating a Shop Scene for Our Game
The core exam skills covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Introducing our shop scripts
Importing and calibrating our sprite game object
Displaying credit on our itemText game object
Project file diagnosis when making SelectionQuad
Customizing our shop selection
Creating selection templates
Customizing our player ship's upgrade selection
Selecting game objects with raycasts
Adding information to our description panel
Summary
Chapter 6: Purchasing In-Game Items and Advertisements
The core exam skills covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Buying upgrades for our player's ship
Updating visual representations of our player's ship
Preparing our player's ship to be used in the game
Buying items, watching adverts, and preparing to start a game
Setting up the BUY? button
Setting up the START button
Setting up the WATCH AD button
Extending the PlayerSpawner script
Summary
Chapter 7: Creating a Game Loop and Mock Test
Core exam skills covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Transitioning our player ship
Adding variables to our PlayerTransition script
Adding methods/functions to our PlayerTransition script
Adding if statement checks
Adding content to the PlayerMovement method
Moving the player ship out of the screen
Expanding our ScenesManager script 
Adding a game level timer
Beginning, resetting, and skipping levels
Preparing to loop our game
Setting up the bootUp scene
Setting up the title and gameOver scenes
Demonstrating that the game loop is complete
Summary
Mock test
Chapter 8: Custom Fonts and UI
Core exam skills being covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Introducing the Canvas and UI
Applying text and images to our scenes
Improving our title scene
Duplicating our game objects
Preparing to animate UI game objects
Animating our UI level title
Summary
Chapter 9: Creating a 2D Shop Interface and In-Game HUD
Core exam skills covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Setting up our HUD
Displaying the player's lives
Displaying the player's score
Creating a mini-map
Making our shop scene support alternative screen ratios
Upgrading our shop selection
Applying and modifying our shop script
Reviewing the button's results
Summary
Chapter 10: Pausing the Game, Altering Sound, and a Mock Test
Core exam skills covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Applying and adjusting level music
Updating our GameManager prefab
Preparing states for our game music
Implementing our game's music states
Using StartCoroutine with our music states
Creating a pause screen
Adding a volume UI slider to the Pause screen
Adding a game pause button
Creating our PauseComponent script 
PauseScreen basic setup and PauseButton functionality 
Resuming or quitting the game from the pause screen
Pausing the player and enemies
Summary
Mock test
Chapter 11: Storing Data and Audio Mixer
Core exam skills covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Using the Audio Mixer
Attaching the Audio Mixer to UI sliders
Storing data
PlayerPrefs and volume settings
JSON and storing game stats
Adding JSON variables
Summary
Chapter 12: NavMesh, Timeline, and a Mock Test
The core exam skills covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Preparing the final scene
Developing AI with NavMesh
Customizing our agents – NavMeshAgent
Adding a capsule collider to our fleeing enemy
Creating our fleeing enemy script
Exploring the timeline
Creating a timeline
Setting up the boss game object in our scene
Preparing the boss for the timeline
Animating the boss in the timeline – phase one
Animating the boss in the timeline – phase two
Extending the timeline
Adding Default Playables to the project
Manipulating light components in the timeline
Summary
Mock test
Chapter 13: Effects, Testing, Performance, and Alt Controls
Core exam skills being covered in this chapter
Technical requirements
Applying physics with RigidBody
Customizing for different platforms
Navigating and firing the player's ship with the touchscreen
Extending screen ratio support
Preparing to build Killer Wave for mobile
Setting up the lighting for Killer Waves for Android
Stopping involuntary player controls
Final optimizations for Killer Wave
Setting up the build settings for Android
Applying PC visual improvements
Post-processing
Adding global illumination and other settings
Adding art assets to our shop scene
Reflection probe
Building and testing our game
Tackling bugs
Understanding the Profiler tools
Frame Debugger
Tackling bugs – answers
Summary
Chapter 14: Full Unity Programmer Mock Exam
Full mock exam
Appendix
Developing for Virtual Reality
Closing suggestions for the game/exam
Rendering paths
Adding/optimizing Killer Wave
Mock answers
Chapter 3, Managing Scripts and Taking a Mock Test
Chapter 7, Creating a Game Loop and Mock Test
Chapter 10, Pausing the Game, Altering Sound, and a Mock Test
Chapter 12, NavMesh, Timeline, and a Mock Test
Chapter 14, Full Unity Programmer Mock Exam
Index