Best products from r/Unity3D

You're very welcome! Wish I could contribute more, but I'm operating on the meager budget of a solo indie dev :/ Also, the video game attorney was on r/gamedev the other day and made some strong suggestions about incorporating other artist's assets in a game. Check out the part on contracting. It can be done, but the contracts are expensive to have written up. So nothing personal, I just want to be as safe as possible. I ordered Unity 5.x Shaders and Effects Cookbook so hopefully I'll be able to write my own shaders in the future but if I'm still struggling I might start bugging you ;)

For the sake of science however, and if you want to give it a whirl, the shader I'm hoping to achieve would be similar to yours except different in the following ways.

• Instead of mesh being window to an image, have it be a window to another skybox. Yours looked great but I'd be curious to see what it looks like with the skybox instead and how that would effect performance.
  
  
• Add cartoon type outline (preferably with thickness slider and color picker in inspector)
  
  Bonus points:
  
  
• Dunno if this might conflict with some of the other points but an effect that I think would be really cool would be to have the shading of a mesh with a texture affect the alpha of shaded portions. So darker would be more transparent and the clear parts would show the second (cosmic) skybox. Here's an example of what it would hopefully look like.
  
  Anywho, thanks again for your help! If you want to see what I'm working on, you can see me devlog here and/or follow on twitter @CWDgamedev
  

There was a book I read 40 years ago that covered basically everything from vacuum tubes and semiconductors up to basically chips. It was in the library, and it was like 800 pages long. I asked on reddit if anyone knew what it was, and someone pointed me at the newest edition. But I don't really have time to go through all my comment history looking for "electronics book" or to write a program to do same, but you should feel free to do so. :-) Then I got into assembly for the 8-bit CPUs, picked up the 16-bit and 32-bit CPUs of the day, and the mainframe stuff. Then I went back to school. :-)

However, all that said, this looks like what I read, and the intro sounds like he's describing the first edition I remember: https://smile.amazon.com/Electronic-Devices-Circuit-Theory-11e-ebook/dp/B01LY6238B/ref=mt_kindle

If you want more about assembler, just flipping through this seems like it starts with the very fundamentals and goes through a fair amount. https://smile.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Software/dp/0735611319/ref=sr_1_5 If you already know how to program, and you understand the basics of how (for example) basic assembler language works and how the chip accesses memory and what an interrupt does and etc, then learning new assembler languages is pretty straightforward. Sort of like "I know Java, now I need to learn C#."

But honestly, at this point, I'd look online. When I learned all this stuff, textbooks were the way to go. Nowadays, everything moves so fast that you're probably better off finding a decent description online, or looking up an online class or something and seeing what texts they use.

If you don't want to learn assembler or hardware, but you still want to challenge yourself, the other thing to look into is unusual programming languages and operating systems. Things that are unlike what people now use for doing business programming. Languages like APL (or "J"), or Hermes, or Rust, or Erlang, or Smalltalk, or even Lisp or Forth if you've been steeped in OOP for too long. Operating systems like Eros or Amoeba or Singularity. Everything stretches your mind, everything gives you tools you can use in even the most mundane situations, and everything wonderful and wild helps you accept that what you're doing now is tedious and mundane but that's where you're at for the moment. :-) (Or, as I often exclaim at work, "My kingdom for a Java list comprehension!")

I had the same problem. I ride the subway every day and have a ton of time to read, so I've been trying to collect similar resources.

Here are some resources I found really helpful:

1. Beginners book on Unity - http://www.amazon.com/Development-Essentials-Community-Experience-Distilled/dp/1849691444
   
   This is a VERY basic (think: learn how to code!) introduction to Unity. I personally found it too elementary, having coded in a few different languages, but it might be a good place to start as it explains basic Unity design concepts like Components, Materials, Colliders, etc.
   
   
2. Your first Unity project (helps to have Unity accessible to follow alone) - Building a 2D RPG in Unity: http://pixelnest.io/tutorials/2d-game-unity/
   
   This is by fast the best 'getting started' tutorial I've found. It walks you through creating a really basic project from scratch using Unity basics and scripts. This is what I based most of my code off of when I first started my project.
   
   
3. REALLY great book on game design/physics and AI - http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Example-Wordware-Developers-Library/dp/1556220782
   
   This has been the most helpful resource for me. It's not Unity specific but will teach you A TON of great fundamentals for things like how to move a character, common patterns like StateMachines, how to handle AI, etc.... All of these concepts will be relevant and many are already in place in Unity so you'll recognize them right away.
   
   Advanced: Game Programming Patterns - http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/
   
   This is a book (online/pdf/epub) that teaches the more advanced patterns you'll be applying in your code. I'd suggest this once you finish with the above resources and have been working through your game for a bit.
   

You'll need to be self-motivated to learn and become better. Try doing some research and understand how you best like to learn, whether it be tinkering, reading, online course, YouTube, etc. The best learning is getting your hands dirty and experimenting in Unity, but there are some good books to help out if needed. If you are new to programming in C#, this one may help: Learn C# in One Day and Learn It Well: https://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Hands-Project-Coding-Project-ebook/dp/B016Z18MLG

When you start a project or game and aren't sure how to do something, this book might also be a handy Unity/C# reference: https://www.amazon.com/Unity-2018-Cookbook-recipes-development/dp/1788471903.

YouTube & documentation are your best friends and there are also some good Udemy courses if you want to spend time and / or money on a dedicated leaning project.

Good luck.

There are endless amount of ways to improve performance in Unity, so it's tough to make a suggestion with that little detail. How far you are through developing the game could affect what type of solutions make sense. In general, it sounds like you're very interested in just having common knowledge on how to take advantage of various performance techniques.

I'm not much of a reader but I found this book to be very helpful for me to understand optimizing in Unity. Gives some really nice explanations on everything optimization.

https://www.amazon.com/Unity-2017-Game-Optimization-performance-ebook/dp/B076T4TW9G/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1556835463&sr=8-1-fkmrnull-spons

I was just browsing the webs to solidify my understanding of Asset Bundles for optimizing the loading in our game, and I came by your post. Reminded me of when I wanted to optimize my sprites at the level you mentioned above and that's the solution that worked for me. Hopefully it will help you as well.

Buy The Pragmatic Programmer, read it from cover to cover. Let it change your life. It's not a specific language reference but it's pretty much required reading for any new programmer. It's about creating maintainable code, which is more of a mindset than anything, it's also a really really EASY and relatively entertaining read.

https://www.amazon.com/Pragmatic-Programmer-Journeyman-Master/dp/020161622X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520232423&sr=8-1&keywords=the+pragmatic+programmer&dpID=41BKx1AxQWL&preST=_SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

Another more specific book to use as reference is the Effective C#:
https://www.amazon.com/Effective-Covers-Content-Update-Program/dp/0672337878/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520232641&sr=1-1&keywords=effective+c+sharp&dpID=51ga39m0W5L&preST=_SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

They make "Effective" books for nearly all popular languages, and they really are great references. If you don't understand everything in it like co-variance and contravariance google as a lot of good examples of these concepts in practice, as well as definitions. Believe me I understand that these things can get really confusing and frustrating coming from a non-academic background and trying to bridge that gap. But utilizing this book and understanding the lingo will also help you to find more answers to run on your own.

Now, as with anything in programming, the point is not to have to remember everything all the time in these books(despite what try-hard programmers on the internet will tell you). That comes with experience and you're human so don't set yourself up with that expectation. Read them once so you know what is in them, and keep them at your desk for reference.

When you need to construct an interface pull out the book go to the interfaces and give it a glance over to give you an idea on where to go.

There is a saying in programming Favour Composition Over Inheritance.

In short, If you had a Duck class and then later on went to make a RubberDuck or a WoodenDuck both would inherit Fly and Quack, not just the contract but the actual implementation.

A solution to having composed behavior is not to base it off the same object but to make a contract and extract the behaviour. e.g:

IQuackBehaviour

So your duck might look like:

public class Duck : MonoBehaviour {

public void Quack(){
_quacker.Quack();
}
public void Fly(){
_flyer.Fly();
}

IQuackBehaviour _quacker;
IFlyBehaviour _flyer;
}

might have:


public class SimpleQuack : IQuackBehaviour
{
public void Quack(){
Debug.Log("Quack!");
}

}


While a non-live duck might just... do nothing:

public class CannotQuack : IQuackBehaviour
{
public void Quack(){
Debug.Log("Nothing Happened");
}

}

So you can make a new Duck and set what kind of behaviour it does in the cases where quacking is needed:

var liveDuck = new Duck();
liveDuck.SetQuackStrategy(new SimpleQuack());
liveDuck.SetFlyStrategy(new SimpleFly());

var rubberDuck = new Duck();
rubberDuck.SetQuackStrategy(new CannotQuack());
rubberDuck.SetFlyStrategy(new CannotFly());

and this opens you up to different strategies for more abstract concepts later

var propellerDuck = new Duck();
propellerDuck.SetQuackStrategy(new SimpleQuack());
propellerDuck.SetFlyStrategy(new PropellerFly());

var daveTheArticulateDuck = new Duck();
daveTheArticulateDuck .SetQuackStrategy(new HumanSpeechQuack());
daveTheArticulateDuck .SetFlyStrategy(new JFKAirportFly());


*

If you notice I used the word strategy a lot there. That is because the common name for this approach is The Strategy Pattern.

If you are interested in going down this road there are a number of great books on the subject. This Free Ebook is a great introduction. my personal favourite book on the subject is Head First Design Patterns.

These books help you bridge the gap between knowing the benefits of designing code well and some actual practices to try to do so.

just one Word of warning. Design patterns can be confusing at first. no shame in that. everyone learns at some stage, but for your own sanity Don't use patterns you don't understand**. Patterns are designed to solve problems, If you don't understand the problem well enough to see why the pattern is a solution, don't use it. Copy and pasting patterns is a quick way to an overcomplicated mess of a project. Instead when you have a problem (like this), have a look at some of the ways other people solve it and see what fits your project,

good luck!

If you are a self-learner online is the best way to learn programming and Unity. It's significantly cheaper and paced as fast as you want to go. With that said, learning the basics of proficient programming and Unity is what you would consider an Associate's Degree in college.

You'll need to learn C#, 3D modeling (Blender is free), basics of 3D animation, 3D texturing and painting and of course game programming too. Imagine this as a college degree, you'd have Intro to C# programming, C# programming in Unity, Intro to Blender, Blender to Unity Pipeline, etc.

A good way to get started is simply set up a scene in Unity and build and model an interactive room. Model all your own assets, texture them, and make it interactive. It will force you to be resourceful and takes a more learn-as-you-go approach.

I highly recommend a premium tutorial service like DigitalTutors.com if you can afford it at $30 a month (Udemy is okay but the quality of most of their tutorials are still pretty amateur). YouTube is also a great resource for free tutorials.

You can also go on Amazon and buy pretty comprehensive books if you prefer. Like this http://www.amazon.com/Learning-C-Programming-Unity-3D/dp/1466586524

So kudos to you for wanting to create more manageable code. I will take a look at your class when I get some time and give you some ideas, but for now I recommend this book that helped me immensely: Head First Design Patterns: A Brain-Friendly Guide. It is a fun read and goes over some of the most important patterns in OOP. I had to read each chapter a few times and practice coding solutions for the knowledge to sink in, but what you will learn is amazing. I was able to apply concepts to one of my games when using for instance the Strategy Pattern to swap out flying behaviors super easy and separate code that will change from code that will not change. I will be posting tutorials on this subject in the future at my new Unity Game Dev site: https://www.theunitygamedev.com

You can take a look at the book on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Head-First-Design-Patterns-Brain-Friendly/dp/0596007124

> I know programming

I have a checklist I usually bring out at this point :) You should know:

• understanding different basic data types (ints, floats, bool, string) and how to manipulate them (especially strings)
  
• understanding the difference between properties and fields.
  
• If and switch statements
  
• Ternaray Operators
  
• Basic Mathematical Operators (*, +, =, etc);
  
• understand the difference between = and ==, and not operators (!(true) and !=)
  
• Advanced Mathematical Operators (+=, % for modulus , << left bit shift operator)
  
• Arrays and Lists
  
• Dictionaries and Keypairs
  
• Understanding objects, classes and constructors
  
• New Keyword
  
• Access Modifiers and Static
  
• Understanding references and null values
  
• Inheritance
  
• Indexers
  
• Namespaces and using
  
• Partial Keyword and why it's a good idea to limit the use of it
  
• Abstract classes and interfaces
  
• Delegates, Events, Action and Func
  
• Understanding generics and using <T>.
  
• Casting types with 'as' or direct and understanding the difference
  
• Serialization
  
• Comments and Regions
  
• Threading
  
• ref and out keywords and why they can be bad to use
  
• IEnumerable and Yield Return
  
• Enums and flags
  
• Understanding Loops (while, foreach, for and do) and the differences between all of them
  
• continue and break keywords and how to use them in loops
  
• try,catch and finally
  
• Understanding methods: void, return types and parameters
  
• overloading methods
  
• Knowing what the params keyword is and how to use it in methods
  
• what virtual and override are and how they can be used
  
  If you confident you have all this you'll probably want to start learning about design patterns and decoupling techniques. This free online book is amazing, and I would recommend it to everyone:).
  
  Other books like Clean Code and The Art of Unit Testing have helped me a lot too.
  
  With coding, it because more about creating code that is easy to change. I would also recommend using StrangIoc along with MVC to achieve decoupled, clean code:)

Some will say learn c# before you learn unity. I say learn c# while using unity. https://www.amazon.com/Learning-C-Programming-Unity-3D/dp/1466586524

3dmotive has a great series called Introduction to unity, the guy is very thorough, in fact most of 3dmotive's tutorial series on unity seem to be good.

Plenty of good yt tuts also and lots of practice. The best way is to add your own stuff to a finished tutorial or to try to do it a different way. Learning to learn unity is probably a skill unto itself since there are so many facets of unity to explore, like animation, programming, ui, sound and maybe 3d modeling(some tools exist that actually let you do this within unity)

Maybe switch to boo scripting ;), nah just kidding no one uses boo. JS is also popular but c# is the language of choice for most.

Like most things practice and practice within a few months you'll be teaching others or creating games. My first success following a tutorial was Lynda's c# scripting tutorial, the tutor goes through creating a little 3d platformer. It's not all that great in terms of being able to use her code line for line to sell a game, but it does help you finish a simple 3d game and feeling accomplished(don't ask my why I feel this is something important to do).

I'd recommend C# 5.0 Unleashed (https://www.amazon.com/C-5-0-Unleashed-Bart-Smet/dp/0672336901/). It might look daunting, but if you're serious about learning C#, I think this is the one to get, because it not only teaches you the language, it explains why it is the way it is, which I think is an excellent way to deeper understanding. Depending on the version of Unity you're using, and your target platform / scripting backend, you might not be able to take advantage of everything C# 5.0 has to offer. And 5.0 is not even the latest version of the language. That aside, this book is excellent.

What it doesn't do, though, is walk you through projects, in a let's-build-this-game-step-by-step kind of way, which as others wrote might be helpful at first. I'd still recommend you buy this book and use it to read about the interesting details of whatever you learn elsewhere or through tutorials.

I'm not even sure if it's possible - or feasible - to run Unity in a "cloud VM". It's surely nothing I would have tried, and I would definitely go for a PC, preferably a stationary (more bang for the bucks, better upgrade options etc.), but I can understand it if you must have a laptop; hard to drag the stationary around. :)

If your budget is max. $1.5K, there are tons of very good options out there. A quick search on Amazon.com gave me f.ex. this ASUS laptop at $1.2K + shipping. Quite good specs, and should be more than enough for Unity development.

Alternatively, it has a little brother for only $700 + shipping, which still would be a good choice, although 256GB disk might be a tad small.

Good luck!

For those who are interested in downloading/viewing the game. Here are the links :D


https://wafflegum.itch.io/io-shape-defense

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Z692QYC/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=Io+shape+defense&qid=1571297761&s=mobile-apps&sr=1-1

Yes, unfortunately I can't release it on google playstore. I have no dev account and have no money to pay for it, but hey! Thanks for the lovely support you guys are giving me :)

If you are starting from an amateur background as a developer on C# centric stack, I'd argue that Code Complete has strong to potential to protect against your weaknesses/blind spots than just about any book about software development. It doesn't go deep, but it will introduce you to breadth of fundamentals. Feel free to skim past the ones you are already familiar with.

https://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Construction/dp/0735619670

​

The particular techniques described evolve over time, but the principles endure. e.g. One poster commented of making backups. Tools in the C#/MS ecosystem have evolved considerably, but git based source control is pretty popular tech at moment. Github is popular for hosting source of open source projects - Azure Repos and Azure Devops suite has more depth for larger teams and complex processess.

Unity Shaders and Effects cookbook. I'm linking you to the 5th edition because it's probably more relevant. I bought the 4th one for cheap on kindle and it was super helpful until I got to the 4th chapter which used cubemaps which have obviously changed between unity 4 and 5 probably 2017 as well lol. But I just bought a used physical copy of the newer one which I hope gets here soon.

Either one you go with will get you writing good shaders quickly as long as you can use your imagination. After the first chapter I got a lightsabre shader up and running easily. It also covers post processing effects later in the book and supposedly goes into making your own cinematic filter.

I'm also a novice, but I would recommend Unity in Action. Simple, straightforward, and slowly builds towards bigger and better things. I've been using it for a couple of weeks and I can't believe the things I can do in Unity already. Edit: It does presume some knowledge of C# though. This book is a pretty good reference for the basics.

Unity has already been well covered here by other redditors.

Nevertheless, if you are also in the process of learning how to program, I would like to contribute with two pointers.

Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software, by Charles Petzold

For the very basic of computer science

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0735611319

Inside C#, by Tom Archer and Andrew Whitechapel

This is quite old now but very easy to read and good to understand the language

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0735616485

If you are not in the US, just google around for other sources.

Happy hacking

> I have no prior knowledge of programming, so learning to program is going to be interesting in itself. The game I'm creating is in C#.


Unity is a great way to learn basic programming concepts. Some folks have used this book and reported good results:


https://www.amazon.com/Learning-C-Programming-Unity-3D/dp/1466586524


Enjoy your new hobby! 25 years ago, my passion for making games got me into programming, and I got a new career out of it. It took me only 6 months of self-taught programming before I got my first job as a programmer.

This, a hundred times this.

Written by one of the (i think) co-founders of Unity, this is how I got started a while back. The book may be a little outdated, but none-the-less, actually kept me engaged and taught me a lot, not as much programming wise though...


Otherwise, I would just go with youtube videos, those can be equally engaging and helpful.

>mostly because you need to be good at a lot of mathemtics, is this true?

This is primarily for algorithms. It's pretty easy to be good at math, the hardest part I find for people who program is that they often don't think "outside the box" in breaking their program down.

I and others recommend programming in C#. You should be able to get off the ground with the following resources:

http://learncs.org/

https://mva.microsoft.com/en-US/training-courses/software-development-fundamentals-8248?l=D9b9nHKy_3404984382

https://mva.microsoft.com/en-US/training-courses/c-fundamentals-for-absolute-beginners-8295?l=bifAqFYy_204984382

http://www.amazon.com/Exam-98-361-Software-Development-Fundamentals/dp/047088911X

This list is for programming in general:

http://www.amazon.com/Pragmatic-Programmer-Journeyman-Master/dp/020161622X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453520022&sr=1-1&keywords=pragmatic+programmer

http://www.amazon.com/Clean-Code-Handbook-Software-Craftsmanship/dp/0132350882/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453520045&sr=1-1&keywords=clean+code

http://www.amazon.com/Design-Patterns-Elements-Reusable-Object-Oriented/dp/0201633612/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453520067&sr=1-1&keywords=gang+of+four

http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~stevenha/myteaching/competitive_programming/cp1.pdf

http://visualgo.net/

http://www.sorting-algorithms.com/

http://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/3-key-software-principles-you-must-understand--net-25161

Welcome to the great world of documentation and clean code writing.

I would start by reading lean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship. Look for the second edition, though. (Btw, even though it tells in the introduction that is a tough book, it is not, although maybe if you are starting from "zero" on good practices, it will have some hard parts).

From there, learn about UML and use it with (for instance) draw.io to document your code organization. Is the shit, because you need to keep updated the diagramas when you change something, but being able to remember the organization in one look is well worth it.

I highly recommend reading Programing Game AI by Example. It includes a chapter on modeling an AI controlled soccer team. The book itself is a fantastic primer on a variety of workhorse AI techniques that every game dev should be familiar with.

That being said, oftentimes fun gameplay can arise from simple rules + player interaction. So, read the book, but don't be afraid to just throw down some simple triggered behavior and see what's fun.

I've been very impressed with Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development by Jeremy Gibson. The first half of the book talks about game design in general, then goes into a basic overview of C#. The rest of the book consists of a series of tutorials that get increasingly more complex. I'm not sure how helpful the tutorials and programming info would be laying in bed but the game design stuff is definitely fun to read by itself without a computer.

I just ordered : https://www.amazon.com/Unity-5-x-Shaders-Effects-Cookbook/dp/1785285246/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478088279&sr=8-1&keywords=Unity+5+shader+cookbook

to learns Shaders and lighting effects. I'm hoping this takes my abilities to the next level. I love Alan Zucconi's website so I'm chomping at the bit for this book to arrive!

This sounds a lot like the technique outlined in Volumetric Light Effects in Killzone: Shadow Fall in GPU Pro 5. Pretty neat!

How did you get the particles to draw to a 3D texture? I didn't think it was possible to use a command buffer or similar with shuriken particles.

Thanks for the suggestions, I appreciate it! Of your suggestions I like this one best because of the solid state drive: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XFC44CL/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_iP04CbG9P4AAV

I'm reading this right now. It starts with "analog" prototyping for games, to test basic games like card games. How you can design games and what you need to consider. Learn C# in unity while developing games, and you learn development processes like agile or scrum. For me, this book is great because it starts with the basics and over each chapter you learn another part of developing games like how to test your initial Idea or how to balance weapons etc. until you reach the second half of the book were you learn the unity development with projects.

I've tried learning C# from watching youtube tutorials, but all I end up doing is mindlessly copying what they're doing, and I might understand what they're doing, but I can't replicate it myself.

I'm using a book to learn C# now, and it's a bit heavy, but it is MUCH needed. Learning about classes, functions, int vs float vs double etc. is really important if you want to understand code.

And trust me, just making a script for controlling your player smoothly in a shooter game could be 50+ lines of code (although you could make a rugged, simpler one with less code).

This is the book I'm using:
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-C-Programming-Unity-3D/dp/1466586524

Nice write up. Look forward to the next one.

Just got Alan's book on shaders. It's a great resource! He even talks about fur shaders.

It depends how experienced you are. I have found the best resource so far to be the Unity website's official tutorials.

Here's a great one to start with:

http://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/modules/beginner/scripting/translate-and-rotate

If you don't know any C at all, I would recommend this one:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/learning-c-by-developing-games-with-unity-3d-terry-norton/1116543759?cm_mmc=googlepla-_-book_45up-_-q000000633-_-9781849696586&ean=9781849696586&isbn=9781849696586&r=1

It's silly, but it's up to date and doesn't spend too much time dicking around. I would buy the e-book though, I don't know about $50 for this one (then again, I'm broke).

This one is a little out of date but supposedly still relevant, and though I haven't looked at it yet it's widely recommended:

http://www.amazon.com/Development-Essentials-Community-Experience-Distilled/dp/1849691444

This may be a good way to learn for some people but for those who prefer structure, a book may be the better option.

OP - I just ordered this book. I'll post a review on Amazon after digging through some of it.

http://www.amazon.com/Learning-C-Programming-Unity-3D/dp/1466586524/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

I would highly recommend Will Goldstone's new edition of "game development essentials"... he works for UnityTechnologies, so I would say he knows what he's talking about ;) make sure you get the latest edition!

here's a link to it:
http://www.amazon.com/Unity-3-x-Game-Development-Essentials/dp/1849691444/ref=pd_sim_b_1

But to your actual question. It depends on what you are making. But at that price range, maybe something with a decent i7. A decent graphics card and a fair amount of ram (def no less than 8gb but imo 16 is a god send)

Good laptops:
Dell Inspiron i7559-5012GRY 15.6" UHD (3840x2160) 4k Touchscreen Laptop (Intel Quad Core i7-6700HQ, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, Microsoft Signature Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015PYZI8E/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_1M04Cb6KHV04D

HP Pavilion Power 15-inch Laptop, Intel Core i7-7700HQ , AMD Radeon RX 550, 12GB RAM, 1TB hard drive, Windows 10 (15-cb071nr, Black), Gaming https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071L1VCV6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_eO04CbGQ4MT02

Dell Inspiron i5577-7342BLK-PUS,15.6" Gaming Laptop, (Intel Core i7,16GB,512GB SSD),NVIDIA GTX 1050 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XFC44CL/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_iP04CbG9P4AAV

You're kidding right? That's 100% personal preference... It doesn't matter how you place the braces as long as you're consistent.

This: The Microsoft C# Style Guide. It's literally garbage unless you work for Microsoft or a company that also follows this style guide to religiously. They're suggestions by Microsoft on how to write clean code. If you want a real break down on what clean code is read Clean Code or The Pragmatic Programmer and you'll learn what things are actually worth worrying about.

I think the best bet would be to consult documentation itself. However, if you are looking for a quick tutorial on all aspects of unity(Including relatively simple tutorial on Sound), then I would suggest This Book. If you are trying to do something like Bit Trip, then Unity might not be best option out there, just my 2 cents.

Learn some design patterns: http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/

Follow the SOLID principles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOLID_(object-oriented_design)

Read "Clean Code" (and everything else by Robert C. Martin): http://www.amazon.com/Clean-Code-Handbook-Software-Craftsmanship/dp/0132350882

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Predator-Overclockable-Aeroblade-PH315-51-78NP/dp/B07CTHLX8C/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=laptops+gaming&qid=1570165442&sr=8-3 - $1k

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Both of these are going to have 0 problems running Unity and allowing you to game as well. Cheers mate.

Very good response.

In the book Programming game AI by example. This is explained very well. In c++ though.

Moreover, you can have more than one state machine. One global, one for the weapon, one for the player... etc. Depending on your game needs.

This book was suggested in the last thread as a really good source of information: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1849691444/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2N51X1QYGFUPK

I have yet to actually read it though. I have to wait until I get some money at the first of the month.

You should checkout my book Unity in Action! I'm a professional game programmer who uses Unity at work, and I wrote the book I wish had existed when I was first learning Unity.

This book is made by the same person and is the newer edition, is it better? http://www.amazon.com/Unity-3-x-Game-Development-Essentials/dp/1849691444/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

I liked this book very much, learning C# through programming in Unity:
https://www.amazon.com/Learning-C-Programming-Unity-3D/dp/1466586524/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505392281&sr=8-1&keywords=unity3d+c%23

I would just like to add on to this post that this is an incredible book for learning Unity.

In that case I can recommend "The Pragmatic Programmer" https://www.amazon.com/Pragmatic-Programmer-Journeyman-Master/dp/020161622X

There is an Updated Unity Shader Cookbook for Unity 5 and standard shaders by Alan Zuconni.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1466586524/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321933168/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

These have helped me out immensely

for me it was Will Goldstone's book Unity 3.x Game Dev Essentials it touched briefly on a lot of different topics in a tutorial style and left you with a functioning game at the end.

I feel the same way at times. I recently found a decent book that points me in the right direction. Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development: From Concept to Playable Game with Unity and C# https://www.amazon.com/dp/0321933168/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apap_VhXx42O3fAPhR

I have found Unity In Action to be great, but there isn't much competition as most other books are by Packt and they are crap.

I cannot tell you how much you will learn from it if you are already experienced, but the only reference is from Unity themselves.

I'll be honest I don't find books helpful. I start a project and Google problems as they arise. I will say don't buy this

https://www.amazon.ca/Learning-C-Programming-Unity-3D/dp/1466586524/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1468826475&sr=8-3&keywords=c%23+unity

I bought it, am into my second game, haven't used a bit of information from this piece of crap book.

C# inside Unity : http://www.amazon.com/Unity-3-x-Game-Development-Essentials/dp/1849691444/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374539879&sr=8-1&keywords=C%23+unity

C# I'm not sure, I learned on a french website so it's pretty much useless to you :p