This book serves as a practical introduction to the world of 2D and 3D game programming. It delves into the essential techniques used in programming these games and explores how you can harness these methods to your advantage. The book showcases a wide array of mechanics commonly found in video games and provides practical examples to guide you through their implementation. It also demonstrates how to empower players and manage interactions between players and various in-game elements.

The primary focus of this book revolves around programming, which is a pivotal aspect of video game development. Nonetheless, the realm of game development is vast, encompassing various artistic and technical skills. To cater to a broad audience, the book includes exercises designed to evaluate your comprehension of the discussed topics. Each exercise introduces a fresh concept that hasn't been previously covered, challenging you to create your own variations of the provided examples.

Who can benefit from this book? The answer is simple: everyone. Regardless of your reasons for delving into game programming and irrespective of your current level of programming knowledge and experience, you can glean valuable insights from the material within these pages. The book equips you with the fundamental knowledge needed to initiate your journey in the realm of game development, with a particular emphasis on game logic and mechanics programming.

Is this book tied to a specific game engine or programming language? From a technical standpoint, this book and its examples are tailored exclusively to the Unity3D game engine. Additionally, all the scripts presented in the book are written in the C# programming language. However, the book aspires to be engine- and programming language-agnostic. It strives to avoid templates specific to the Unity3D game engine, relying instead on fundamental functions commonly found in most game engines. The author eagerly anticipates readers applying the book's examples using alternative engines and programming languages.

How should you approach reading this book? This book adopts a non-linear approach, allowing you to access the knowledge you seek based on your specific interests and goals. If you already know what you want to learn and what type of games you aim to create, you can navigate between chapters and focus on the sections most relevant to your needs. For instance, if your goal is to create a car racing game, you should begin with the first chapter to establish a foundation in common basics. Then, you can skip to Section 6 of Chapter 2 to discover how to implement the necessary input system. In this scenario, you can bypass sections that pertain to topics like mouse-look for first-person control, which are covered in other parts of Chapter 2.