Phew, it has been a torturous time since my book was released back in August, my first experience releasing my work in printed / ebook form through a publisher only to find that lots of changes made it in to the book on release. Needless to say I was shocked and have been working hard with the publisher to fix what had been broken.
Not every errata that cropped up was down to the publisher, I do have to hold my hand up and say a few of them were mine (Some were “fixes” from Unity) but the publisher has taken everything on board I have said and we have worked very hard to ensure this 2nd Edition is the best it can be.
No, “MonoBehaviour” is NOT spelt “Monobehavior”
So much so we added a new reviewer to my book, one Simon Wheatley (aka The Captain), a diligent reader who purchased the book and has been invaluable identifying erroneous changes that were introduced. I have even invited Simon to be a Technical reviewer on my 2nd Title, he has that good!. All praise Simon! (Of course the best people are called Simon 
).
All the errata for the 1st edition is listed here in the forum for the book
The second edition should be available in online retailers from:
Monday October 27th 2014 (subject to acts of god and time travel)
*Update, checking both Packt and Amazon, I’m not seeing the update available yet. Chasing the publisher for more info #RaspsNucklesOnTable
For direct Links check out
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About the book
The book was an interesting challenge for me and is written with the same flair I use within my blog, I have always felt it is better to educate and show you, not only how to do things but also why you should do it one way over another, plus if there are any alternatives, I will point them out. As a reader you should be informed about your choices (and then make your own mind up ).
Through its pages you will build an RPG game framework which you can then extend and make your own, the aim is to give you enough hints, tips and help to build your own finished game.
Here is what you should expect from the title:
- A run through the new improvements in Unity 4.3 and 2D game development (plus everything else in case you missed it)
- A deep dive in to the new Sprite system and the Animation improvements (the first of my chapters that got so big it had to be split in twain)
- Working with camera’s in 2D, scenes and sprite layering plus some advanced coding techniques which lead up to building your own RPG conversation system.
- We cover building a map and exploration system with the eventual conclusion of running in to some nasty goblins who have a really mean steak
- If shopping is your thing, you’ve come to the right place, can I interest you in this lovely lv 1 sword. Learn to build a shopping system and then head back out in to the fray
- In the second chapter that also got two big for its boots and had to be severed right down the middle we cover turn based battle systems, including some was to use Mecanim that you may have never considered before (State battle machines and AI anyone?)
- With the game framework done we look at finishing your title and looking at the editor to see how we can extend it to help build our game for us (editor scripting, yummy), rounding up with an in depth report on enabling in-app purchasing the right way
- Finally, we round up with a look at extending and deploying to platforms, cram packed with help on serialisation (saving and loading), making code only run on specific platforms or the editor and masses of hints and tips on marketing
My only regret with this book is that it couldn’t be bigger there is more than enough information within this titles pages to get you 90% there with your own game, all you got to do is finish it and add lots more content!.
As with everything I do, if there is more you want to know on any subject within the book, drop me a line or comment on my blog and I will be more than happy to write even more on the subject.
And now for the results
Not that long ago I launched a comment competition on my blog for 3 lucky people to win eBook copies of my title, I have held off announcing the winners until the second edition was ready to go. We had a few delays due to sickness and some more awkward changes (some code got capitalised!!!, fine in the example code of course 
) but we are finally there.
Not wanting to be dull, I decided to let the hero in my title do the picking, he was very honoured for such an honoured role and he headed out in to the forest o pick out the select few. Although it appears the Goblins had other things in mind:
So the winners are:
StarMox
Derek Lakin
Symyon
I will email the winners directly and pass on their email to Packt to add the book to their collection for download.
Congrats to the winners and best wishes to all who entered. Here is hoping you still buy and love my title.
Simon (darkside) Jackson
Engineer, industry executive, research enthusiast. Avid learner with diverse interests in coding, game development, Mixed Reality (AR/VR/XR) and reinforcement learning. 25+ years of experience working in multinational corporations and startups.
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