An introduction to Unity3D for easy Android game development

Want to create a game for Android? Chances are that it’s a lot simpler than you probably imagine, you just need to find the right tools. Unity3D is just such a tool that gives you access to a professional-grade game engine and streamlines the development process enough to be suitable for complete beginners. In fact, Unity3D is so beginner-friendly that you can create a pretty decent game with barely any coding experience.

What is Unity3D?

If you’re into your indie games, then there’s a good chance you will have heard of Unity already as it’s a favorite among small developers. Essentially, this is a cross-platform 3D engine that is designed to be as user friendly as possible for novices while still being powerful enough for pros.

Blockbuster apps like Lara Croft GO, Thomas Was Alone, Shadowgun, Temple Run, Bad Piggies, The Room and even Deus Ex: The Fall were all built using Unity

A 3D engine of course, is a physics engine that handles the laws and behaviors of various game objects, it also handles the rendering of graphics, lighting and physics like gravity and momentum and may even have some gameplay elements included. If you want to create a 3D engine from scratch, you’ll need to code everything from the way a glass falls off a table down to the way it bounces and refracts light on the way down. Doing the same thing in Unity3D means making a 3D model of a glass, setting its mass and gravity and positioning it on a table in your game world – it’s the difference between a team working for months or one person making a few mouse clicks.

While many other 3D engines exist (such as the Unreal 4 Engine), Unity3D is one of the simplest and has an interface that makes it almost ‘game maker’ like. It also has the advantage of being truly cross platform – you can build a game in Unity3D and then publish it to Android, iOS, Windows, Windows Mobile, MacOS, Linux… even PS4 and Xbox One.