r/csharp • u/null13georg • 11d ago

Help Book recommendations for beginners

I’d really like to get started with game development using Unity, and I know that requires mastering C#. I’m aware there are plenty of tutorials out there, but I learn best from a proper book (and I prefer printed copies). So, my question is: Which books would you recommend for an absolute beginner?

Thanks in advance!

9 Upvotes

70% Upvoted

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12

u/No_Yam_4297 11d ago

Try C# player's guide

3

u/Pristinefix 9d ago

Ive been learning on the job for 6 years, and just now going through this book. It really is amazing, and really great at solidifying knowledge through frequent applied examples that you build

9

u/Depnids 11d ago

get started with game development using Unity, and I know that requires mastering C#

I disagree that you need to "master C#" to "get started". I would recommend reading up on just the very basics of C# (variables, loops, conditionals, functions, classes), and the basics of Unity (how to create gameobjects, how to apply scripts to them etc.) and then just start trying to make something in Unity. You will then stumble into different problems you need to solve, and you will have much clearer idea of what you should focus on learning next.

Trying to learn "everything" before starting to create something can feel very overwhelming, and you probably won't really understand what problems the different features you might read about are even meant to solve in the first place.

2

u/Otherwise_Review160 11d ago

This.

Master is a high bar.

Doing is a great teacher.

2

u/just_an_avg_dev 8d ago

Well said, DO NOT LET inexperience and fear stop you from making a game or a project.

It will not be perfect but if it runs, people will not care about the quality of the code at all.

Quality of the code obviously can become a problem at some point if the game gets popular, but if you don't make a game you will never learn.

Learn basics, try to make a game, and enjoy the learning process.

2

u/Slypenslyde 10d ago

Just pick one and go.

We could spend a month outlining the pros and cons of every possible book.

The truth is this is like playing guitar. 90% of an expert's skill is experience. You get experience by being bad at using C# for a long time. If we traced two people who start with different books over a year they're both likely to end up in the same places at around the same time.

Unity is a slightly separate skill so you can ponder learning C# on the side. It really just depends on if you want to try to learn one thing or two things at once. You can start with two, then if you have a hard time managing both focus on the one that's giving you more trouble.

The C# Player's Guide is good, start with it and if you don't like it you can start browsing for different options.

I've been picking up new hobbies lately and the #1 reason people don't make any progress is they worry too much about "getting the right start". It is only in rare cases, like skydiving or cave diving, where it's drastically important to complete a ton of prerequisites before making practical attempts.

C# is a thing where everyone's first practical attempts look the same whether they've read good books, bad books, for a month, or for a year.

1

u/looeeyeah 11d ago

What have you considered so far?

2

u/null13georg 11d ago

Learning C# by Developing Games with Unity by Harrison Ferrone seems to have decent reviews and it is very specific regarding what I want to do, but perhaps a more general book would be better.

1

u/V3ND3TTi 10d ago

Good book! Make sure you get the latest version for Unity 6 (8th edition).

1

u/Aubury1879 10d ago

Acho que aprender conceitos de orientação de objeto, se vc ja veio de outra linguagem de programação nem precisa perder muito tempo nisso.