For the 10th installment of Unity for Software Engineers, we'll be doing things a bit differently. Instead of a single long-form article going in-depth on a single topic, I will be releasing a collection of short-form overviews over the course of this week. The goal: introduce readers to a breadth of the Unity toolkit.

Pathfinding is a common system in video games; you might have enemies that need to move throughout the scene to reach and attack a player, or a point-and-click game where you command the main character by simply clicking at a destination, or a real-time strategy game where all units navigate around obstacles and each other dynamically.

In solo game development, you can't just stick to your strong suit. If you're a Software Engineer trying out solo game development, being a solid developer will only get you so far; even if you're using assets made by others, you'll still need to know how to integrate them into your game tightly.

Animation is a great example. Imagine a character model has animations for walking, running, standing, talking, interacting, and more. In that case, you will still need to define how a character object triggers and transitions between these animations. These animations might also dictate what your object does; for example, an enemy that punches characters might want to deal damage at the precise moment the model's arms are fully extended.

Whether you're a backend, UI, web, or full-stack developer, much of the Software Development toolkit looks similar. Even when the exact tools are different, the toolkit translates intuitively between fields: version control systems, debugging and profiling tools, editors and language servers, and package managers work together similarly. What do these tools like when developing software and games with Unity? We'll dive into this today.

Welcome to another installment of Unity for Software Engineers, a series for those seeking an accelerated introduction to game development in Unity. More is coming over the next few weeks, so consider subscribing.

Let's talk about all the ways you can play and manage audio in your game. Audio makes an interesting topic; it's relatively easy to get some audio playing in your game, but it's often unclear how to move from the simplest use case to a slightly more complex one.

This is Unity for Software Engineers, a series for those seeking an accelerated introduction to game development in Unity. More is coming over the next few weeks, so consider subscribing for updates.

While most Software Engineers interested in game development will be most excited about the programming aspect of making a game, you'll need some familiarity with graphics, animation, and sound to be successful. This is especially true if you're trying to work solo. While a wealth of assets and resources are available in the Asset Store (especially when it comes to reasonably-priced paid assets), there's a decent amount you still need to know to execute well when putting these resources together. In this installment, we'll discuss Rendering, Render Pipelines, and Lighting in Unity.

This is Unity for Software Engineers, a series for those seeking an accelerated introduction to game development in Unity. More is coming over the next few weeks, so consider subscribing for updates.