Making games is hard. Engines like Unity and Unreal have massively lowered the barrier to entry into this industry. And now that making games is easier than it has ever been before, developers are facing a new crisis. More and more people are joining this industry every day, making it harder to succeed in such an overcrowded market.
Many games that were popular and successful five years ago, would go mostly unnoticed today. More skills are needed to make a game stand out from its competitors, and this is why I believe that learning shaders is so important.
Shaders are the paintbrushes developers use to render graphics. The look and aesthetic of many iconic games, such as Journey, Antichamber and No Man’s Sky, was made possible only by the clever use of shaders.
Whether you are a new developer wanting to make games, or a veteran of the industry, learning how to write shaders can make the difference. This unusual tutorial pays homage to some of the best online content creators that you should know if you want to start your journey into shader coding.
⭐ Suggested Unity Assets ⭐
Linden Reid

Linden is currently working as an engineer for Limit Theory, a procedural RTS space game which packs some beautiful shaders.
Recently, Linden started writing shader tutorials on his blog. His writing is perfect for beginners, and he is covering some of the basic techniques that every shader programmer should know.
MinionsArt

Many programmers who specialise in writing shaders often fail to present their work in the most effective way. This is definitely not the case of MinionsArt, who knows how to deliver.
She often posts GIF-sized tutorials which beautifully showcase her skills. A basic knowledge of how shaders work is needed to follow her tutorials effectively, but I promise it will be worth it.
Makin’ Stuff Look Good

Daniel Moran is the lovely gentleman behind Makin’ Stuff Look Good. On top of having one of the catchiest intros you’ll ever see on a YouTube tutorial, he’s also a very skilled developer.
He runs a series called Shaders Case Study, which analyses how to reproduce some of the most stunning visual effects seen in popular games.
- Shader Fundamentals: Normal Mapping
- Shaders Case Study – No Man’s Sky: Topographic Scanner
- Shaders Case Study – Overwatch: Winston’s Barrier Projector
- Shaders Case Study – Brawl Stars: Toon Shading
Alan Zucconi

For the past three years, I have been working on dozens of shader tutorials. I hope my resources helped to make shaders more accessible for many developers. And this is why I have included myself in this article.
If you know nothing about shaders, A Gentle Introduction to Shaders is a good starting point. However, most of my tutorials are aimed to developers who are quite proficient with shaders coding, but want to push their knowledge and understanding.
- A Gentle Introduction to Shaders
- Volumetric Rendering in Unity
- Fast Subsurface Scattering in Unity
- Atmospheric Scattering Shader
Last year, I also co-authored one of the leading books about shaders in Unity. While my tutorials are usually rather advanced, the Unity 5.x Shaders and Effects Cookbook is the perfect resource for a beginner.
Unity 5.x Shaders and Effects Cookbook is available both in two editions:
You can read a sample of the book here.
Íñigo Quílez

If you have worked with shaders at any level that is not purely hobbyistic, you might have heard of Íñigo Quílez (often spelt as Inigo Quilez), or simply iq. Íñigo has made a name for himself thanks to his commitment to the world of 3D graphics. His resources are used and integrated into thousands of projects (including some of mine!).
One of his best series is formulanimations, in which he shows how you can create beautiful works of arts just by using equations. The quality of his work is exceptional, but his videos are not for the faint-hearted. But every now and then he posts something that is more accessible, like his video on how to make heart shapes with Maths.
Additional credits: social icons by David V. Kimball.
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📝 Licensing
You are free to use, adapt and build upon this tutorial for your own projects (even commercially) as long as you credit me.
You are not allowed to redistribute the content of this tutorial on other platforms, especially the parts that are only available on Patreon.
If the knowledge you have gained had a significant impact on your project, a mention in the credit would be very appreciated. ❤️🧔🏻
Thanks for sharing this – Linden Reid is completely new to me, and I didn’t know that MinionsArt does shaders too!
I’d also add Jasper Flick / CatlikeCoding and his ongoing 20 part series about rewriting everything the Standard Shader does (and more): http://catlikecoding.com/unity/tutorials/rendering/part-1
Thank you! I didn’t include Jasper because he’s not usually writing about shaders!
But I love his work and I’ll definitely post something about him soon! 😀
Alan you forgot to mention your Book !
If this post was for beginner’s then your book is an absolute ‘essential’ to get started.
What’s more it is offered for free from time to time on the Packt website.
Cheers,
behram
Hehe thank you!
I didn’t want this post to look too …spammy! :p
Alan, let make you spam a bit more on that ”book” topic :p
i suppose that other one : Unity 2018 Shaders and Effects Cookbook: Transform your game into a visually stunning masterpiece with over 70 recipes, 3rd Edition ,
is for more advanced programmer ?
I’m trying to wrap my mind around shader programming as a beginner..
Cheers,
Nicolas Seydoux
Surprisingly, it isn’t.
It starts very gently, so as long as you have a basic understanding of Unity, you’ll be able to understand it.
Hello,
I’m french so i’m sorry for my mistakes. My question is :
Your game “Still time” on Ps vita is still broken on level 7, if i download the game on playstation store or it’s good? Could i play the entiere game without problem?
For future readers: Ronja is also a great resource for beginner friendly shader tutorials!
https://www.ronja-tutorials.com/
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