Every SharePoint developer will need to build a Virtual Machine on which they can do their development. The only exception to this rule is if you are targeting Office365 only, but still, having your own Virtual Machine running SharePoint 2013 is almost essential.
This booklet is a larger part of many books and it walks you through the process of setting up a SINGLE MACHINE SharePoint 2013 development environment. Also, this book will walk you through the many practical implications you need to consider when creating such a machine.