Get Started with the 2D Game Kit

2D Game Kit Walkthrough

Video: 2D Game Kit Walkthrough

2D Game Kit Reference Guide

2D Game Kit Advanced Topics

2D Game Kit

This guide will walk you through setting up an empty Scene to start creating a new level with the Game Kit. This will walk you through some of the fundamentals used in this Kit to create gameplay. The Kit comes with a premade game, which contains examples of every part of the Kit in use if you get stuck for ideas. 

If you're already familiar with the Kit, and need some quick information, take a look at the 

 this can also be found in the Documentation folder within the project.

Creating a New Scene

Painting a Level

Testing Your Level

Adding a Moving Platform

Opening a Door with Events

Enemies

Damaging with Objects

Decorating

Teleporting the Player

Having Fun

This is a video version of the written 2D Game Kit Walkthrough. 

In this live session with guest host Aurore Dimopoulos, we will explore the 2D Game Kit project from Unity Technologies. 2D Game Kit is designed to allow new users to explore working in Unity and making games without first learning how to code in a friendly drag and drop environment. The kit consists of a vertical slice of a 2D platformer game complete with art, sound and interactive behavior to explore.



Overview and Goals

Ellen and Placing Hazards

Adding Moving Platforms

Doors and Destructible Objects

Adding and Squishing Enemies

Controlling Platforms With Switches

Using The Inventory System

Teleporting and Dialog Boxes

This project introduces beginner-level students to creating their own full 2D platformer game without writing any code.

The Explorer: 2D is a collection of mechanics, tools, systems and assets to hook up gameplay without writing any code. To show how these elements can be used we’ve also created a game example using these systems.

If you need some quick information on components, take a look at the 

2017.3

8c42a31d-6a38-5e0d-800e-76941cc2556c:IJ50VM7ryBj2kIwUvpG596

Update your version of Unity

Download the 2D Game Kit

Important: If you cannot save your Unity Project

Review the Unity Editor interface

Review the Unity Editor toolbar 

Review key concepts for working with Unity

The Explorer: 2D is a collection of mechanics, tools, systems and assets to hook up gameplay without writing any code. To show how these elements can be used we’ve also created a game example using these systems. 

In this first tutorial, you’ll explore the Unity Editor and import the Assets for your game.  

Games

Cinemachine

 Before you can download the Project for these tutorials, you’ll need to:

Download the latest Unity Personal official release

When you install the Editor, keep the default install options.

For advice on using the Unity Hub, see the Unity Hub documentation. If you don’t have the latest official release, select the Installs tab from the menu to the left of the Unity Hub window to download it.

Note: The 2D Game Kit and learning content is only compatible with official releases from 2017.3 onward.

To download the Unity Project for 2D Game Kit:  

2.  Select the Learn tab on the left side of the window.

3.  Scroll down and select the correct Project from the available list. 

4.  In the project dialog window, select Download Project. 

  5.  When the download is complete, select Open Project.  

 Unity Editor will import the Project, and update any necessary packages.

The "Learn" tab of the Unity Hub, showing Unity's learning projects that can be downloaded and installed to the Unity Editor.

Detail of the project dialog window, highlighting the "Download Project" option.

Note: Some users are currently experiencing an error which stops them from saving Unity Projects downloaded through the Hub. If you encounter this error, you can use the following workaround:

1.  In the top menu, go to File > Close.

2.  In the Keep Project? dialog window, select Keep.

3.  Save your Project using your Operating System’s saving window. Choose an easily accessible location for your Project, such as a dedicated Projects folder or your Documents folder.

4.  Once the Project is saved, re-open Unity Hub. 

5.  Select Add and navigate to the location of your saved Project. This will add your Project to the Project List in the Hub.

6.  Left-click on the Project in the Project List to open it and continue with the tutorial. 


You will be able to save the Project as normal after completing this process.

In this project, you’ll use the same key parts of the Unity Editor that you did in the code-free Creator Kits. 

1.  Scene view 
This is where you can edit the current Scene by selecting and moving objects in the 3D space for the game. In this kit, the game level is contained in one Scene.   

2.  Hierarchy window 
This is a list of all the GameObjects in a Scene. Every object in your game is a GameObject. These can be placed in a parent-child hierarchy, which lets you group objects — this means that when the parent object is moved, all of its children will move at the same time.  

3.  Inspector window 
This display all settings related to the currently selected object. You will explore this window more during the walkthrough.  

4.  Project window 
This is where you manage your Project Assets. Assets are the media files used in a Project (for example, images, 3D models and sound files). The Project window acts like a file explorer, and can be used to explore and create folders on your computer. When the walkthrough asks you to find an Asset at a given file path, use this window.

TIP: If your Editor layout doesn’t match the image above, use the layout drop-down menu at the top right of the toolbar to select Default.

The toolbar includes a range of useful tool buttons to help you design and test your game.  

Play  
Play is used to test the Scene which is currently loaded in the Hierarchy window, and enables you to try out your game live in the Editor.

Pause  
Pause, as you have probably guessed, allows you to pause the game playing in the Game window. This helps you spot visual problems or gameplay issues that you wouldn’t otherwise see.  

Step 
Step is used to walk through the paused Scene frame by frame. This works really well when you’re looking for live changes in the game world that it would be helpful to see in real time.

These tools move and manipulate the GameObjects in the Scene view. You can click on the buttons to activate them, or use a shortcut key.  

You can use this tool to move your Scene around in the window. You can also use middle click with the mouse to access the tool. 

This tool enables you to select items and move them individually. 

Select items and rotate them with this tool. 

You guessed it — this is the tool to scale your GameObjects up and down.

This tool does lots of things. Essentially, it combines moving, scaling and rotation into a single tool that’s specialized for 2D and UI.

Again, this tool does lots of things. It also enables you to move, rotate, or scale GameObjects, but is more specialized for 3D. 

Another useful shortcut is the F key, which enables you to focus on a selected object.  If you forget where a GameObject is in your Scene, select it in the Hierarchy. Then move your cursor over the Scene view,  and press F to center it. 

When you’re in the Scene view, you can also:

Left click to select your GameObject in the Scene.

Middle click and drag to move the Scene view’s camera using the hand tool.

For more advice on moving GameObjects in the Scene view, see Scene View Navigation in the Manual. 

Keyboard shortcut: Q

Keyboard shortcut: W

Keyboard shortcut: E

Keyboard shortcut: R

Keyboard shortcut: T

Keyboard shortcut: Y

Let’s review some key concepts explored in this code-free Game Kit, which will help you as you begin to explore editing scripts for the game.  

In Unity, areas of the game that a player can interact with are generally made up of one or more Scenes. Small games may only use one Scene; large ones could have hundreds. We used a number of different Scenes when making the Creator Kit: Beginner Code game — the one you should use to play and customize the game in these tutorials is called ExampleScene.   

Every object in the game world exists as a GameObject in Unity. GameObjects are given specific features by giving them appropriate components, which provide a wide range of different functionality. When you create a new GameObject, it comes with a Transform component already attached. This component controls the GameObject’s positional properties in the 3D (or 2D) gamespace. You need to add all other components manually in the Inspector.  

Prefabs are a great way to configure and store GameObjects for re-use in your game. They act as templates, storing the components and properties of a specific GameObject and enabling you to create multiple instances of it within a Scene.  All copies of the Prefab template in a Scene are linked. This means that if you change the object values for the health potion Prefab, for example, each copy of that Prefab within the Scene will change to match it. However, you can also make specific instances of the GameObject different to the default Prefab settings.
 

Get Started with the 2D Game Kit

1. Update your version of Unity

2. Download the 2D Game Kit

3. Important: If you cannot save your Unity Project

4. Review the Unity Editor interface

5. Review the Unity Editor toolbar

6. Review key concepts for working with Unity

Complete this tutorial