Unity Core Concepts

Getting Familiar with Unity Playground Script 

Setting Up the Project

Adjusting the Camera and Adding Obstacles

Introducing Health 

Creating Objects

Finishing the Game and Next Steps

Getting Started with Unity Playground Curriculum Guide.pdf

Getting Started with Unity Playground is a perfect project for students who have no/limited familiarity with Unity. This curriculum guide consists of eight lesson plans that correspond to 45-60 minute class periods. 

Throughout the course of the project, students create a spaceship game using directions and assets provided. The last tutorial closes  with an open-ended assignment: students have to complete their first Unity game by adding original ideas and Playground visual scripts to the Unity project. 

Unity Playground_Script Reference Guide.pdf

Unity Playground_ Script Cheatsheet.pdf

This is a perfect project for anyone who is getting started with Unity for the first time. You will learn everything from how to navigate the Unity interface to creating your own game without using a single line of code. Educators, make sure to download the Getting Started with Unity Playground Curriculum Guide  and other supporting documents for detailed instructions on how to teach this in class! 

Getting Started with Playground: For Educators

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Create a Laser Prefab

Create a Laser Shooter

Playground for Educators - 5 - Creating Objects.mp4

You will create a new GameObject  that allows the player to destroy obstacles

By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to

Add a (trigger) Capsule Collider 2D to keep track of when objects touch or intersect

Add a Bullet attribute script to keep track of points

Insert a Prefab as a Prefab to Spawn for the Object Shooter script  

What would happen if the laser was not turned into a Prefab? Would the lasers still work in the same way? Why or not?

What would happen if the player could gain points for destroying asteroids? How would it change the way the game ends?

Games

You’ll introduce health so that objects can damage each other on collision

Go to Project > Assets > Images > Projectiles and drag LasersMid into the Hierarchy

In the Inspector of LasersMid, click on Add Component and add Capsule Collider 2D and change the Direction to Vertical. Tweak the Size until it just covers the projectile. Now, tick off the check mark next to Is Trigger

Also add Rigidbody 2D to allow the projectile to move and make the Gravity 0 as you did for the other Rigidbody 2D components

Now add the Bullet Attribute script to keep track of who shoots the laser so that the game knows to whom to assign points to

Now that all of the necessary components have been added to the laser, you will make it a prefab by dragging LasersMid from the Hierarchy into Project > Assets > Prefabs. Once you’ve checked that LasersMid has been transformed into a prefab, delete LasersMid from the Hierarchy

Bullet Attribute script: holds a reference to which player initially shot it

Prefab: a “master copy” to generate GameObjects from

Trigger colliders are used when you need to detect when two objects touch or intersect each other without the components applying a push or resistance

The Capsule Collider 2D should cover the projectile as close to the cylinder shape as possible

Does your Capsule Collider 2D look something like this? The size might be slightly different, but make sure that the other values are the same

When you drag LasersMid into the Prefabs folder, you will notice that it looks like a blue cube, which means that it’s been turned into a prefab

Click on SpaceshipRed in the Hierarchy and then right click and click on Create Empty to create an empty GameObject. Right click on it and rename it LaserShooter

 While clicking LaserShooter in the Hierarchy, go to the Inspector > Add Component > add Object Shooter script. Next, drag and drop the LasersMid Prefab that you created in Step 1.1 and into Prefab to Spawn. Feel free to change Key to Press (the key that will be pressed to trigger the laser) to something else

After the script has been added, you will notice a green arrow and circle appears in the game window. Move this to the front tip of the ship

Now, click on the asteroid in the Hierarchy. In its Inspector window add the Destroy for Points script so that the asteroid will be destroyed on collision with the laser. Change the value of Points Worth from 1 to 0 because the purpose of this game is not to gain points for destroying the asteroids

Press play to test the game and notice that you can destroy the asteroids

Object Shooter script: creates copies of a Prefab and shoots them out

Destroy for Points script: removes an object on collision and awards the Player points

Creating Objects

1. Create a Laser Prefab

2. Create a Laser Shooter

Complete this tutorial