Setting up the Game

Moving the Player

Moving the Camera

Setting up the Play Area

Creating Collectibles

Detecting Collisions with Collectibles

Displaying Score and Text

Adding AI Navigation

Building the Game

Welcome to 3D Beginner: Roll-a-Ball Game! In this learning project, you’ll:  

Use Unity Editor and its built-in capabilities to set up a simple game environment

Write your own custom scripts to create the game functionality

Create a basic user interface to improve the game experience

Build your game, so other people can play it!

3D Beginner: Roll-a-Ball Game

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Overview

Set the Camera position

Write a CameraController script

Reference the Player GameObject

Final script sample

Unity_RollABall_3-3.mp4

Unity_RollABall_3-1.mp4

Unity_RollABall_3-2.mp4

3.3.2-final-move-the-camera.mp4

In this third Roll-a-ball tutorial, you’ll:

Write a script to make the Camera follow the Player sphere with a fixed offset

Set_the_Camera_position-Transcript.txt

Write_a_CameraController_script-Transcript.txt

Reference_the_Player_GameObject-Transcript.txt

Unit 2 - Program a basic game

By the end of this tutorial, your game will look something like this:

Follow the video or text instructions below to raise and rotate the camera, then experiment with the Player GameObject as a parent GameObject:

Select the Main Camera in the Hierarchy window.

Preview the camera angle in the Game view.


2.  Experiment with the Player as a parent GameObject.

If you want, drag the Main Camera onto the Player GameObject in the Hierarchy window to set the camera as a child GameObject of the Player GameObject.

Test the game and notice how the camera rotates with the movement of the Player GameObject.

Undo the parent-child relationship by dragging the Main Camera above the Player GameObject.

Game view showing current Main Camera view. The Position and Rotation properties are highlighted in the Inspector window.

Follow the video or text instructions below to create the CameraController script, declare player and offset variables, define the offset variable, then set the camera position in LateUpdate:

With the Main Camera GameObject selected in the Hierarchy window, select Add Component > New script in the Inspector window. 

Name your new script “CameraController”.

In the Project window, move the script from the root Assets folder into the Scripts folder. 

Inside the first curly brace, add the following lines of code to declare two new variables: 

public GameObject player;
private Vector3 offset;

In the Start function, on a new line after the first curly brace, add the following line of code: 

offset = transform.position - player.transform.position; 

4.  Set the camera position in LateUpdate.

In the Update function, inside the first curly brace, add the following line of code: 

transform.position = player.transform.position + offset; 

Add “Late” in front of the Update method to change it to a LateUpdate function:

There is a new script named CameraController in the Scripts folder in the Project window. The script is applied as a component on the Main Camera GameObject.


Follow the video or text instructions below to assign the Player GameObject variable in the Inspector window, then test the game:

1.  Assign the Player GameObject variable in the Inspector window.

Make sure you have saved the CameraController script, then return to Unity.

Drag the Player GameObject from the Hierarchy window into the Player slot in the CameraController component. 


The camera should now follow the player at the appropriate offset. 

With the Main Camera selected there is an arrow indicating that the Player GameObject is being dragged onto the Player Variable in the CameraController script component. 


If your script is not working as expected, below is an example of what your code should look like at this point. The comments have been added to make the code more readable. 

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;

public class CameraController : MonoBehaviour
{
 // Reference to the player GameObject.
 public GameObject player;

 // The distance between the camera and the player.
 private Vector3 offset;

 // Start is called before the first frame update.
 void Start()
    {
 // Calculate the initial offset between the camera's position and the player's position.
        offset = transform.position - player.transform.position; 
    }

 // LateUpdate is called once per frame after all Update functions have been completed.
 void LateUpdate()
    {
 // Maintain the same offset between the camera and player throughout the game.
        transform.position = player.transform.position + offset;  
    }
}

Moving the Camera

1. Overview

2. Set the Camera position

3. Write a CameraController script

4. Reference the Player GameObject

5. Final script sample

Complete this tutorial