Introduction to Unit 4

Get started with VFX

Play around with a Particle System

Create an environmental Particle System

Create a burst particle

Challenge: Add some magic to your scene 

Add VFX to your game

Unit 4 - VFX

Review how VFX enhances real-time 3D projects and what this VFX-focused unit will cover.

Explore what VFX are, who creates them, their uses in real-time 3D, and how Unity’s Particle System differs from VFX Graph.

Combine multiple Particle Systems to build a fire effect and tune Emission, Shape, and Renderer modules for unique results.

Configure a new Particle System and its modules to create convincing rain or snow effects in your scene.

Create a user-triggered smoke burst Particle System and control particle color, size, and randomness over their lifetimes.

Build particle effects for explosions and pickups that enhance gameplay feedback and visual impact.

Check your understanding of VFX concepts and skills from Unit 4 with this quiz.

In this unit, you’ll learn how to implement visual effects (VFX)  in Unity. Then you’ll apply those new skills and add VFX to your own game. 

Unit 4 - Visual Effects

Welcome to the course

6 Preview

6 Beta

2023.2

2023.1

2022.3

Install the Unity Hub and Editor

2021.3

2020.3

2019.4

Get started with the Unity Editor

Create a balanced primitive structure

2022.2

Introduction to Unit 2

Setting up the game

2020.2

2020.1

2019.3

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

Fill out a game design document

Introduction to Unit 3

Get started with audio

Create 3D sound effects

Add special effects to existing audio

Challenge: Your own soundscape

Add audio to your game

Introduction to Unit 5

Get started with user interfaces

Add a title to your scene

Manage screen size and anchors

Create a menu background with images

Add basic button functionality

Add toggles and sliders

Challenge: Make a worldspace UI

Add UI to your game

Introduction to Unit 6

Get started with animation

Create your first 3D animations

Refine your animation

Control animation with an Animator

Import animation

Challenge: Bring the scene to life

Add animation to your game

Introduction to Unit 7

Get started with shaders and materials

Explore meshes and rendering

Explore shaders

Simulate solid surfaces

Map materials with textures

Create translucent and transparent effects

Add physical texture with bump mapping

Challenge: Create your still life composition

Add materials to your game

Introduction to Unit 8

Get started with lighting

Get started with lighting in Unity

Configure the Directional Light and skybox

Add light sources to your scene

Configure shadows in your scene

Bake a lightmap for your scene

Improve your lighting with Light Probes

Examine and complete the indoor scene

Refine and troubleshoot the indoor scene

Showcase your work with lighting

Add lighting to your game

Introduction to Unit 9

Explore the production cycle

Reimagine your game on multiple platforms

Iterate on the player controller

Source new assets

Unity pro tips

Prepare for the UCA Game Dev exam

Finalize your project

Unit 1 - Unity fundamentals

Unit 2 - Program a basic game

Unit 3 - Audio

Quiz - UI

Quiz - Animation

Materials

Quiz - Lighting

Quiz - Iterate on your game

Get an overview of the UCA Game Developer prep course structure, units, projects, and exam-focused outcomes.

Learn to prepare your computer, run the installer, set up Unity Hub, and install a Unity Editor version.

Start a Unity project, explore the interface, work with 3D objects and physics, and create reusable prefabs.

Use this quiz to evaluate what you learned about Unity fundamentals in Unit 1.

In this unit, you will create your first Unity project, get comfortable using the Unity Editor, and then design your first scene. 

Unit 1 - Get started in Unity

Learn how the Roll-a-Ball mini-game introduces core Unity skills you can extend into a personalized project.

Use Unity Editor to build a simple game, script its core behavior, add a basic UI, and create a playable build to share.

Add a Rigidbody component, script a PlayerController in C#, and test and debug movement for the Roll-a-ball player sphere.

Position the Camera and script it to follow the Player sphere with a fixed offset in the Roll-a-ball project.

Configure your game’s play area by building one wall, then duplicating and positioning it to form a contained space.

Design a PickUp GameObject, script its rotation, convert it to a Prefab, and instantiate collectibles around the play area.

Update your PlayerController script and PickUp prefab setup so tagged collectibles disappear on trigger while using Rigidbody.

Update the PlayerController and UI Text elements to track collected pickups, show a count, and display an end-of-game message.

Set up a NavMesh with obstacles and script win and lose conditions to drive enemy AI and gameplay.

This quiz evaluates the core programming concepts and skills you practiced while building a basic Unity game in Unit 2.

In this unit, you will create a simple game called Roll-a-Ball that will be the foundation for your personal game project, which you will work on for the entire course.  

Get an overview of how this unit uses audio to enhance immersion, atmosphere, and gameplay cues.

Bring a scene to life with ambient and event-based audio, file format choices, and inclusive closed captioning.

Add and tune waterfall audio while exploring its role in narrative, atmosphere, rolloffs, and digital sound design.

Create an echo with an audio reverb zone and manage audio effects, atmosphere, and source priorities in a scene.

Add ambient music and key sound effects to enhance atmosphere, feedback, and game-over moments in your project.

Check your understanding of Unit 3 on audio with a quiz covering the concepts and skills you just learned.

In this unit, you’ll learn how to implement audio effects in Unity. Then you’ll apply those new skills and add audio to your own game. 

Preview how this unit will help you design effective game UI as the main way users interact with your application.

Explore what UI design is, learn Unity’s uGUI, IMGUI, and UI Toolkit systems, and start customizing the user interface in your scene.

Add and style UI text labels in the Inspector while applying core accessibility practices for readable interfaces.

Learn to anchor UI on the Canvas so layouts adapt cleanly to different aspect ratios and resolutions.

Add and configure Image elements, UI sprites, and materials to create flexible, high-quality UI backgrounds and buttons.

Learn to use Unity’s EventSystem GameObject to make UI buttons interactive and implement simple button behaviors.

Add UI toggles and sliders to control music and volume by using the Event System for simple interactions.

Build a simple UI with a play button and title text to control game start and on-screen feedback.

This quiz evaluates your understanding of Unit 5 concepts and best practices for designing UI in Unity.

In this unit, you’ll learn how to create user interfaces (UI) in a Unity project. Then you’ll apply those new skills and add UI to your own game. 

Unit 5 - User Interfaces

Preview the key animation concepts and learning outcomes you’ll explore in this unit on bringing games to life.

Get an overview of an animator’s role, set up your project, and identify common rig types and their uses.

Learn core animation principles in Unity by animating a ball with Animation Clips, keyframes, and Record Mode.

Use the curves editor to edit Animation Curves, manage keyframes, and record GameObject animation.

Build an animated proximity door while learning Animators, Animator Controllers, parameters, and basic state machines.

Configure imported animation, set up humanoid rigs and Animator Controllers, and manage shared clips and parameters in an existing project.

Replace a primitive enemy with an animated character, demonstrating how animation brings gameplay elements to life.

Check your understanding of key animation concepts and workflows covered in Unit 6.

In this unit, you’ll learn how to create and control animations in a Unity project. Then you’ll apply those new skills and add animations to your own game. 

Unit 6 - Animation

Review how shaders and materials control lighting and surface appearance, and what this unit will cover about them.

Get oriented with the art gallery project you’ll use to explore shaders and materials in real-time 3D.

Learn how meshes, shaders, and materials work together in Unity’s renderer and how to assign materials to GameObjects.

Learn core Unity shader types, compare PBR and non-PBR, and choose URP shaders to achieve the lighting and effects your project needs.

Explore how light interacts with solid materials and configure Specular and Metallic workflows to match real-world surfaces.

Discover how textures, maps, UVs, and URP/Lit Shader settings work together to create realistic materials in Unity.

Learn to use the URP/Lit Shader for transparency and alpha clipping to create glass-like surfaces and realistic leaves.

Discover how bump mapping in URP adds surface detail by applying normal and height maps to a material.

Learn to apply custom materials so your game surfaces interact with light and appear more detailed.

This quiz checks your understanding of materials concepts and skills from Unit 7.

In this unit, you’ll learn how to add custom materials, including a repeating pattern and a normal map to simulate height and surface texture. Then you’ll apply those new skills and add animations to your own game.

Unit 7 - Materials

Preview the Lighting unit and understand how lighting choices affect mood, immersion, and visual quality.

Explore lighting fundamentals to understand how light behaves and identify light sources in reference images.

Learn how direct and indirect light, global illumination, and real-time versus baked lighting work in URP.

Learn outdoor lighting basics by configuring Directional Light and a procedural skybox for realistic scenes.

Learn to configure different Light components and ambient lighting to enhance an outdoor amphitheater scene.

Explore how to configure shadows and post-processing so your scene lighting produces more realistic results.

Set up baked lighting, create a Lighting Settings asset, and configure lightmaps to complete outdoor lighting fundamentals.

Learn to place and evaluate Light Probes to enhance realistic lighting in your outdoor scene.

Learn key techniques for realistic indoor lighting, including emissive materials, diagnostic views, and placing Light Probes in 3D.

Refine indoor lighting in Unity by tuning indirect lighting, fixing light leaks, and correcting lightmap UVs on key models.

Build on your lighting skills to research lighting principles and configure Light components that showcase a product in Unity.

Use your 2D and 3D lighting skills to illuminate your game scene more effectively.

Check your understanding of key lighting concepts from Unit 8 with this quiz.

In this unit, you’ll learn how to add lighting to your scene to make things more polished and visually pleasing. Then you’ll apply those new skills and add lighting to your own game.

Unit 8 - Lighting

Preview how to review your game’s production cycle, adapt to multiple platforms, refine controls, and update assets in this unit.

Explore the full game development cycle, reflect on your roles, review your game, and learn basics of game intellectual property.

Discover how to deploy Unity applications across platforms and use Gaming Services to support and grow them.

Integrate mouse and touch input so your player object moves intelligently using layers to control navigation.

Learn to upgrade a Unity prototype by sourcing, importing, and integrating high-quality assets, including FBX files, to replace placeholders.

Discover advanced tips for using the Hierarchy window, Inspector window, Project window, Scene view, and Game view more efficiently.

This quiz checks how well you understand and applied the concepts from Unit 9 as you iterated on your game.

In this unit, you’ll reflect on the process so far, iterate on the player controller, swap out the assets in your game, and then you’ll learn some Unity tips and tricks to take your skills to the next level.

Unit 9 - Iterate on your Game

Review the Unity Certified Associate: Game Developer exam topics to confirm your skills and get ready for test day.

In this unit, you’ll make sure you’re ready to take the certification exam and make any final adjustments to your game to make sure it meets the goals outlined in your Game Design Document.  

Unit 10 - Prepare for certification and publishing

This course is designed to help you prepare for the 

Unity Certified Associate: Game Developer

In this course, you will master the fundamental skills needed for game development with Unity, including programming in C#, designing immersive audio and stunning visual effects, crafting intuitive user interfaces, and applying unique animations, materials and lighting.

You'll start by creating a design document for your own game, then gradually build a working prototype. Throughout the course, you'll enhance your game using the skills you acquire, taking it from a simple idea to a finished product.

Towards the end of the course, there is dedicated time for a comprehensive review of everything you’ve learned to ensure you’re fully prepared to ace the exam

When you're done with the course, you will not only have the skills to pass the Unity Certified Associate exam and continue creating your own games, but you'll also have a fully realized game that you've designed and created from scratch.

Unit 4 - Visual Effects

What you will learn