Meet Clive the Cat

Allow us to introduce you to Clive, a scrappy feline who is exploring a mysterious crypt in search of his food dish. In this tutorial, you’ll play the first level of Clive’s game to learn the challenges he faces in his quest. Then we’ll make sure you’re ready to develop the second level of the game using Visual Scripting.

New to Unity?

This learning experience assumes that you are already familiar with the Unity Editor. If you’re new to Unity, the Unity Essentials learning pathway has been designed to help you get set up and ready to create in the Unity Editor.

Prerequisites

This series of tutorials is intended to follow the Introduction to Visual Scripting, which covers the Visual Scripting interface, basic principles, and terms you’ll need here. If you know how to do the following, you are ready for Clive the Cat’s Visual Crypting:

• Given a node’s name, add it to a visual script with the Fuzzy Finder.
• Create and run a simple visual script on a GameObject (Script Machine).
• Create and manipulate variables and their values in visual scripts.
• Apply branching in a visual script.

If you need a review or more preparation, start with the Introduction to Visual Scripting. You’ll be visual scripting in no time. Then come back and apply your knowledge with Clive the Cat!

Unity version

This learning content is compatible with Unity 2021.1 onward. From this version onward, the Visual Scripting package is installed in Unity by default. You can review how to install a new Unity version in the Hub to recap the installation process. For these tutorials, we recommend that you use Unity version 2021.1 or higher.

You may also use these tutorials with Unity 2019 LTS or Unity 2020 LTS if you have installed the product called Bolt from the Unity Asset Store. If you use Bolt, the user interface and the names of items will be slightly different than what is presented here, but you will be able to follow along.

Set up your Unity project

To set up the Clive the Cat Unity project:

1. Install Unity 2022.3.

2. Create a new Unity project using one of the URP Templates (2D or 3D). It doesn’t matter which URP Template you select; the package that you import will override the default Template settings.

3. Open the Unity’s Visual Scripting Tutorial project assets in the Unity Asset Store.

4. Download and import the assets into your Unity project.

To get started and play the game:

1. The Scene named SampleScene will open by default, or, in the Projects folder, navigate to Assets > UnityTechnologies > VisualScriptingTutorial > CompleteGame > Scenes > SampleScene and open the Scene.

2. Now enter Play mode to explore Clive’s Crypt. Use the arrow keys to move Clive along the grid of the crypt floor. The objective of the game is to get Clive to his food dish — but you’ll find several obstacles blocking his path!

3. As you play, observe how the objects in the game interact with each other — doors open and close with buttons and levers, Clive pushes some objects here and there, but others block his path. These are the mechanics you will learn to program in this series of tutorials.

4. To see gameplay in action and how Clive gets to his food dish, watch this video. Spoiler alert: the answers to all Clive’s challenges are explained here.

Once you know the basics of Visual Scripting and you’ve played our game, you’re ready to begin work on a new level for Clive the Cat. You’ll begin by editing some existing scripts to make them easier to use and reuse, and proceed to scripting the actions in the game.