Introduction to Unit 3
Tutorial
Beginner
+10XP
5 mins
(28)
Unity Technologies
In this unit, you'll learn how to create a complete 2D game in Unity, starting from a blank project and gradually building all the core systems yourself. You’ll control a small, triangle-shaped ship using mouse clicks or screen taps and try to survive for as long as possible by dodging incoming obstacles as your score increases over time.
In this tutorial, you'll get an introduction to this unit and how you'll be able to use this foundational, simple game as the basis for a more personalized, unique project of your own.
1. Overview
In this unit, you'll create a simple game called Sprite-Flight that will be the foundation for your personal game project, which you can choose to work on for the entire course.
In this game, you’ll guide a small triangular ship using your mouse, weaving between asteroids that ricochet across the screen. Colliding with an asteroid, or drifting into the screen boundaries, will cause your ship to explode.
Your score is determined by how long you can stay alive.
2. What will you learn?
As you create this project, you'll learn some fundamental Unity skills, including the following:
- Set up and navigate Unity’s 2D environment
- Use physics components to simulate bouncing and movement
- Write simple C# scripts and attach them to GameObjects
- Build and display a live scoring system
- Handle collisions, UI, and game restart logic
3. How can you use this game for your personal project?
These tutorials have step-by-step instructions on how to make this very specific, very simple game about a ship and asteroids. However, later on you'll be asked to fill out a game design document (GDD) that will outline how your own game will have a distinct theme, style, and set of gameplay mechanics.
Throughout the course, we’ll use the example below, where you play as a little fish in a big pond, trying to avoid the bigger predator fish enemies.
But think about it: this simple game could be the foundation for infinite gaming possibilities. There’s a player trying to avoid an enemy. How many completely different games are there that share that same conceptual starting point? You’ll be able to take this core mechanic and expand it into something completely unique.
Altering the visuals of an existing game can completely transform it. Check out the example below that uses Sprite Flight as a foundation but turns it into an entirely new game.
Your game will start just the same as many others, but where it will end up is entirely up to you.
4. Next steps
Now you know what to expect from the unit on creating a basic game, it’s time to get started actually making it!