Introduction to unit 9

Get started with shaders and materials

Explore meshes and rendering

Explore shaders

Manage materials in a project

Simulate solid surfaces

Map materials with textures

Create translucent and transparent effects

Add physical texture with bump mapping 

Challenge: Create your still life composition

Materials for 2D projects

Add materials to your game

Materials

In this tutorial, you’ll get a quick overview of what to expect from this unit about materials and shaders.

Get introduced to the art gallery project you’ll use to explore how shaders and materials define a 3D scene’s look.

Explore how meshes, shaders, and materials work together so Unity’s renderer can display 3D GameObjects.

Learn core shader types, key rendering concepts, and how to choose URP shaders that match your visual goals.

Learn how materials work in Unity so you can create, assign, organize, and fix materials for your 3D objects.

Learn to create solid-object materials by adjusting specular, metallic, and Base Map properties to match real-world surfaces.

Explore how textures and maps work in URP materials, including UVs and Base Map setup, to choose and apply textures effectively.

Use URP/Lit Shader to apply transparency, alpha clipping, and additional maps to create glass-like and leaf materials.

Explore bump mapping in URP to add normal and height maps that create detailed surface relief on materials.

Practice applying your understanding of materials from 3D workflows to 2D projects in Unity.

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.

Learn how to work with materials in a scene, then customize the materials in your own game.

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.

Shaders and Materials

GD Pathway: Game Development

Want to make your own games? Learn the basics of 2D and 3D game development and prepare for the Unity Certified Associate exam.

In this pathway, you'll master the fundamental skills needed for game development with Unity, including programming in C#, audio, visual effects, user interfaces, animation, materials, and lighting.

You’ll first create a simple 3D game and then a 2D game. Throughout the rest of the pathway, you can choose if you want to continue developing in 3D, in 2D, or both. You’ll make a game design document outlining your vision for how to turn those prototypes into unique, polished, final products.

When you're done with the pathway, you'll not only have the skills to pass the 

Unity Certified Associate Game Developer exam

 and to continue creating your own games, but you'll also have a fully realized game that you created from scratch.

Game Development

Get an overview of the Unity Game Development pathway structure, its twelve units, and the 2D and 3D tracks.

Welcome to the pathway

Get Started with Unity: In-Editor Tutorial

Create a balanced primitive structure

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

Unit 1 - Unity fundamentals

CreativeCore_2D

An introduction to the Unity pathway, a tutorial on the basics of Unity, and a 3D building challenge.

 pathway is structured. You’ll first complete an in-Editor tutorial that teaches you the basics of Unity, then you’ll complete a challenge where you need to build a balanced structure out of primitive shapes. All of this will make sure you have the skills needed to get started working on your game.

Get started in Unity

Introduction to Unit 2

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

Unit 2 - Program a basic game

Explore the 3D track by building a Roll-a-Ball prototype you can later customize into your own game.

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.

Build a simple 3D Roll-a-Ball game as the potential foundation for your personal game project.

In this pathway, you can choose to create a 3D game, a 2D game, or both. This unit focuses on the 3D track, where you’ll build a simple Roll-a-Ball game that can be the starting point for a personalized 3D game project. In completing this project, you'll learn about C# programming, gameplay mechanics, AI navigation, and basic game design.

Create a basic 3D game

Start building a simple 2D survival game from a blank Unity project and prepare it as a foundation for your own custom project.

Introduction to Unit 3

Preview the Sprite Flight game, then create a new 2D project and build a walled play area for your scene.

Set up your 2D game world

Add physics to an obstacle and convert it into a prefab to quickly reuse it across your scene.

Make a flying obstacle prefab

Write a Unity C# script to randomize obstacle behavior, edit prefabs, and test interactions in real time to enliven your game world.

Random obstacle size, direction, and speed

Build a physics-based player ship that follows mouse input, applies thrust, and reacts to collisions using Unity’s input and physics systems.

Steer the player

Add a survival-time scoring system and display the score onscreen using Unity’s UI Toolkit.

Add a scoring system

Add a particle explosion on player death and a UI Toolkit Restart button for a polished game-over flow.

Restart the game with a bang

Discover optional bonus features you can add to extend and polish your existing project.

Optional bonus features

Build and publish to web

This quiz will assess the knowledge and skills you gained over the course of this unit on creating a basic 2D game. 

Unit 3 - Create a basic 2D Game

In this unit, you'll create a simple 2D game called Sprite Flight that can be the foundation for your personal game project if you choose to continue on the 2D track. You’ll learn more C# skills and basic 2D game development skills.

Create a basic 2D game

Start a unit on game design, genres, and platforms while creating a GDD and setting up version control.

Introduction to Unit 4

A surreal landscape at sunset with soft pink and purple light. Dark, winding canyons stretch across the foreground like a maze. In the distance, huge curling, gear-like shapes and loops rise into the hazy sky, silhouetted against a bright sun and colorful clouds.

Practice documenting your prototype in a clear game design document to communicate and guide development.

Create a Game Design Document

 Clean 3D scene with a yellow sphere balanced atop a tilted purple cube, set against a monochromatic purple backdrop with subtle shadows.

Explore core game design principles, deconstruct a simple game, and start a design brief that leads into a full game design document.

Game Design

Minimalist arrangement of matte geometric shapes in soft green tones—a cube, a larger rectangular block, a half-cylinder, and a teardrop-like wedge—on a pale green background.

Explore game genres, typical gameplay patterns, and player expectations so you can make clearer genre choices in your design.

Game Genres

Abstract scene of glossy blue cubes floating and tumbling in a deep blue space, with soft shadows and gradients creating a sense of depth.

Explore how different platforms shape controls, performance, and player experience, and how Unity enables cross-platform deployment.

Game Platforms

Soft, flowing abstract waves in pastel blue and pink tones, with smooth gradients and gentle highlights creating a silky, curved landscape.  01.22.2026

Set up Git and GitHub for your Unity project to add version control, protect your work, and enable future collaboration.

Set up version control for your game project

Discover how to get unstuck in development by selecting and using the right support resources for different problems.

Troubleshooting strategies for game dev

This quiz will assess the knowledge and skills you gained over the course of this Unit 4 on planning your game.

Unit 4 - Planning your game

Learn about game design, genres, and platforms, then build a GDD and set up version control.

In this unit, you’ll build on your Roll-a-Ball and Sprite Flight prototypes by shaping them into a clear, cohesive game concept. You’ll learn about game design concepts, then define your game’s vision and create the game design documentation you need to guide the rest of development. You’ll also set up version control and learn helpful techniques for getting unstuck during game development.

Planning a game

Get an overview of how Unity audio supports immersion, atmosphere, and gameplay cues in this unit.

Introduction to Unit 5

Learn to design scene audio that supports narrative and accessibility, from ambient effects to closed captioning.

Get started with audio

Add and tune waterfall audio to support narrative, atmosphere, varied audio sources, and an understanding of digital sound.

Create 3D sound effects

Learn to create an echo with an audio reverb zone and use it to shape atmosphere, understand digital audio, and control audio source priority.

Add special effects to existing audio

Challenge: Your own soundscape

Practice applying 3D audio techniques like spatial sound and environmental effects to 2D Unity projects with animation events.

Audio for 2D Projects

Use your audio implementation skills to place and trigger sounds in your 2D or 3D Unity game.

Add audio to your game (Game Dev)

Unit 5 - Audio

Learn how to implement audio in a scene, then add audio to your own game. 

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.

You’ll learn about the role that audio plays in games, how to create 3D sound effects, and see how audio can improve game experience.

Audio

Get an overview of how VFX, particles, and simple effects enhance feedback, polish, and feel in real-time projects.

Introduction to Unit 6

Discover what VFX are, experiment with a fire effect, and compare Unity’s Particle System with VFX Graph in real-time 3D.

Get started with VFX

Experiment with multiple particle systems to build a fire effect and tune Emission, Shape, and Renderer properties.

Play around with a particle system

Create a Particle System and adjust its modules to control particle behavior and render snow or rain in your scene.

Create an environmental particle system

Build a triggerable smoke burst Particle System, adding randomness, color changes, and size changes over lifetime.

Create a burst particle

Learn to add and edit VFX Graph effects, understand core context nodes, and choose between the Particle System and VFX Graph.

Experiment with VFX Graph

Challenge: Add some magic to your scene 

This tutorial guides you through applying your 3D VFX knowledge to 2D Unity projects.

VFX for 2D projects

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

Add VFX to your game

This quiz checks your understanding of the VFX concepts and skills covered in Unit 6.

Unit 6 - VFX

Learn how to implement VFX in a scene, then add VFX to your own game.

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.

In doing this, you’ll discover how to add visual effects in Unity, learn about particle systems, and learn how VFX can enhance your game’s visuals.

Visual effects

Introduction to Unit 7

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

UI for 2D Projects

Add UI to your game

Quiz - UI

Preview how this unit introduces core UI concepts so you can design clear, effective interfaces for your game.

Discover core UI design concepts, related disciplines, and how to choose between Unity’s uGUI, IMGUI, and UI Toolkit systems.

Add and style UI text in the Inspector while meeting basic accessibility guidelines for readability and contrast.

Learn to anchor, scale, and position UI elements so your Canvas layout adapts cleanly to different aspect ratios.

Learn to add, configure, and stretch UI Image elements, sprites, and materials while preserving visual quality.

Learn to use Unity’s EventSystem GameObject to add practical button interactions to your user interface.

Add a music toggle and volume slider to your UI and wire them up with the Event System for simple control.

This tutorial will guide you through applying your 3D UI knowledge to 2D Unity projects.

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.

Learn how to implement UI in a scene, then add UI to your own game.

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

In doing this, you’ll learn how to design user interfaces for your game, while also learning about screen management and how to add interactive elements to your UI.

User interfaces

Get an overview of how animation brings game characters and environments to life and what this animation unit will cover.

Introduction to Unit 8

Explore animator responsibilities, configure your project for animation, and distinguish between key rig types and their uses.

Get started with animation

Practice core animation workflows in Unity by animating a ball with keyframes and Animation Clips.

Create your first 3D animations

Practice editing Animation Curves, adding keyframes, and recording GameObject animation in the Curves editor.

Refine your animation

Create a proximity-based animated door while learning Animation Clips, Animator Controllers, parameters, and State Machines.

Control animation with an Animator

Configure imported animation, humanoid rigs, and Animator Controllers to share, trim, and control animation in an existing project.

Import animation

Challenge: Bring the scene to life

Apply your existing 3D animation skills to build and refine 2D animation workflows in Unity projects.

Animation for 2D projects

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

Add animation to your game

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

Quiz - Animation

Learn how to implement animations in a scene, then add animated elements to your own game.