Unit 2 - Introduction

Lesson 2.1 - Player Positioning

Lesson 2.2 - Food Flight

Lesson 2.3 - Random Animal Stampede

Lesson 2.4 - Collision Decisions

Challenge 2 - Play Fetch

Lab 2 - New Project with Primitives 

Quiz 2

Mod the Cube

Quiz: Create with Code 1

Lab 2 - New Project with Primitives

Gain familiarity with some of the most important programming and Unity concepts, including if-then statements, random value generation, arrays, collision detection, prefabs, and instantiation.

In this Mission, you will program a top-down game with the objective of throwing food to hungry animals - who are stampeding towards you - before they can run past you. In order to do this, you will become much more familiar with some of the most important programming and Unity concepts, including if-then statements, random value generation, arrays, collision detection, prefabs, and instantiation. In completing this Unit, you will learn how to program a basic game with the ability to launch projectiles and maneuver the player to keep the game alive.

Basic Gameplay

Unity Junior Programmer

Kickstart your programming career with Unity's Junior Programmer Pathway. Learn coding fundamentals, C#, and game development to create your first interactive projects. Start learning for free!

Junior Programmer Pathway - Learn Coding & Game Development | Unity Learn

We recommend that you have basic knowledge of Unity or complete 

Ready to code? This guided learning Pathway will take you from zero to job-ready!

Welcome to Junior Programmer! Designed for anyone interested in learning to code or obtaining an entry-level Unity role, this pathway assumes a basic knowledge of Unity and has no math prerequisites. Junior Programmer prepares you to get Unity Certified so that you can demonstrate your job-readiness to employers.

Junior Programmer

Course Introduction

Install Unity Software

Unit 1 - Introduction

Lesson 1.1 - Start your 3D Engines 

Lesson 1.2 - Pedal to the Metal

Lesson 1.3 - High Speed Chase

Lesson 1.4 - Step into the Driver's Seat

Challenge 1 - Plane Programming

Lab 1 - Project Design Document

Introduction to project management and teamwork

Quiz 1

Learn how to create new C# scripts, call basic functions, and use variables to modify the results of those functions.

In this first mission in the Junior Programmer pathway, you will program a car moving side-to-side on a floating road, trying to avoid (or hit) obstacles in the way. In addition to becoming familiar with the Unity editor and workflow, you will learn how to create new C# scripts and do some simple programming. By the end of the Unit, you will be able to call basic functions, then declare and tweak new variables to modify the results of those functions.

Player Control

Unit 3 - Introduction

Lesson 3.1 - Jump Force

Lesson 3.2 - Make the World Whiz By

Lesson 3.3 - Don't Just Stand There

Lesson 3.4 - Particles and Sound Effects

Challenge 3 - Balloons, Bombs, & Booleans

Lab 3 - Player Control

Quiz 3

Learn how to add music, sound effects, and visual particle effects to transform the experience of your project.

In this Mission, you will program a fast-paced endless side-scrolling runner game where the player needs to time jumps over oncoming obstacles to avoid crashing. In creating this prototype, you will learn how to add music and sound effects, completely transforming the experience of your projects. You will also learn how to create dynamic endless repeating backgrounds, which are critical for any side-scrolling games. Finally, you will learn to incorporate particle effects like splatters and explosions, which make your games so much more satisfying to play.

Sound and Effects

Unit 4 - Introduction

Lesson 4.1 - Watch Where You’re Going

Lesson 4.2 - Follow the Player

Lesson 4.3 - PowerUp and CountDown

Lesson 4.4 - For-Loops For Waves

Challenge 4 - Soccer Scripting

Lab 4 - Basic Gameplay

Quiz 4

Learn how to implement new gameplay mechanics including powerups and increasing difficulty.

In this Mission, you will program an arcade-style Sumo battle with the objective of knocking increasingly difficult waves of enemies off of a floating island, using power ups to help defeat them. In creating this prototype, you will learn how to implement new gameplay mechanics into your projects, which are new rules or systems that make the game more interesting to play. On one hand, you will learn to program a powerup, which give the player a temporary advantage. On the other hand, you will learn to program increasingly difficult enemy waves, which make survival more challenging for the player. A good balance of powerups and increasing difficulty make for a much more interesting gameplay experience.

Gameplay Mechanics

Unit 5 - Introduction

Lesson 5.1 - Clicky Mouse

Lesson 5.2 - Keeping Score

Lesson 5.3 - Game Over

Lesson 5.4 - What’s the Difficulty?

Challenge 5 - Whack-a-Food

Lab 5 - Swap out your Assets

Quiz 5

Introduction to user feedback and testing

Learn how to implement a User Interface - or UI - into your projects, such as a title screen and score display.

In this Mission, you will program a game to test the player’s reflexes, where the goal is to click and destroy objects randomly tossed in the air before they can fall off the screen. In creating this prototype, you will learn how to implement a User Interface - or UI - into your projects. You will add a title screen with a difficulty select menu that will control how challenging the gameplay is, you will add a score display that will track how many points the player has earned, and you will add a Game Over screen, which will allow the player to restart and try again. In learning these skills, you will be able to create a fully “playable” experience that the user can enjoy from start to finish without having to restart the application to try it again.

User Interface

Next Steps - Introduction

Lesson 6.1 - Project Optimization

Lesson 6.2 - Research and Troubleshooting

Lesson 6.3 - Sharing your Projects

ECS Survival Guide

Career research and preparation

Introduction to portfolios

Debug the App

Counting Prototype

Quiz: Create with Code 2

Prepare to continue developing your Unity and C# skills independently, including learning how to complete your personal project.

In this Mission, you'll prepare to continue developing your Unity and C# skills independently, including learning how to complete your personal project and how to prepare for the Unity Certified User: Programming exam, which you can take through your school program, if available.

Publishing Your Project

Introduction to real-time 3D experience design

Set up version control

Explore the sample project

Principles of object-oriented programming

Create a scene flow

Implement data persistence between scenes

Implement data persistence between sessions

Quiz: Manage scene flow and data

Submission: Data persistence in a new repo

Learn about data persistence and an introduction to the core pillars of object-oriented programming.

In this mission, you’ll learn about data persistence, or how to manage the loading and unloading of data between both scenes and sessions. Along the way, you will be introduced to the core pillars of object-oriented programming, which will help you structure your code throughout the mission. There will only be one practical example throughout the mission, which will build on the new functionality you create with each tutorial. At the end of this mission, you’ll take everything you learned and apply it to a new project by building a persistent score system for a small game.

Manage Scene Flow and Data

Abstraction in object-oriented programming

Inheritance and polymorphism in object-oriented programming

Encapsulation in object-oriented programming

Profile code to identify issues

Job preparation: Junior Programmer

Quiz: Apply object-oriented principles

Submission: Programming theory in action

Deep-dive into the pillars of object-oriented programming and their application, then learn how to profile and optimize code.

In this mission, you’ll refactor the inventory project you completed in the previous mission using the pillars of object-oriented programming as a guide. You’ll deep dive into the inner workings of each pillar individually, so you can better understand its value in developing applications. Next, you’ll learn how to profile your code to identify any optimization bottlenecks that would slow down the final build of your application. To close out this mission, you’ll develop a small application for your portfolio that uses fully optimized code built on OOP principles. 

When you complete this mission you will complete the Junior Programmer pathway - CONGRATULATIONS!

Apply Object-Oriented Principles

4bc77c53-86c9-4790-b622-3368d4166f1d:2b8ba6cf883d

Create a spawn manager

Spawn an animal if S is pressed

Spawn random animals from array

Randomize the spawn location

Change the perspective of the camera

Lesson Recap

Demonstrate basic Unity programming skills, such as identifying and editing methods, selecting the correct variable type, and comprehending simple scripts

Level 1 Code Comprehension

Joy Horvath

Instructional Designer

Control the execution of code with common logic structures 

Level 1 Application Scripting

CWC_U2.L3.S2_U6.mp4

CWC_U2.L3.S3_U6.mp4

CWC_U2.L3.S4_U6.mp4

CWC_U2.L3.S5_U6.mp4

CWC_U2.L3.S1_U6.mp4

Our animal prefabs walk across the screen and get destroyed out of bounds, but they don’t actually appear in the game unless we drag them in! In this lesson we will allow the animals to spawn on their own, in a random location at the top of the screen. In order to do so, we will create a new object and a new script to manage the entire spawning process. 

When the user presses the S key, a randomly selected animal will spawn at a random position at the top of the screen, walking towards the player.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

Create an empty object with a script attached 

Use arrays to create an accessible list of objects or values

Use integer variables to determine an array index

Randomly generate values with Random.Range in order to randomize objects in arrays and spawn positions

Change the camera’s perspective to better suit your game

Identify the purpose of common methods found in MonoBehaviours such as Start() and Update()

Define the major features of a script such as namespaces, classes, variables, and methods. 

Comprehend simple code by identifying essential programming structures

Identify common data types, including ints, floats, doubles, bools, strings, arrays, lists, and dictionaries

Devise comments that describe a given code block

Recognize naming conventions conforming to Unity standards, given a set of code blocks

Distinguish object-oriented code from data-oriented code

Distinguish an ECS (Entity Component System) class from any other type of class, given a code block containing a class definition

Interpret basic code in a Unity code base

Correct common syntax errors (e.g. missing semicolons, missing curly braces, type mismatches, etc.) by using the IDE's error checking features

Change a variable's accessibility in the Inspector by editing its access modifier to public or private

Efficiently code with correct method and parameter names by using the IDE’s intellisense (autocomplete) features

Print debug messages to the console by calling the Debug.Log method

Change the default scripting IDE

Improve simple code using the features of an IDE

Initialize variables of a given data type, including ints, floats, doubles, bools, strings, arrays, lists, and dictionaries

Select the correct data type for a variable in a given situation

Select appropriate variable modifiers including public, private, static, protected, and const

Implement appropriate data types

Lesson Plan 2.3 - Random Animal Stampede.pdf

Unit 2 - Basic Gameplay

Create with Code - Unit 2 - Basic Gameplay

Unit 2 - Basic Gameplay (Unity EdLab Edition)

If we are going to be doing all of this complex spawning of objects, we should have a dedicated script to manage the process, as well as an object to attach it to.

In the Hierarchy, create an Empty object called “SpawnManager” 

Create a new script called “SpawnManager”, attach it to the Spawn Manager, and open it

Declare new public GameObject[ ] animalPrefabs; 

In the Inspector, change the Array size to match your animal count, then assign your animals by dragging them from the Project window into the empty slots

Note: Make sure you drag them from the Project window; not the Hierarchy! If you're going to spawn objects, you need to make sure you're using Prefabs, which are stored in the Project window.

We’ve created an array and assigned our animals to it, but that doesn’t do much good until we have a way to spawn them during the game. Let’s create a temporary solution for choosing and spawning the animals.

In Update(), write an if-then statement to instantiate a new animal prefab at the top of the screen if S is pressed

Declare a new public int animalIndex and incorporate it in the Instantiate call, then test editing the value in the Inspector

We can spawn animals by pressing S, but doing so only spawns an animal at the array index we specify. We need to randomize the selection so that S can spawn a random animal based on the index, without our specification.

In the if-statement checking if S is pressed, generate a random int animalIndex between 0 and the length of the array

Remove the global animalIndex variable, since it is only needed locally in the if-statement 

We can press S to spawn random animals from animalIndex, but they all pop up in the same place! We need to randomize their spawn position, so they don’t march down the screen in a straight line.

Replace the X value for the Vector3 with Random.Range(-20, 20), then test

Within the if-statement, make a new local Vector3 spawnPos variable 

At the top of the class, create private float variables for spawnRangeX and spawnPosZ

Our Spawn Manager is coming along nicely, so let’s take a break and mess with the camera.Changing the camera’s perspective might offer a more appropriate view for this top-down game.

Toggle between Perspective and Isometric view in Scene view to appreciate the difference

Select the camera and change the Projection from “Perspective” to “Orthographic”

The player can press the S to spawn an animal

Animal selection and spawn location are randomized

Camera projection (perspective/orthographic) selected

Lesson 2.3 - Random Animal Stampede

Overview Video

1. Create a spawn manager

2. Spawn an animal if S is pressed

3. Spawn random animals from array

4. Randomize the spawn location

5. Change the perspective of the camera

6. Lesson Recap

Complete this tutorial