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

58200a85-4943-4fbc-8932-a8d41e4ae2c5:a87c6bebe25c

Create a new Unity Project and rename your scene 

Create a background plane

Create primitive Player with a new material

Position camera based on project type

Enemies, obstacles, projectiles & materials

Export a Unity Package backup file

Lesson Recap

CWC_U2_Lab2_S1_U6.mp4

CWC_U2_Lab2_S2_U6.mp4

CWC_U2_Lab2_S6_U6.mp4

CWC_U2_Lab2_S3_U6.mp4

CWC_U2_Lab2_S4_U6.mp4

CWC_U2_Lab2_S5_U6.mp4

You will create and set up the project that will soon transform into your very own Personal Project. For now, you will use “primitive” shapes (such as spheres, cubes, and planes) as placeholders for your objects so that you can add functionality as efficiently as possible without getting bogged down by graphics. To make it clear which object is which, you will also give each object a unique colored material. 

All key objects are in the scene as primitive objects with the camera positioned properly for your project type.

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

Create a simple plane as a background for your project

Position the camera, background, and player appropriately depending on the type of project you are creating

Create primitive shapes to serve as placeholders for your gameobjects 

Create new colored materials and apply them to distinguish gameobjects

Unit 2 - Basic Gameplay

Just like we did with the Prototype, the first thing we need to do is create a new blank project 

Create a new Unity project called “Personal Project” using the 3D template and setting the location to the “Create with Code” folder

After Unity opens, select your custom Layout

In the Project window, Assets > Scenes, rename “SampleScene” to “My Game” 

To orient yourself in the scene and not feel like you’re floating around in mid-air, it’s always good to start by adding a background / ground object

In the Hierarchy, Right-click > 3D Object > Plane to add a plane to your scene 

In the Plane’s Inspector, in the top-right of the Transform component, click on the three dots icon > Reset
Note: the three dots will appear as a gear icon in older versions of Unity.

Increase the XYZ scale of the plane to (5, 1, 5)

Adjust your position in Scene view so you have a good view of the Plane

Now that we have the empty plane object set up, we can add the star of the show: the player object

In the Hierarchy, Right-click > 3D Object > Sphere, then rename it “Player”

In Assets, Right-click > Create > Folder named “Materials”

Inside “Materials”, Right-click > Create > Material and rename it “Blue”

In Blue’s Inspector, click on the color box and change it to a blue

Drag the material from your Assets onto the Player object

Now that we have the player in there, we need the best view of it, depending on our type of project

For a top-down game, position the camera at (0, 10, 0) directly over the player and rotate it 90 degrees on the X axis

For a side-view game, rotate the Plane by -90 degrees on the X axis

For an third-person view game, move the camera up on the Y and Z axes and increase its rotation on the X axis

Now that we know how to make primitives, let’s go ahead and make one for each object in our project

In the Hierarchy, create new Cubes, Spheres,  and Capsules for all other main objects, renaming them, repositioning them, and scaling them

In your Materials folder, create new materials for as many colors as you have unique objects, editing their color to match their name, then apply those materials to your objects

Position all of your objects in locations relative to each other that make sense

Tip: In newer versions of Unity, you can set the scale on all axes at once by toggling the Enabled Constrained Proportions icon.

Since we’re going to be putting our hearts and souls into this project, it’s always good to make backups

In the Project window, Right-click on the “Assets” folder > Export Package, then click Export

Create a new “Backups” folder in your Personal Project folder, then save it with your name and the version number (e.g. Carl_V0.1.unitypackage”)

Lab 2 - New Project with Primitives

Overview Video

1. Create a new Unity Project and rename your scene

2. Create a background plane

3. Create primitive Player with a new material

4. Position camera based on project type

5. Enemies, obstacles, projectiles & materials

6. Export a Unity Package backup file

7. Lesson Recap

Complete this tutorial