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

d3cb75bb-f454-472b-84c2-e2747f96a346:46d0552049ca

Overview

Warning

Dogs are spawning at the top of the screen

The player is spawning green balls instead of dogs

The balls are destroyed if anywhere near the dog

Nothing is being destroyed off screen

Only one type of ball is being spawned 

Bonus: The spawn interval is always the same

Bonus: The player can “spam” the spacebar key

Hints

Want even more challenges?

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

Identify and resolve common programming errors, such as null reference exceptions, logical errors, and misuse of API calls.

Level 1 Debugging

P2-All_Bonus.mp4

CWC_U2_Challenge_U6.mp4

Use your array and random number generation skills to program this challenge where balls are randomly falling from the sky and you have to send your dog out to catch them before they hit the ground. To complete this challenge, you will have to make sure your variables are assigned properly, your if-statements are programmed correctly, your collisions are being detected perfectly, and that objects are being generated randomly.

A random ball (of 3) is generated at a random x position above the screen

When the user presses spacebar, a dog is spawned and runs to catch the ball

If the dog collides with the ball, the ball is destroyed

If the ball hits the ground, a “Game Over” debug message is displayed

The dogs and balls are removed from the scene when they leave the screen

In this challenge, you will reinforce the following skills/concepts:

Assigning variables and arrays in the inspector

Editing colliders to the appropriate size

Testing xyz positions with greater/less than operators in if-else statements

Randomly generating values and selecting objects from arrays

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

Implement simple logic in code by using if and if-else statements

Control the execution of code by using logical operators such as AND and OR in conditional statements

Control how many times certain lines of code run by using for loops, foreach loops, and while loops

Control the order and timing of executed code by using coroutines

Control the execution of code by using switch statements

Modify the values of numeric variables by using mathematical operators

Control the execution of code with common logic structures

Identify bugs caused by failure to use the correct object lifecycle method, such as Awake, Start, or OnEnable

Diagnose and fix code that compiles, but fails to perform as expected

Challenge 2  - Starter Files.zip

Unit 2 - Basic Gameplay

Click to download the Challenge 2 starter files, extract the compressed folder, and then import the .unitypackage into your project If you forget how to do this, refer to Lesson 1.1, step 2

In the Project Window > Assets > Challenge 2 > Instructions folder, use the Challenge 2 - Outcome video as a guide to complete the challenge

When you import the challenge into your project, it is supposed to have bugs. 

The purpose of the challenge is for you to fix those bugs, which are listed below. There are also hints at the bottom of the page to help you if you get stuck.

If you cannot fix the bugs and wish to delete the challenge files from your project, in the Project window, right-click on Assets > Challenge 2 and select Delete. 

Make the balls spawn from the top of the screen

The balls should only be destroyed when coming into direct contact with a dog

Balls should be destroyed when they leave the bottom of the screen and dogs should be destroyed when they leave the left side of the screen

Ball 1, 2, and 3 should be spawned randomly

Make the spawn interval a random value between 3 seconds and 5 seconds

Only allow the player to spawn a new dog after a certain amount of time has passed

Make the balls spawn from the top of the screen
Hint - Click on the Spawn Manager object and look at the “Ball Prefabs” array

Make the player spawn dogs 
Hint - Click on the Player object and look at the “Dog Prefab” variable

The balls should only be destroyed when coming into direct contact with a dog
Hint - Check out the box collider on the dog prefab

Balls should be destroyed when they leave the bottom of the screen and dogs should be destroyed when they leave the left side of the screen
Hint - In the DestroyOutOfBounds script, double-check the lowerLimit and leftLimit variables, the greater than vs less than signs, and which position (x,y,z) is being tested

Ball 1, 2, and 3 should be spawned randomly
Hint - In the SpawnRandomBall() method, you should declare a new random int index variable, then incorporate that variable into the Instantiate call

Bonus - Make the spawn interval a random value between 3 seconds and 5 seconds
Hint - Set the spawnInterval value to a new random number between 3 and 5 seconds in the SpawnRandomBall method

If you want, you can challenge yourself even more by attempting to add special bonus features to your main prototype, which range from Easy to Expert in difficulty. 

These extra bonus challenges are entirely optional. If you are not interested and just want to continue with the course, simply mark this step complete and move on to the next tutorial.

If you are interested, check out the Bonus Feature tutorial and remember to return here when you're done to keep learning!

Challenge 2 - Play Fetch

Overview Video

1. Overview

2. Warning

3. Dogs are spawning at the top of the screen

4. The player is spawning green balls instead of dogs

5. The balls are destroyed if anywhere near the dog

6. Nothing is being destroyed off screen

7. Only one type of ball is being spawned

8. Bonus: The spawn interval is always the same

9. Bonus: The player can “spam” the spacebar key

10. Hints

11. Want even more challenges?

Complete this tutorial