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

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 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

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

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 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

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Create project and open scene

Set up the player and add a texture

Create a focal point for the camera

Rotate the focal point by user input

Add forward force to the player

Move in direction of focal point

Lesson Recap

CWC_U4.L1.S1_U6.mp4

CWC_U4.L1.S2_U6.mp4

CWC_U4.L1.S3_U6.mp4

CWC_U4.L1.S4_U6.mp4

CWC_U4.L1.S5_U6.mp4

CWC_U4.L1.S6_U6.mp4

First things first, we will create a new prototype and download the starter files! You’ll notice a beautiful island, sky, and particle effect... all of which can be customized! Next you will allow the player to rotate the camera around the island in a perfect radius, providing a glorious view of the scene. The player will be represented by a sphere, wrapped in a detailed texture of your choice. Finally you will add force to the player, allowing them to move forwards or backwards in the direction of the camera.

The camera will evenly rotate around a focal point in the center of the island, provided a horizontal input from the player. The player will control a textured sphere, and move them forwards or backwards in the direction of the aforementioned focal point.

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

Attaching a camera to its focal point using parent-child relationships

Transform objects based on local XYZ values

Prototype 4 - Starter Files.zip

Unit 4 - Gameplay Mechanics

Create with Code - Unit 4: Gameplay Mechanics

You’ve done it before, and it’s time to do it again... we must start a new project and import the starter files.

Open Unity Hub and create an empty “Prototype 4” project in your course directory on the correct Unity version. 
If you forget how to do this, refer to the instructions in Lesson 1.1 - Step 1

Click to download the Prototype 4 Starter Files, extract the compressed folder, and then import the .unitypackage into your project. 
If you forget how to do this, refer to the instructions in Lesson 1.1 - Step 2

Open the Prototype 4 scene and delete the Sample Scene without saving

We’ve got an island for the game to take place on, and now we need a sphere for the player to control and roll around. 

In the Hierarchy, right click (or select “+”) >  3D Object > Sphere 

Rename it “Player”, reset its position and increase its XYZ scale to 1.5

From the Library > Textures, drag a texture onto the sphere

If we want the camera to rotate around the game in a smooth and cinematic fashion, we need to pin it to the center of the island with a focal point.

Create a new Empty Object and rename it “Focal Point”, 

Reset its position to the origin (0, 0, 0), and make the Camera a child object of it

Create a new “Scripts” folder, and a new “RotateCamera” script inside it 

Attach the “RotateCamera” script to the Focal Point

Now that the camera is attached to the focal point, the player must be able to rotate it - and the camera child object - around the island with horizontal input.

Create the code to rotate the camera based on rotationSpeed and horizontalInput

Tweak the rotation speed value to get the speed you want

The camera is rotating perfectly around the island, but now we need to move the player.

Create a new “PlayerController” script, apply it to the Player, and open it

Declare a new public float speed variable and initialize it

Declare a new private Rigidbody playerRb and initialize it in Start()

In Update(), declare a new forwardInput variable based on “Vertical” input 

Call the AddForce() method to move the player forward based forwardInput

We’ve got the ball rolling, but it only goes forwards and backwards in a single direction! It should instead move in the direction the camera (and focal point) are facing.

Declare a new private GameObject focalPoint; and initialize it in Start(): focalPoint = GameObject.Find("Focal Point");

In the AddForce call, Replace Vector3.forward with focalPoint.transform.forward

Optional: Take a moment to experiment with the Global vs Local dropdown menu, and how toggling between the two changes your coordinates and positioning.  

Camera rotates around the island based on horizontal input

Player rolls in direction of camera based on vertical input

In the next lesson, we’ll add more challenge to the player, by creating enemies that chase them in the game.

Lesson 4.1 - Watch Where You’re Going

Overview Video

1. Create project and open scene

2. Set up the player and add a texture

3. Create a focal point for the camera

4. Rotate the focal point by user input

5. Add forward force to the player

6. Move in direction of focal point

7. Lesson Recap

Complete this tutorial