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

ff74bd80-3b4f-4562-93ba-1d811e192a5a:3c6918da5f68

Give objects basic movement

Destroy objects off-screen

Handle object collisions

Make objects into prefabs

Make SpawnManager spawn Prefabs

Recap

Control the execution of code with common logic structures 

Level 1 Application Scripting

Joy Horvath

Instructional Designer

CWC_Lab4.S1_U6.mp4

CWC_Lab4.S2_U6.mp4

CWC_Lab4.S3_U6.mp4

CWC_Lab4.S5_U6.mp4

CWC_Lab4.S4_U6.mp4

In this lab, you will work with all of your non-player objects in order to bring your project to life with its basic gameplay. You will give your projectiles, pickups, or enemies their basic movement and collision detection, make them into prefabs, and have them spawned randomly by a spawn manager. By the end of this lab, you should have a glimpse into the core functionality of your game.

Non-player objects are spawned at appropriate locations in the scene with basic movement. When objects collide with each other, they react as intended, by either bouncing or being destroyed.

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

More comfortably handle object collisions

More comfortably spawn object prefabs on timed intervals

Given a particular feature description (e.g. an object spawner, a difficulty select menu, a loading screen, etc.), recommend an appropriate high-level system for its implementation (e.g. what data types would be required, what would be the logic flow, etc.)

Evaluate the efficacy of a finished prototype based on its design criteria

Prototype new concepts

Unit 4 - Gameplay Mechanics

Unit 4 - Gameplay Mechanics (Unity EdLab Edition)

Before you spawn objects into your scene, they should move the way you want.

If relevant, add Rigidbody components to your non-player objects

Create a new script(s) for the objects that will be instantiated during gameplay and attach them to their respective objects (including projectiles or pickups)

Program the basic movement for your objects and test that they work

By the end of this step, all objects should basically move the way they should in the game.

To make sure our hierarchy doesn’t get too cluttered, let’s make sure these objects get destroyed when they leave the screen.

Either create a new script or add code to your existing script to make sure objects are destroyed when they leave the screen

By the end of this step, objects should be removed from the hierarchy when they are no longer in play.

Now that you have all these moving objects, they’re bound to start colliding with each other - we need to program what should happen when everything collides.

If relevant, edit the Rigidbody mass of your objects

If relevant, to change the way your objects collide, create a new Physics material for your objects

Add tags to your objects so you can accurately test for which objects are colliding with which

Use OnCollisionEnter() (for Rigidbody collisions) or OnTriggerEnter() (for trigger-based collisions) to Destroy or Log messages to the console what should happen when certain collisions occur

By the end of this step, objects should destroy, bounce, or do nothing based on collisions.

Now that the objects are basically behaving the way they should, if they’re going to be instantiated during gameplay, they need to be prefabs

In the Assets directory, create a new Folder called “Prefabs”

Drag in each object to create a new prefab for it

After all objects have been turned into prefabs, delete them from the scene 

Test the objects’ behavior by dragging them from the Prefabs folder into the scene while the game is running

By the end of this step, all objects that will be spawned during gameplay should be prefabs and should no longer be in your scene.

Now that we have all of our prefabs set up, we can create a spawn manager to spawn them at intervals and, if we want, in random locations.

Create an Empty “Spawn Manager” object and attach a new SpawnManager.cs script to it

Create individual GameObject or GameObject array variables for your prefabs, then assign them in the inspector

Use the Instantiate(), Random.Range(), and the InvokeRepeating() methods to spawn objects at intervals (random objects, random locations, or both)

Right-click on your Assets folder > Export Package then save a new version in your Backups folder

By the end of this step, objects should be spawned automatically from the appropriate location.

Non-player objects prefabs have basic movement 

Objects are destroyed when they leave the screen 

Collisions between objects are handled appropriately

Objects are spawned at the appropriate locations on time-based intervals

Creating basic gameplay for a project independently

Lab 4 - Basic Gameplay

Overview Video

1. Give objects basic movement

2. Destroy objects off-screen

3. Handle object collisions

4. Make objects into prefabs

5. Make SpawnManager spawn Prefabs

6. Recap

Complete this tutorial