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

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 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

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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Overview

What is object-oriented programming?

The Four Pillars

Object-oriented programming in the missions

Next Steps

In this tutorial you’ll learn about the basics of object-oriented programming paradigm and its four associated principles.

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

Explain how the pillars of OOP work together to create organized, efficient code

Junior Programmer: Manage scene flow and data

Unity for Artists Curricular Framework Resources

AI, ML Curricular Framework Resources 

As you gain more practice with programming, you’ll eventually begin to identify situations where you suspect code could be written more effectively. Perhaps you’ve found yourself copying and pasting lines of code, or changing protection levels on variables multiple times as you add more scripts to a project. Regardless of the specific situation, these observations are an important part of becoming a better programmer — you’re thinking beyond pure code functionality, and considering your code’s usability.


There are many ways to improve the usability of code, and even many different opinions about the best approach! This can be overwhelming for newer programmers. The best way to gain experience is to try these approaches yourself. To help you get started, we’ll show you one of the most popular programming paradigms (or patterns): object-oriented programming. 

Object-oriented programming (OOP), is a programming pattern in which the methods and variables that are related to one another are grouped together to form what is called an object (the “object” in OOP!). 

Keeping data organized into objects has many advantages. It makes code more comprehensible, so that it is easier to understand what the code is trying to accomplish. In the example above, we can see that our Rabbit object has a few variables to describe its physical appearance, and a method that defines how it can move. It would be confusing if you opened up a separate class named Burrow and discovered a set of Rabbit related methods for eating carrots and nose wiggling.  

Objects also allow you to control your code’s accessibility, which means that you’ll reduce the chance of someone else (or even yourself!) accidentally breaking your code as you create your projects. You’ll also be able to more easily reuse and repurpose different parts of your code. 

Keep in mind that every project has at least two programmers working on it: you, and you six months from now, when you won’t remember how or why you did what you have done. Object-oriented programming will make your code more readable and difficult to break for your own sake, as well as for any other programmer who might work on your project.

There are four main principles of object-oriented programming, which are commonly referred to as the pillars of OOP. They are: abstraction, encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism. To successfully use the object-oriented programming pattern, you need only learn and apply these four principles! We’ll learn about each one of these pillars in detail later on, but for now, let’s review them at a high level.

Sample code for an object: public class Rabbit with variables and a method

Abstraction is the process of removing complex code from the scripts where other programmers will see it, and only exposing the functionality other programmers really need. When you “abstract out” the details, you reduce duplicate code and provide easy access to the most useful methods. The goal of abstraction is to keep your code as clean as possible, and simple for other programmers (or yourself!) to use. In our Rabbit example above, the Hop method would be a good example of abstraction. Without the Hop method, if a programmer wanted the Rabbit to move, they would have to write code that would access its RigidBody and set its velocity, hop height, and so on. With the Hop method, all of those aspects are abstracted away, allowing the programmer to focus on when the Rabbit should hop rather than how. 

Inheritance is the process of creating a primary class from which other classes, referred to as child classes, can be created. A child class takes on all of the features of the primary, or parent class, automatically. This reduces the need to rewrite code that both classes would need to make use of. As an example, let’s say that we wanted to create a new class called Bunny. Like the Rabbit class, it has ears that can be floppy or standing, has fur that can be a specific color, and can hop. Without inheritance, you’d essentially have to copy all of the code you already wrote and paste it into the new class. With inheritance, you simply extend the Rabbit class, and that functionality is already there and accessible for the Bunny class. The Bunny class could then go on to feature Bunny-specific functionality, such as eating Bunny chow.

Polymorphism is one of the most useful aspects of using inheritance. It allows you to create alternative functionality for code that's been inherited from a parent class. As an example, our child Bunny class represents a domesticated Rabbit. It’s able to hop just as a Rabbit is able to, but a Bunny should probably be a little bit slower than its wild parent counterpart. With polymorphism, you can override the contents of the Hop method and write custom code that’s unique to the Bunny. The method call remains the same, but the correct code will be called based on which entity it was called on.

Encapsulation is similar to abstraction in that its overarching purpose is to separate the programmer from code complexity, but the focus here is more on code safety in the form of accessibility. Encapsulation gives you tools to code for other programmers, and make sure that they only use your variables and methods as intended. In encapsulated code, other programmers can’t easily change the values of variables or the properties of objects. It’s impossible to account for all of the different ways that other scripts might access your code, so it's far better to encapsulate what you’ve created so it can only perform as intended. As an example, let’s say that our Rabbit’s ear type affects its hearing ability. Once that value is set, it shouldn’t be changed later on. To ensure that the value is protected, you would set it as private, preventing any outside scripts from accessing it. 

Image of four pillars in a row, labeled from left to right with Abstraction, Encapsulation, Inheritance, and Polymorphism.

If you feel as if some of this is sounding familiar to you, you’re right! You’ve actually already been implementing some OOP principles into your code throughout this pathway. As you work through the rest of this mission, try to think about what pillar you might be applying as you write new functionality for your project. In the next mission, we’ll revisit each pillar in depth as you look for ways to iterate and improve on your code. 

It’s important to note that object-oriented programming isn’t the only programming paradigm out there. There are many different approaches for creating applications, and odds are good you won’t use the object-oriented approach for everything you make in Unity. Object-oriented programming, and in fact all programming patterns, are just tools in your toolbelt, and while some may be more effective at some things than others, there is no one true superior paradigm. Always remember to select the tool that makes the most sense for the challenge you’re facing. That said, object-oriented programming is well established and a great tool for new programmers. As you move forward through these next missions, you’ll expand your knowledge on these core concepts.

In the next tutorial, it’s time to get started with the project! You’ll implement the scene flow and configure buttons so that the user can move between the two scenes and exit the application.

Principles of object-oriented programming

1. Overview

2. What is object-oriented programming?

3. The Four Pillars

4. Object-oriented programming in the missions

5. Next Steps

Complete this tutorial