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

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 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

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Create a script to repeat background

Reset position of background

Fix background repeat with collider

Add a new game over trigger

Stop MoveLeft on gameOver

Stop obstacle spawning on gameOver

Destroy obstacles that exit bounds

Lesson Recap

Control the execution of code with common logic structures 

Level 1 Application Scripting

Joy Horvath

Instructional Designer

CWC_U3.L2.S2_U6.mp4

CWC_U3.L2.S6_U6.mp4

CWC_U3.L2.S1_U6.mp4

CWC_U3.L2.S7_U6.mp4

CWC_U3.L2.S5_U6.mp4

CWC_U3.L2.S3_U6.mp4

CWC_U3.L2.S4_U6.mp4

We’ve got the core mechanics of this game figured out: The player can tap the spacebar to jump over incoming obstacles. However, the player appears to be running for the first few seconds, but then the background just disappears! In order to fix this, we need to repeat the background seamlessly to make it look like the world is rushing by! We also need the game to halt when the player collides with an obstacle, stopping the background from repeating and stopping the obstacles from spawning. Lastly, we must destroy any obstacles that get past the player.

The background moves flawlessly at the same time as the obstacles, and the obstacles will despawn when they exit game boundaries. With the power of script communication, the background and spawn manager will halt when the player collides with an obstacle. Colliding with an obstacle will also trigger a game over message in the console log, halting the background and the spawn manager.

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

Use tags to label game objects and call them in the code

Use script communication to access the methods and variables of other scripts

Select the appropriate common Unity methods to use, e.g., Awake, Start, Update, FixedUpdate, Collision, and Trigger Events, given a desired feature to code

Achieve a desired result by using Unity API methods, given Unity’s script documentation

Achieve a desired result with different parameters by using various method overloads

Distinguish a correct use of any given Unity API method from an incorrect use

Control or trigger the state of components, such as an Animator Controller, Light, AudioSource, or User Interface element by using appropriate methods

Construct an input listener, given a scenario where a specific type of input is required

Print a message consisting of concatenated strings and variable values to the console by using Unity's Debug.Log method

Compose scripts that utilize various APIs

Unit 3 - Sound and Effects

Create with Code - Unit 3: Sounds & Effects

Unit 3 - Sound and Effects (Unity EdLab Edition)

We need to repeat the background and move it left at the same speed as the obstacles, to make it look like the world is rushing by. Thankfully we already have a move left script, but we will need a new script to make it repeat.

Create a new script called RepeatBackground.cs and attach it to the Background Object

In order to repeat the background and provide the illusion of a world rushing by, we need to reset the background object’s position so it fits together perfectly.

Declare a new variable private Vector3 startPos;

In Start(), set the startPos variable to its actual starting position by assigning it  = transform.position;

In Update(), write an if-statement to reset position if it moves a certain distance

We’ve got the background repeating every few seconds, but the transition looks pretty awkward. We need to make the background loop perfectly and seamlessly with some new variables.

Add a Box Collider component to the Background

Declare a new private float repeatWidth variable

In Start(), get the width of the box collider, divided by 2

Incorporate the repeatWidth variable into the repeat function

When the player collides with an obstacle, we want to trigger a “Game Over” state that stops everything. In order to do so, we need a way to label and discern all game objects that the player collides with.

In the inspector, add a “Ground” tag to the Ground and an “Obstacle” tag to the Obstacle prefab

In PlayerController, declare a new public bool gameOver;

In OnCollisionEnter, add the if-else statement to test if player collided with the “Ground” or an “Obstacle”

If they collided with the “Ground”, set isOnGround = true, and if they collide with an “Obstacle”, set gameOver = true

We’ve added a gameOver bool that seems to work,  but the background and the objects continue to move when they collide with an obstacle. We need the MoveLeft script to communicate with the PlayerController, and stop once the player triggers gameOver.

In MoveLeft.cs, declare a new private PlayerController playerControllerScript;

In Start(), initialize it by finding the Player and getting the PlayerController component

Wrap the translate method in an if-statement checking if game is not over

The background and the obstacles stop moving when gameOver == true, but the Spawn Manager is still raising an army of obstacles! We need to communicate with the Spawn Manager script and tell it to stop when the game is over.

In SpawnManager.cs, get a reference to the playerControllerScript using the same technique you did in MoveLeft.cs

Add a condition to only instantiate objects if gameOver == false

Just like the animals in Unit 2, we need to destroy any obstacles that exit boundaries. Otherwise they will slide into the distance… forever!

In MoveLeft, in Update(); write an if-statement to Destroy Obstacles if their position is less than a leftBound variable

Add any comments you need to make your code more readable

Background stops when player collides with obstacle

Obstacle spawning stops when player collides with obstacle

Our character, while happy on the inside, looks a little too rigid on the outside, so we’re going to do some work with ANIMATIONS

Lesson 3.2 - Make the World Whiz By

Overview Video

1. Create a script to repeat background

2. Reset position of background

3. Fix background repeat with collider

4. Add a new game over trigger

5. Stop MoveLeft on gameOver

6. Stop obstacle spawning on gameOver

7. Destroy obstacles that exit bounds

8. Lesson Recap

Complete this tutorial