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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Open prototype & change background

Choose and set up a player character

Make player jump at start

Make player jump if spacebar pressed

Tweak the jump force and gravity

Prevent player from double-jumping

Make an obstacle and move it left

Create a spawn manager

Spawn obstacles at intervals

Lesson Recap

CWC_U3.L1.S1_U6.mp4

CWC_U3.L1.S2_U6.mp4

CWC_U3.L1.S4_U6.mp4

CWC_U3.L1.S3_U6.mp4

CWC_U3.L1.S6_U6.mp4

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CWC_U3.L1.S9_U6.mp4

CWC_U3.L1.S8_U6.mp4

CWC_U3.L1.S7_U6.mp4

The goal of this lesson is to set up the basic gameplay for this prototype. We will start by creating a new project and importing the starter files. Next we will choose a beautiful background and a character for the player to control, and allow that character to jump with a tap of the spacebar. We will also choose an obstacle for the player, and create a spawn manager that throws them in the player’s path at timed intervals. 

The character, background, and obstacle of your choice will be set up. The player will be able to press spacebar and make the character jump, as obstacles spawn at the edge of the screen and block the player’s path.

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

Use GetComponent to manipulate the components of GameObjects

Influence physics of game objects with ForceMode.Impulse

Tweak the gravity of your project with Physics.gravity

Utilize new operators and variables like && 

Use Bool variables to control the number of times something can be done

Freeze or constrain the RigidBody component to halt movement on certain axes

Prototype 3 - Starter Files.zip

Overview Lesson 3.1 - Jump Force

Unit 3 - Sound and Effects

Create with Code - Unit 3: Sounds & Effects

The first thing we need to do is set up a new project, import the starter files, and choose a background for the game.

Open Unity Hub and create an empty “Prototype 3” 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 3 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 3 scene and delete the Sample Scene without saving

Select the Background object in the hierarchy, then in the Sprite Renderer component > Sprite, select the _City, _Nature, or _Town image

Now that we’ve started the project and chosen a background, we need to set up a character for the player to control.

From Course Library > Characters, Drag a character into the hierarchy, rename it “Player”, then rotate it on the Y axis to face to the right

Add a Box collider, then edit the collider bounds

Create a new “Scripts” folder in Assets,  create a “PlayerController” script inside, and attach it to the player

Until now, we’ve only called methods on the entirety of a gameobject or the transform component. If we want more control over the force and gravity of the player, we need to call methods on the player’s Rigidbody component, specifically.

In PlayerController.cs, declare a new private Rigidbody playerRb; variable

In Start(), initialize playerRb = GetComponent<Rigidbody>();

In Start(), use the AddForce method to make the player jump at the start of the game

We don’t want the player jumping at start - they should only jump when we tell it to by pressing spacebar.

In Update() add an if-then statement checking if the spacebar is pressed

Cut and paste the AddForce code from Start() into the if-statement

Add the ForceMode.Impulse parameter to the AddForce call, then reduce force multiplier value

We need give the player a perfect jump by tweaking the force of the jump, the gravity of the scene, and the mass of the character.

Replace the hardcoded value with a new public float jumpForce variable

Add a new public float gravityModifier variable and in Start(), add Physics.gravity *= gravityModifier; 

In the inspector, tweak the gravityModifier, jumpForce, and Rigibody mass values to make it fun

As you may have noticed, the player can spam the spacebar and send the character hurtling into the sky. In order to stop this silly exploit and make the jump more realistic, we need an if-statement that makes sure the player is grounded before they jump.

Add a new public bool isOnGround variable and set it equal to true

In the if-statement making the player jump, set isOnGround = false, then test

Add a condition && isOnGround to the if-statement

Add a new void OnCollisionEnter method, set isOnGround = true in that method, then test


We’ve got the player jumping in the air, but now they need something to jump over. We’re going to use some familiar code to instantiate obstacles and throw them in the player’s path.

From Course Library > Obstacles, add an obstacle, rename it “Obstacle”,  and position it where it should spawn

Apply a Rigid Body and Box Collider component, then edit the collider bounds to fit the obstacle

Create a new “Prefabs” folder and drag it in to create a new Original Prefab

Create a new “MoveLeft” script, apply it to the obstacle, and open it

In MoveLeft.cs, write the code to Translate it to the left according to the speed variable

Apply the MoveLeft script to the Background

Similar to the last project, we need to create an empty object Spawn Manager that will instantiate obstacle prefabs.

Create a new “Spawn Manager” empty object, then apply a new SpawnManager.cs script to it

In SpawnManager.cs, declare a new public GameObject obstaclePrefab;, then assign your prefab to the new variable in the inspector

Declare a new private Vector3 spawnPos at your spawn location

In Start(), Instantiate a new obstacle prefab, then delete your prefab from the scene and test

Our spawn manager instantiates prefabs on start, but we must write a new function and utilize InvokeRepeating if it to spawn obstacles on a timer. Lastly, we must modify the character’s RigidBody so it can’t be knocked over.

Create a new void SpawnObstacle method, then move the Instantiate call inside it

Create new float variables for startDelay and repeatRate

Have your obstacles spawn on intervals using the InvokeRepeating() method

In the Player Rigid Body component, expand Constraints, then Freeze all but the Y position

We’re going to fix that weird effect we created by moving the background left by having it actually constantly scroll using code!

Lesson 3.1 - Jump Force

Overview Video

1. Open prototype & change background

2. Choose and set up a player character

3. Make player jump at start

4. Make player jump if spacebar pressed

5. Tweak the jump force and gravity

6. Prevent player from double-jumping

7. Make an obstacle and move it left

8. Create a spawn manager

9. Spawn obstacles at intervals

10. Lesson Recap

Complete this tutorial