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

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

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

bf2bef11-9990-42ed-93ca-ad6fa4cfbd63:1fd3804a7bc0

Import and browse the asset library

Replace player with new asset

Browse the Asset store

Replace all non-player primitives

Replace the background texture

Recap

CWC_Lab5.S4_U6.mp4

CWC_Lab5.S2_U6.mp4

CWC_Lab5.S3_U6.mp4

CWC_Lab5.S1_U6.mp4

CWC_Lab5.S5_U6.mp4

In this lab, you will finally replace those boring primitive objects with beautiful dynamic ones. You will either use assets from the provided course library or browse the asset store for completely new ones to give your game exactly the look and feel that you want. Then, you will go through the process of actually swapping in those new assets in the place of your placeholder primitives. By the end of this lab, your project will be looking a lot better.

All primitive objects are replaced by actual 3D models, retaining the same basic gameplay functionality. 

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

Browse the asset store to find the perfect assets for your project

Use Nested Prefabs to swap out placeholder objects with real assets

Adjust material settings to get the resolution and look you want

Create with Code - Course Library.zip

Unit 5 - User Interface

Unit 5 - User Interface (Unity EdLab Edition)

If we are going to swap out our primitive shapes with cool new assets, we need to import those assets first.

Click to download the Course Library assets, extract the compressed folder, and then import the .unitypackage into your project. 
If you forget how to do this, refer to Lesson 1.1, step 2. 

Browse through the library to find the assets you would like to replace your Player and non-player objects with

Now that we have the assets ready to go, the first thing we’ll do is replace the Player object

Drag the Player object into the “Prefabs” folder to make it a prefab, then double-click on it to open the prefab editor

Drag the asset you want into the hierarchy to make it a nested prefab of the Player, then scale and position it so that it is around the same size and location

On the parent Player object itself, either Edit the collider to be the size of the new asset or replace it with a different type of collider (e.g. Box) 

Test testing to make sure it works, then uncheck the Mesh Renderer component of the primitive

Even though we have a really great asset library, there may be certain assets you want that aren’t in there. In that case, it might be good to try and find assets in the Unity Asset Store.

In the search bar, search for “Synty Studios” or “Low Poly”, then browse some of the assets

In the Pricing filter, check “Free Assets” to only view free options, or use the Ratings filter to only see highly reviewed assets.

If you find an asset you want to include in your project, select Add to My Assets, then Open in Unity. This should automatically open the Package Manager window in Unity.

In the Package Manager window, select Download, then Import. 

Drag the imported assets into a new folder called “Asset Store”, then browse through the imported assets.

Note: The Simple Gems package used in our example is not updated to URP, so some materials may appear pink when you install them. To fix this, go to the top menu and select Window > Rendering > Render Pipeline Converter. Then, choose the Material Upgrade option and click Initialize and Convert. For more information on updating materials created with Unity's Built-In Render Pipeline, check the following documentation.

Now that we know the basic concept of our project, let’s figure out how we’re going to get it done.

Repeat the process you used to replace the player prefab with your other non-player objects

Test to make sure everything is working as expected

Now that our dynamic objects have a new look, we should update the ground / background too.

From the Course Library > Textures, (or from a Unity Asset Store package), drag a new material onto the Ground / Background object

To adjust the material’s resolution, in the Material properties (with the sphere next to it), change the Main Map Tiling X and Y values

To make the material less shiny, in the Material properties, uncheck the “Specular highlights” and “Environment Reflections” settings 

Primitive objects replaced with new assets that function the same way

Lab 5 - Swap out your Assets

Overview Video

1. Import and browse the asset library

2. Replace player with new asset

3. Browse the Asset store

4. Replace all non-player primitives

5. Replace the background texture

6. Recap

Complete this tutorial