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

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Create a Game Over text object

Make GameOver text appear

Create GameOver function

Stop spawning and score on GameOver

Add a Restart button

Make the restart button work

Show restart button on game over

Lesson Recap

CWC_U5.L3.S2_U6.mp4

CWC_U5.L3.S1_U6.mp4

CWC_U5.L3.S4_U6.mp4

CWC_U5.L3.S3_U6.mp4

CWC_U5.L3.S6_U6.mp4

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CWC_U5.L3.S7_U6.mp4

We added a great score counter to the game, but there are plenty of other game-changing UI elements that we could add. In this lesson, we will create some “Game Over” text that displays when a “good” target object drops below the sensor. During game over, targets will cease to spawn and the score will be reset. Lastly, we will add a “Restart Game” button that allows the player to restart the game after they have lost.

When a “good” target drops below the sensor at the bottom of the screen, the targets will stop spawning and a “Game Over” message will display across the screen. Just underneath the “Game Over” message will be a “Reset Game” button that reboots the game and resets the score, so the player can enjoy it all over again.

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

Make UI elements appear and disappear with .SetActive

Use Script Communication and Game states to have a working “Game Over” screen

Restart the game using a UI button and Scene Management

Unit 5 - User Interface

Create with Code - Unit 5: User Interfaces (UI)

Unit 5 - User Interface (Unity EdLab Edition)

If we want some “Game Over” text to appear when the game ends, the first thing we’ll do is create and customize a new UI text element that says “Game Over”.

Right-click on the Canvas, create a new UI > Text - TextMeshPro object, and rename it “Game Over Text”

In the inspector, edit its Text, Pos X, Pos Y, Font Asset, Size, Style, Color, and Alignment

Change the Text Wrapping setting from Normal to No Wrap

We’ve got some beautiful Game Over text on the screen, but it’s just sitting and blocking our view right now. We should deactivate it, so it can reappear when the game ends.

In GameManager.cs, create a new public TextMeshProUGUI gameOverText; and assign the Game Over object to it in the inspector

Uncheck the Active checkbox to deactivate the Game Over text by default

We’ve temporarily made the “Game Over” text appear at the start of the game, but we actually want to trigger it when one of the “Good” objects is missed and falls.

Create a new public void GameOver() function, and move the code that activates the game over text inside it

In Target.cs, call gameManager.GameOver() if a target collides with the sensor

Add a new “Bad” tag to the Bad object, add a condition that will only trigger game over if it’s not a bad object

The “Game Over” message appears exactly when we want it to, but the game itself continues to play. In order to truly halt the game and call this a “Game Over’, we need to stop spawning targets and stop generating score for the player.

As the first line In Start(), set isGameActive = true; and in GameOver(), set isGameActive = false;

To prevent spawning, in the SpawnTarget() coroutine, change while (true) to while (isGameActive)

To prevent scoring, in Target.cs, in the OnMouseDown() function, add the condition if (gameManager.isGameActive) {

Our Game Over mechanics are working like a charm, but there’s no way to replay the game. In order to let the player restart the game, we will create our first UI button

Right-click on the Canvas and Create > UI > Button - TextMeshPro. 

Temporarily reactivate the Game Over text in order to reposition the Restart Button nicely with the text, then deactivate it again 

Select the Text child object, then edit its Text to say “Restart”, its Font, Style, and Size

We’ve added the Restart button to the scene and it LOOKS good, but now we need to make it actually work and restart the game.

In GameManager.cs, add using UnityEngine.SceneManagement;

Create a new public void RestartGame() function that reloads the current scene

In the Button’s inspector, click + to add a new On Click event, drag it in the Game Manager object and select the GameManager.RestartGame function

The Restart Button looks great, but we don’t want it in our faces throughout the entire game. Similar to the “Game Over” message, we will turn off the Restart Button while the game is active.

At the top of GameManager.cs add using UnityEngine.UI;

Declare a new public Button restartButton; and assign the Restart Button to it in the inspector

Uncheck the “Active” checkbox for the Restart Button in the inspector

In the GameOver function, activate the Restart Button

A functional Game Over screen with a Restart button

When the Restart button is clicked, the game resets

In our next lesson, we’ll use buttons to really add some difficulty to our game

Lesson 5.3 - Game Over

Overview Video

1. Create a Game Over text object

2. Make GameOver text appear

3. Create GameOver function

4. Stop spawning and score on GameOver

5. Add a Restart button

6. Make the restart button work

7. Show restart button on game over

8. Lesson Recap

Complete this tutorial