Set up a 2D room

Complete your 2D Puzzle Game

Add an animated pet

2D Essentials: More things to try

Mission 5 Quiz

Unity Essentials: 2D Essentials Quiz

Create a top-down minigame similar to the 3D living room experience, but in 2D.

In this 2D Mission, you'll create a top-down 2D version of the interactive living room scene you created earlier. 

Just like in the 3D scene, you'll control a character, and try to collect all the objects in a room. By completing this scene, you'll learn how working in 2D is similar to working in 3D, but also how it’s different.

2D Essentials

Unity Essentials Pathway

Master the basics of Unity with the Unity Essentials Pathway. Perfect for beginners, this free learning journey introduces game development, 3D content creation, and Unity's core tools. Start building today!

Unity Essentials Pathway - Learn Game Development for Beginners | Unity Learn

Unity Essentials is the perfect place to start for beginners to Unity. No previous experience is necessary.

New to Unity? This guided learning Pathway includes everything you need to get started.

Designed for anyone new to Unity, this guided learning journey is your first step toward creating confidently in the Unity Editor and bringing your visions to life. In this learning Pathway, you’ll design different rooms of a house, learning the essentials of one key skillset as you complete each room.

Unity Essentials

Unity Essentials: Install Unity

Open the Unity Essentials project

Explore the Editor Interface

Master 3D scene navigation

Pass the Scene view flying test

Design a mural in the Scene view

Editor Essentials: More things to try

Unity Essentials: Editor Essentials Quiz

Explore a playground scene and design a mural to get comfortable with the Unity interface.

This tutorial series introduces you to the essential skills of navigating the Unity Editor.

You'll learn to navigate 3D space in a playground scene, using Flythrough mode and tools like Move and Rotate to design a mural.

Once you master these skills, you’ll have the foundation required for confidently creating in Unity.

Editor Essentials

Add furniture to the kid’s room

Make a bouncy ball

Make a tower of prefab blocks

Adjust the lights, background, and camera angle

3D Essentials: More things to try

Unity Essentials: 3D Essentials Quiz

Design a kid's bedroom with a bouncing ball and a tower of collapsing building blocks.

In this tutorial series, you'll explore Unity's capabilities by designing a kid's bedroom scene with dynamic elements like a bouncing ball and a tower of blocks. You'll learn new skills in 3D navigation, object customization, and using Unity's physics system. 

You’ll also create prefabs, adjust lighting, and capture your scene with a camera. 

This foundational knowledge is vital to creating any type of Unity project.

3D Essentials

Create an immersive soundscape

Audio Essentials: More things to try

Unity Essentials: Audio Essentials Quiz

Add immersive sound to a kitchen scene with a variety of different types of audio.

In this Audio Mission, you will learn the fundamentals of implementing different types of audio into Unity scenes. You’ll learn how to set the tone with background music, how to add realism with sound effects, and even how to implement spatial audio in a 3D scene.

Audio Essentials

Add a movement script

Create a rotating collectible

Collect the collectible

Programming Essentials: More things to try

Unity Essentials: Programming Essentials Quiz

Add code so that a player character can explore a living room and gather collectibles. 

In this Mission, you’ll program a simple interactive experience where you control a character in a living room scene and move around to collect objects. 

You'll be able to choose from a variety of characters and collectible objects. In our example, we'll use a robot vacuum that maneuvers to pick up dirt around the room.

Programming Essentials

Build your portfolio project

Publish to WebGL

Challenge: Add a bonus scene

Capture a video of your project

Share your project

Combine all of your scenes together into one cohesive portfolio project that you can share with others. 

It's time to collect all your good work together into a singular portfolio piece that you and others can play!

A portfolio, especially in the realm of real-time 3D (RT3D) and game development, is not just a collection of work, but a practical way of demonstrating your familiarity with essential tools and concepts. 

In this Mission, you will package all of your work from this Pathway into a single playable experience that you can easily share with others.


Publishing Essentials

c3d9497f-f14f-4614-a3cd-0adcb0e61417:b097656cc879

Overview

Fill out the room

Add a rug on the correct layer

Make the furniture pushable

Increase the furniture’s drag

Increase the furniture’s mass

Add a collectible to the scene

Design a level full of collectibles

Clean up the Hierarchy window

Add the UI prefab

Review and proceed to the next tutorial

Identify the defaults elements in a new scene, Create and manipulate GameObjects and configure their components.

Scene Building Essentials

Neal Grigsby

Product Manager at Unity

Control the execution of code with common logic structures 

Level 1 Application Scripting

Joy Horvath

Instructional Designer

5.2.1 - Overview - VIDEO.mp4

5.2.2 - Fill out the room - VIDEO.mp4

5.2.3 - Add a rug on the correct layer - VIDEO.mp4

5.2.4 - Make the furniture pushable - VIDEO.mp4

5.2.6 - Increase the furniture’s mass - VIDEO.mp4

5.2.8 - Design a level full of collectibles - VIDEO.mp4

5.2.7 - Add a collectible to the scene - VIDEO.mp4

5.2.9 - Clean up the Hierarchy - VIDEO.mp4

5.2.10 - Add the UI prefab - VIDEO.mp4

5.2.5 - Increase the furniture's drag - VIDEO_U6.mp4

Fill out the 2D room with pushable furniture, collectibles, and a UI that tracks the player's progress. 

Sprite Renderer

9-slicing Sprites

Rigidbody component reference

Games

Film

Automotive

Explain the Toolbar buttons used to manipulate objects.

Select a GameObject from both the Hierarchy window and the Scene view.

Link GameObjects in parent-child relationships using the Hierarchy window to create complex GameObjects.

Explain the relationship between the Scene view and the Inspector window.

Move, scale, and rotate a GameObject using the Toolbar buttons and the mouse in the Scene view.

Move, scale, and rotate a GameObject using the Transform Component in the Inspector window.

Position Sprites in 3D space in a 2D Scene.

Use 3D GameObjects in a 2D Scene to group Sprites.

3.1 Explain the Toolbar buttons used to manipulate objects.

3.2 Select a GameObject from both the Hierarchy window and the Scene view.

3.3 Link GameObjects in parent-child relationships using the Hierarchy window to create complex GameObjects.

3.4 Explain the relationship between the Scene view and the Inspector window.

3.5 Duplicate a GameObject.

3.6 Move, scale, and rotate a GameObject using the Toolbar buttons and the mouse in the Scene view.

3.7 Move, scale, and rotate a GameObject using the Transform Component in the Inspector window.

3.8 Position Sprites in 3D space in a 2D Scene.

3.9 Use 3D GameObjects in a 2D Scene to group Sprites.

Transform GameObjects

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

 Implement basic physics for GameObjects 

Apply RigidBody or RigidBody 2D components in order to enable GameObjects to act under the control of physics

Modify the basic properties of a RigidBody or RigidBody 2D component in order to control how the GameObject is affected by physics, including its mass, its drag, and the Scene's gravity

Add a collider to a GameObject and understand its function

Create and configure a Physic Material to add physical properties to a GameObject

Employ basic physics for GameObjects

Veronica Brown

Mission 5 - 2D Essentials

In this tutorial, you'll fill out the 2D room with furniture that the player can push around, and then fill it with collectibles for the player to search for. At the end, you’ll even add a simple user interface that tracks the number of collectibles remaining, which will make it feel like a fun puzzle game. 

When you’re ready to get started, go to the next step.

Now that your 2D room and player character are set up, the next step is to add some furniture to the room. The player will eventually be able to push this furniture around, making the room much more interactive and fun. 


1.   In the Project window, go to the _Unity Essentials > Sprites > Furniture folder.

2.  Select furniture sprites you want to add to your room and drag them into the Scene view.

Important:  Don’t add any rugs to the room yet! You’ll do that in the next step. 

3.  Use the Move tool (W key) and Rotate tool (E key) to position and orient your furniture. 

These keyboard shortcuts allow for quick switching between tools.

Important:  Do not put one piece of furniture on top of another — when you add Rigidbody and Collider components to them later, they’ll explode out of each other because they’d be intersecting physical objects. 

Tip:  You should also avoid putting furniture right in a corner — this will allow you to push them around more easily.

Note:  Remember to save your scene.

If you put a rug in your scene right now, it might sit on top of the furniture. Rugs don’t usually do that. You’ll need to use the Order in Layer property of the Sprite Renderer component to control exactly how your objects are stacked in 2D space. 

This will allow you to strategically place the rug beneath furniture and other movable objects, but still above the floor. 


1.  In the Project window, navigate to the _Unity Essentials > Sprites > Rugs folder.

2.  Drag one of the rug sprite prefabs into your scene.

Notice that it goes on top of your furniture.

3.  In the Hierarchy window, use the Shift key to select all the Furniture objects. Then, in the Sprite Renderer component, set the furniture’s Order in Layer to 10. 

4.  Repeat this process for the Player GameObject, setting its Order in Layer to 10.

5.  Now select any rugs you have in the scene and set the Order in Layer to 5.

Tip:  When you space out the layers this way (rather than just using Layer 1, 2, 3, etc), it leaves room for additional elements you might want to introduce between the layers later.

6.  Use the Rect tool to stretch the rug’s corners to the position you want. 

Notice that the rug’s pattern repeats as it stretches rather than being distorted. These rugs are set up as 9-sliced sprites, which involves splitting the image into nine portions so that when you resize the sprite, it keeps the sprite in proportion.  

If you test your scene now, the player will be able to go through the furniture like a ghost. Just like with the player, these physical furniture objects need 2D Collider and 2D Rigidbody components to collide and move around as expected. 


1.  In the Hierarchy window, select all furniture objects, not including the rugs, by holding Shift or Ctrl (macOS: Cmd) to select multiple objects at once. 

2.  With all furniture selected, go to the Inspector window and select Add Component. Search for and add a Rigidbody 2D component to each selected object.

3.  Set the Gravity Scale of each Rigidbody 2D component to 0 to prevent the furniture from falling to the bottom of the scene.

4.  With all the furniture still selected, select Add Component again and search for Box Collider 2D. Add this component to introduce collision detection to each piece of furniture.

If you added any circular furniture (like the lamp or plant), you’ll need to replace the Box Collider 2D component with a Circle Collider 2D component that more accurately represents its shape.  

5.  Select one of your circular furniture sprites and locate its Box Collider 2D component. Either right-click the component’s name or select the component’s More menu (⋮), select Remove Component, then add a new Circle Collider 2D component instead.

6.  Test the scene by entering Play mode. 

Notice how the objects now collide with each other and the player, but they slide like they’re on ice. You’ll fine-tune their physical properties in the next step to make things feel more realistic. 

The furniture movement is not very realistic. Let's make the furniture behave more appropriately when the player pushes it. The Rigidbody 2D component’s linear and angular damping values simulate resistance that objects encounter when moving. 


1.  In the Hierarchy window, select all the pushable furniture objects again. 

Remember, don’t select the rugs!

2.  In the furniture’s Rigidbody 2D component, set the Linear Damping to a value between 5 and 10. 

3.  Enter Play mode to test the new linear damping. 

The furniture should no longer slide across the floor, but it will still rotate endlessly like a spinning top. 
4.  Exit Play mode and, with the furniture still selected, set the Angular Damping to a value between 5 and 10. 

5.  Enter Play mode again to test the new angular damping. 

The furniture should no longer spin.

Feel free to experiment with those damping values to get the furniture sliding the way you want.

The furniture is coming to a stop once it’s pushed, but there’s one thing that still feels off: it’s just as difficult for the player to move a shoe as it is to move a couch. 

Adjusting the mass of heavier items will add another layer of realism, making larger pieces more challenging to move, which will make the entire experience more fun and immersive. 


1.  In the Scene view, adjust the mass of heavier furniture items to make them harder to move. 

For example, set the mass of a heavy couch to 10, which makes it ten times more difficult to move than the default value of 1.

2.  Test the scene to observe the changes.  

Set the mass of all the furniture objects until they feel appropriately difficult to push around, especially relative to each other. 

With the room completely set up, you’re ready to introduce some collectibles into the scene. 

For this scene, we have provided with you 2D collectible sprite prefabs that already include the following components:

A 2D Collider component (either Box or Polygon) with Is Trigger enabled so that the player can detect it but not bump into it, just like the 3D collectible.

A Collectible 2D script component, which is very similar to the Collectible script you wrote earlier — it rotates the collectible and spawns a particle effect when it’s collected.

With these components already set up, the collectible should work properly as soon as you drag it into the scene.


1.  In the Project window, navigate to the _Unity Essentials > Sprites > Collectibles folder.

2.  Drag your desired sprite prefab into your scene in front of the player.

3.  Enter Play mode and get the collectible. 

You’ll notice that the collectible is destroyed and a VFX object spawns. 

Note:  If you’re interested, go to the Scripts > Provided Scripts folder, select the Collectible2D script, and scan through the code in the Inspector window. Note the key differences between this script and the Collectible script you wrote:

Instead of rotating the collectible along the Y-axis, it rotates it along the Z-axis to align with the 2D world's plane. 

Instead of the default OnTriggerEnter and Collider code, it uses OnTriggerEnter2D and Collider2D. These optimized 2D functions avoid 3D physics calculations, which aren't needed in a 2D context.

You now have everything you need to transform this scene from a simple 2D environment into an engaging experience that challenges players to explore and interact with the game world. 

You can strategically place collectibles throughout the room to guide player movement, encourage interaction with objects, and introduce puzzles or challenges. Draw inspiration from classic puzzle designs to create a fun and challenging gameplay experience.


1.  Select the collectible object you've already added to your scene. 

This will be your template for the others.

2.  Duplicate the collectible by pressing Ctrl+D (macOS: Cmd+D). 

Nothing will appear to happen, but a new duplicate object will appear in the Hierarchy window. 

3.  To ensure even spacing between collectibles, hold Ctrl (macOS: Cmd) while moving the duplicate. 

This action enables Unity's snapping feature, which helps to maintain consistent spacing.

4.  Continue duplicating the collectible and placing the copies throughout the room. 

Arrange them in a manner that encourages exploration and interaction, such as under furniture or along a path that requires maneuvering around obstacles. You can scatter them or line them up; they don't have to be perfect.

5.  Test your level by playing through it, ensuring that all collectibles are accessible.

Note:  Remember to save your scene. 

You probably noticed that your Hierarchy window is now more cluttered than ever, since it has pushable furniture, decorative rugs, and a whole bunch of new collectibles. Take a moment to clean up and organize your Hierarchy window. 


1.  Select all pushable furniture objects in the Hierarchy window using the Shift or Ctrl (macOS: Cmd) keys. Right-click one of the selected objects and select Create Empty Parent, then name it something like “Pushable Objects” for clarity.

2.  Since your rugs are distinct from the pushable furniture, create a new parent GameObject for them named something like “Static decorations” or “Rugs”.

3.  Select all your collectibles and create an empty parent GameObject for them named “Collectibles”. 

In this step, you’ll introduce a User Interface (UI) that displays the number of remaining collectibles in the scene. A UI is any set of on-screen elements, like buttons and menus, that allow players to interact with the game and receive information.

You'll be surprised how much this simple UI transforms your scene from an interactive environment to a more game-like experience. 

Since this is not a learning experience about creating UI’s, you'll use a provided prebuilt UI prefab, but there are lots of resources available for you to learn more about creating a UI in Unity if you’re interested!



1.  In the Project window, navigate to _Unity Essentials > Prefabs > UI.

2.  Drag the Remaining_Collectibles_UI prefab into the Hierarchy window. 

You won’t see anything change in the Scene view.

3.  Test your game to see how the UI tracks and updates the number of collectibles as you collect them, adding a layer of fun and engagement to the gameplay experience.

4.  If you’re interested, expand the Remaining_Collectibles_UI GameObject in the Hierarchy window to see how it’s set up. 

By selecting some of the objects, you may be able to figure out how to change the color, font, or position of the UI elements. Remember, you can always undo any unwanted changes with Ctrl+Z (macOS: Cmd+Z).

Tip:  You can preview any changes you make to the UI in the Game view. 

Note:  Remember to save your scene. 

Congratulations on completing your 2D scene! You created a fun, interactive, game-like experience. 

Here are some of the things you learned along the way:

Set the Order in Layer property to control how objects appear in a 2D scene.

Adjust Rigidbody properties, including mass and damping, to control how objects respond to physical forces.

Explain why scripts for 2D interactions use 2D functions.


Proceed to the next tutorial, where you’ll use the Sprite Editor to configure a 2D animated cat or dog.  

Complete your 2D Puzzle Game

1. Overview

2. Fill out the room

3. Add a rug on the correct layer

4. Make the furniture pushable

5. Increase the furniture’s drag

6. Increase the furniture’s mass

7. Add a collectible to the scene

8. Design a level full of collectibles

9. Clean up the Hierarchy window

10. Add the UI prefab

11. Review and proceed to the next tutorial

Complete this tutorial