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

Mission 1 Quiz

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

Unity Essentials Pathway

Unity Essentials Project: SQ Portfolio

Bro, where's ma ufo?

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

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

Set up a 2D room

Complete your 2D Puzzle Game

Add an animated pet

2D Essentials: More things to try

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

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

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Pathway overview

Want to try the in-Editor version of the Pathway?

What are the Unity Hub and Unity Editor?

System requirements

Your Unity plan

Your Unity account and organization

Don’t have Unity yet? Install it for the first time

Next steps

Create and manage Unity versions and projects in the Hub.

Creating and Managing Unity projects

NealEdu

Product Manager at Unity

Essentials_Pathway_M0_Intro.mp4

Launch the Unity Editor from the Unity Hub.

Evaluate the computer against Unity’s minimum system requirements.

Locate and download the Unity setup wizard from the Unity website.

Identify and select the appropriate Unity plan.

Install the Unity Hub and the latest LTS version of Unity using the provided wizards.

1.1 Evaluate the computer against Unity’s minimum system requirements.

1.2 Locate and download the Unity setup wizard from the Unity website.

1.3 Identify and select the appropriate Unity plan.

1.4 Install the Unity Hub and the latest LTS version of Unity using the provided wizards.

1.5 Create a Unity ID.

1.6 Launch the Unity Editor from the Unity Hub.

Install the Unity Editor for the first time

Mission 1 - Editor Essentials

The video below provides an overview of what you can expect to learn and accomplish throughout the Unity Essentials pathway. 

You’re currently in the default Unity Learn version of the Essentials Pathway. In this version, you’ll follow instructions on the Unity Learn website (the site you’re on now), then switch over to the Unity Editor to complete the steps. 

However, we’ve recently launched a new experimental in-Editor version of the Pathway, which is also compatible with the latest version of the Unity Editor: Unity 6. In the in-Editor version, instead of following instructions on Unity Learn, you’ll follow instructions within the Unity Editor, as shown in the image below. 

 In this in-Editor format, you can both learn and work inside the Unity Editor rather than switching back and forth between a browser and the Editor. If you’d like to try this experimental version of Unity Essentials, you can switch over to the in-Editor version of the Pathway now.

If you’d rather proceed with the default Unity Learn version of the Pathway, continue on to the next step!

Unity Editor with the Tutorials window highlighted.

To work with Unity, you'll start with the Unity Hub. The Unity Hub is a standalone application that streamlines the way you navigate, download, and manage your Unity projects and installations.

From the Hub, you'll download and manage various versions of the Unity Editor. The Unity Editor is the application where you'll build 3D or 2D worlds and create your interactive applications.

Make sure the computer you're using meets the minimum hardware requirements to run Unity. Generally, if you have a PC running Windows or a Mac running macOS that was purchased in the last few years, your computer is probably ready for Unity. Unity also runs on Linux.

Unity will not run on a Chromebook or tablet.

For details about the latest verified system requirements, refer to the System Requirements page in the Unity Manual. 

Note:  While you can use Unity to build applications that run on many platforms, the Unity Editor requires Windows, macOS, or Linux.

If you'll use Unity as an individual, you'll be enrolled in a Unity Personal plan by default. Unity Personal is Unity's standard free plan. Individuals, hobbyists, and small businesses using Unity to provide services to others are eligible to use Unity Personal if their respective clients, in the aggregate, have less than $200K of revenue or funds raised in the prior 12 months.


Important options for students and educators

If you are a student, enroll in the Unity Student plan and qualify for discounts and free resources.

If you are an educator and need a license for your own use, get the Unity Educator plan.

If you're an educator that needs a batch of licenses for your classroom or lab, apply for the Education Grant License to manage multiple Unity installations on school-issued computers or servers, and protect data privacy. 

For information on all Unity plans, including Unity Pro, Unity Enterprise, and Unity Industry, consult the Plans and Pricing page on the Unity website.

When you first run the Unity Hub, you'll be prompted to log in or create a Unity account.

You can use your Unity account to access other services, including:

If you use Unity as an individual, then when you create a Unity account, you will be automatically assigned an organization that has the same name as your username and consists only of yourself. 

Later, use this default organization to purchase plan subscriptions, such as Muse (Unity's generative AI) or Unity Cloud services for your personal use only. 

In this case, be ready to specify a username and password to create your Unity account.


If you use Unity at work, then you'll be associated with their Unity organization. They can then assign you access rights to particular features and subscriptions, such as Muse (Unity's generative AI) or Unity Cloud services.

In this case, get your Unity login credentials from your employer.

If you already have Unity Hub installed on your computer, skip to the next step to Install the recommended version of the Unity Editor. 

If you don’t have Unity installed on your computer yet, use the instructions below to download Unity Hub and install the Unity Editor:


2.  Under 1. Download the Unity Hub, select the option for your operating system. A file will download named UnityHubSetup. This file name might vary depending on the Hub version and your operating system. 

3. Locate and launch the UnityHubSetup file you downloaded previously.

4. Follow your platform instructions to install the Unity Hub.

If you haven't already set up your Unity account, you'll be prompted to do so during this process.

Once you're in the Unity Hub, it will guide you to install the latest long-term support (LTS) version of the Unity Editor. Each LTS version is our most recent, fully-tested version.

5.  Select Install Unity Editor to download and install the latest LTS version of the Unity Editor. 

Note:  The Unity Editor is a large and powerful application! The download and installation process will take some time.

When the process is complete, this version of the Unity Editor will appear on the Installs tab of the Unity Hub.

Unity download page, including options to download the Unity Hub for various operating systems

You're probably eager to try out the Unity Editor! To get started, proceed to the next tutorial in Unity Essentials. 

Unity Essentials: Install Unity

1. Pathway overview

2. Want to try the in-Editor version of the Pathway?

3. What are the Unity Hub and Unity Editor?

4. System requirements

5. Your Unity plan

6. Your Unity account and organization

7. Don’t have Unity yet? Install it for the first time

8. Next steps

Complete this tutorial