All content in this course uses:

Bonus features 

In this tutorial, you’ll explore extra features you can add to take your game to the next level.

In this tutorial, you’ll find a collection of optional bonus features you can add to your project. This is not only an opportunity to improve and personalize your project, but it’s also a chance to challenge yourself and further develop your Unity skills. 

Below is the list of features in their approximate order of difficulty from least technically difficult to the most technically difficult. Each of these ideas is explained in more detail throughout the rest of the tutorial. Feel free to pick and choose which ones interest you!

Use NavMesh AI to create enemies’ paths

Add footsteps audio for the player character

You can find examples of these bonus features in the

 demo version of Haunted House on Unity Play.

Overview

You’ve been working with pre-made levels to speed up development, but now it’s time to make something that’s truly yours. Creating your own level allows you to personalize the experience and express your creativity as a designer.

To help you get started, we’ve provided a collection of modular rooms, similar to building in games like The Sims. These rooms are designed to snap together and be customized to fit your vision.

You’ll find pre-decorated modular rooms with themed props for each type room, such as the following:

We also included special prefabs for the 

, which are used in our provided levels. You can use these as anchors for your custom layout.

If you prefer to build from scratch, you’ll find a variety of 

 in different shapes and sizes. These are undecorated and give you full creative control over layout and design.

Each room is fully enclosed by walls, so to connect rooms, you’ll need to manually delete the walls between them. We recommend removing two walls from each room. You can delete more walls (for wider spaces), depending on your design goals.

To polish your room connections, we’ve also included corner-finishing pieces in the form of 

prefabs. These are perfect for adding visual continuity and structure at the open corners where walls were removed, which is especially useful when working with blank rooms or creating new connections between rooms.

Pre-decorated rooms come with predefined connection points: areas intentionally left open to simplify snapping and path flow. In most cases, you’ll only need to delete walls from the adjoining room, and you won’t need to add extra finishing poles.

While it might be tempting to place rooms randomly, this is a great opportunity to apply level design principles. Think about how the player will explore the space: where they start, how they progress, what paths they’ll follow, and whether there are optional rooms or dead ends to explore. If you’re curious to learn more about level design, we recommend you check out Unity's 

Don’t modify the existing scene. Instead, create a new blank scene for your level.

GameObject and name it “[YourChoice]Level”. This will act as the parent GameObject for all level elements.

Also, If you want more flexibility, look inside the 

 folder for empty rooms of different shapes and sizes.

3.  Build your layout using vertex snapping:

Drag the desired room prefabs into your scene.

To connect rooms, manually delete the walls where you want the path to be.

: Delete two walls from each room (four total) to create a path. However, if you want, you can delete more to create wider connections.

Select the GameObject you want to move, then select the 

Hover over the vertex you want to snap from, then drag it toward another mesh.

4.  Add finishing elements to room connections:

For custom paths (like between empty rooms), add visual polish to the corners using the 

Place these prefabs at the corners of newly created paths using vertex snapping to avoid abrupt wall endings and give your layout a clean, intentional look.

Add props and furniture to personalize rooms, even the pre-decorated ones:

 for props sorted by room type or as general-use items.

You can mix and match freely; use what fits your vision!

Add all elements as child GameObjects of the 

Create empty GameObjects for each room if you want to group elements by space.

Change the look of your rooms by applying materials:

Drag and drop the materials directly onto surfaces in your scene.

Once you're happy with your layout, click and drag the 

folder. This creates a reusable prefab of your entire level.

Finally, bring in all the gameplay systems from earlier tutorials:

Make sure everything is placed and configured properly in your new level.

Once you're done, you’ll have a fully functional haunted level that’s completely your own and designed with care, creativity, and intention.

Create your own level

In the previous tutorials you added a pre-configured post-processing profile to enhance the visual mood of your level. In this step, you'll create your own profile or customize a duplicate of the provided one to better match your artistic direction. 

 are a powerful way to control the visual tone of your game, whether you want it to feel eerie, cinematic, stylized, or surreal.

You have access to a variety of visual effects including the following:

Experimenting with different combinations can help establish the atmosphere and emotional tone of your environment. You can also refer to the documentation for 

 to add effects. Adjust each effect's settings to suit your desired look.

Duplicate and customize the existing profile:

If you'd prefer to use the existing profile as a starting point: 

). Rename the duplicate so it’s easy to identify.

 window to begin customizing it. You can fine-tune existing effects or add new ones.

Use your artistic judgment to strike the right balance; subtle changes can often have a powerful impact on mood and immersion.

Create your own Post-processing profile

, you learned how to create enemies that follow a fixed path using waypoints. While this is useful, you might want your enemies to feel less robotic and more dynamic.

 to let a ghost enemy wander randomly within a specific room. The 

 is an invisible plane baked over walkable areas, which allows GameObjects with a 

 component to move intelligently across it.

You’ll write a simple script that makes your ghost randomly pick a point within a certain radius, move there, wait for a short time, and then repeat the cycle. This creates a more complex and unpredictable movement pattern.

window, use the foldout (triangle) to expand the 

 GameObject and select the room where you want the ghost to patrol.

 property prevents the NavMesh from being baked over certain GamObjects. However, if your game requires the enemy to move over uneven or bumpy surfaces (like stairs or ramps), setting a low step height might restrict that behavior. In those cases, a better approach is to instead exclude specific GameObjects by adding the 

to them, which gives you direct control over which GameObjects should block navigation.

2.  Prepare your ghost for AI navigation:

script and replace the content with the following lines of code:

 component to control movement smoothness.

 component to control how far and how often the ghost changes direction.

5.   (Optional) Save your ghost as a prefab:

Use NavMesh AI to create enemies paths

You’ve already implemented diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. Now let’s take it a step further by adding a looping footstep sound for your character while it is walking to enhance the gameplay feel.

1.  Add a new Audio Source component to the Player GameObject:

 Although this is technically a diegetic sound, set the 

 (the default setting) to ensure the footstep volume remains consistent for the 

At the top of the class, declare a new variable:

 method, add the following line of code at the end:

The footsteps should now play when the player character walks and stop when the player character stops.

Your game already includes compelling mechanics and obstacles, but players currently have unlimited time to complete the level. Adding a timer introduces a sense of urgency and pressure, enhancing the overall challenge. 

In this step, you'll implement a simple timer that shows the player how long they’ve been playing the game.

This method is just one approach; we encourage you to explore other techniques if you want a different style of time-based gameplay.

1.  Create the Timer Label in the UI Builder window:

Use the foldout (triangle) to expand the 

At the top of the class, declare three new member variables:

 are a naming convention used to refer to variables that are declared directly within a class but outside of any methods. They belong to the GameObject and exist as long as the GameObject exists. In contrast, 

 are declared inside methods and only exist while the method is running.

 method, add the following lines of code at the beginning:

This basic setup will display the elapsed time on screen. You can expand it later to create a 

 to trigger the game ending when a time limit is reached.

Add a timer

Another fundamental part of almost any complete game is the 

, where players can enter the game, access credits, or view the controls. In this project, we’ve provided a simple main menu using a second scene that contains a 

If you're curious to explore how it was built, we encourage you to inspect the 

 and its elements. We also recommend checking out the 

 course for a deeper explanation of creating a main menu with 

GameObject. This GameObject is responsible for registering UI input, which works differently from in-game controls. 

 button will only work in a local build of your game, not in the Editor.


 button is clicked. If it is, it loads the next scene in the list. In Unity, you usually have different scenes representing levels or areas of your game (for example, a menu scene, a gameplay scene, or a battle scene). These scenes are organized in a specific order to create a natural flow.

view, it might be due to the aspect ratio. Up until now, you've been using 

 but the menu is designed for a specific resolution. To fix this:

Go to the top of the Game view, click on 

3.  Update the scene list and add your own scene:

Make sure your new scene appears after the 

 scene. If it doesn’t, drag it into the correct position.

This same flow will apply when you build your game and run it outside the Editor.

Create a main menu

Adding obstacles and puzzles is a great way to increase the depth and engagement of your game. A classic and simple technique is to include collectibles that interact with the environment, such as keys and locked doors.

In this step, we’ve implemented a basic key and door system to illustrate how GameObjects in your game can be connected through logic and player actions. Keep in mind, this is just one possible implementation; you’re encouraged to explore and create your own variations.

 GameObject has a string that serves as its unique name. When the player character collides with a key, the key’s name is added to a list of 

 GameObject is configured with a required key name. When the player character collides with a door, the door checks if the player character owns the corresponding key. If so, the door destroys itself to allow the player character passage.

This simple mechanic creates an opportunity for players to explore, collect, and unlock, laying the foundation for more advanced interactions in your game world.

prefab and its functionality. We’ve provided a key model for you to use, but feel free to use one you find online, or even create your own if you have 3D modeling experience! 

This setup allows the key to be collected by the player character, registered, and removed from the scene.

prefab. We’ve provided a door model for you to use, but feel free to use your own. Just make sure the 

This ensures the door only opens when the player has collected the required key. Now, when you add a Door and a Key prefabs into the scene, you can set their 

window. Just make sure that the Key and the Door you want to connect have matching Key Name values. 

If you want to take this a step further, you could even add 

 to show which keys are in the player’s inventory, and use color codes to indicate which key is linked to which door.

Add obstacles (keys and locked doors) 

If you followed all the steps, you’ve now created a unique and expanded version of your game. Congratulations!

In the next tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a web build of your game so you can easily share it with your friends and family.

Unity Version 6.0