All content in this course uses:

Introduction to variables

Learn what a variable is and why it is useful

Identify the value assigned to a variable

Practice reading instructions in a script

When you’ve finished, you’ll be ready to create your own variable.


In this tutorial, you’ll identify specific instructions in the 

You won’t be able to understand everything in the script straight away.

It may take you a little time to find information in the file.


This is completely normal. In this Creator Kit, you’ll learn how to approach an unfamiliar script and identify key elements, rather than how to understand everything in game-specific scripts.

Working with the Creator Kit: Beginner Code scripts 

This is the base building block of programming: an

. An instruction is a single task you give to the computer.

). This tells the compiler that the instruction is finished and the computer should now complete it. Compilers don’t care about the ends of lines — a semicolon is what signifies the end of an instruction for them. However, humans also need to be able to read C# code too; to improve readability, it’s good practice to put each instruction on a separate line.

Before you progress to the next step, consider: 

What could this instruction be telling the computer to do?

Find an instruction in the script

is a container that stores a value. You can think of it like a trunk with a name written on it, where you can store information you want to retrieve later. As its name suggests, the information stored in the variable can change (or vary).

Before you can use a variable, you need to 

 it by stating its name and type. You can also assign it an initial value. 

In the image below, a variable (trunk) called 

There are two things you need to identify when 

 of information that will be stored, which tells the computer how much space to save in its memory to store the information. All variables need a type.

This is an 

 variable. These variables store integers

 of the variable, which you will use every time you want the computer to retrieve the variable’s value.

The name of this variable is 

Identify the type and name of the variable

 a value to a variable using the equals sign (

). This means that you copy the value to the right of the equals sign into the variable on its left.

 tells the computer to store the integer value 

 in your code, the computer will substitute the integer value.

 Identify the value assigned to the variable

In the SpawnerSample script, find the next 

 is assigned a different value.

In each line, what is different from the first time the variable was assigned a value?

Identify where the variable is assigned a new value

The angle variable is assigned different values on lines 

Unlike the first time a value was assigned to 

, its type is not included. This is because the computer already knows that the variable exists and how much memory space it needs. 

Since instructions in a script are sequential (completed one at a time), the changed value for the variable will only be used in instructions 

 it has been assigned.

In the image below, the example variable 

Review the two instructions 

That variables are containers for values in code

That one variable can have different assigned values within the same script, because the computer executes instructions sequentially

In the next tutorial, you’ll apply your learning and write an instruction to declare and assign a new variable.

Unity Version 2022.3