Game Development Using Unity 3D For Beginners

Since its initial release in 2005, Unity Game Development has become the gold standard for 3D and 2D games. It is the best in the business right now for 27 different deployment targets, such as Windows, Mac OS X, and the different versions of Android, Google’s mobile operating system.

What Is Unity?

To make games and simulations that can run on multiple platforms, many users turn to  Unity Game Development Company,  which has a graphical user interface. Unity’s main goal is to let developers make interactive content that works well in both 3D and 2D game development. It includes a full set of tools for making video games of all shapes and sizes. High-quality visuals, audio, and tools for creating your levels are all part of this.

That’s why we call Unity a “complete game development package,” which includes everything programmers need to create games without relying on other programs.

Why Is Unity So Popular?

Unity has always positioned itself ahead of the curve as a platform and game engine. Among its many selling points, this is a major one. It not only helps make mobile games, but it also helps add augmented reality and virtual reality features.

The following are some of the distinguishing characteristics that contribute to its widespread appeal:

• The entry-level price of Unity is very low, and anyone can download and try it out with the free version. Plus, affordable monthly plans are perfect for seasoned developers who need a few extra bells and whistles.

• Unity is user-friendly for those without coding experience, reducing the reliance on external code. It is possible to create a game from scratch without writing a single code line.

• Unity’s supportive community means programmers can always ask for and receive assistance when needed.

• Unity has a huge library of high-quality visual effects and a lot of ways to customize them. It also focuses on smooth animations and realistic lighting, which makes it easy to make games that feel natural and easy to play.

Unity For Beginners — Your First Project

Downloading Unity is the first step in getting started with it. Here’s where you can get Unity without spending a dime. Complete your download and run the installer, and follow the steo on-screen to set up your new software.

After installing and running Unity for the first time, you will be prompted to make a Unity ID. To start making games in Unity, pick a simple “Microgame.” Choose the Empty project type to start fresh with no templates or restrictions.

Now, let’s look at some of Unity’s most important features and the different ways you can use them.

1. Editor Window

When you first launch Unity, you’ll see this window called the Editor Window. The following are the chapters included:

• Scene GameObjects can be nested and organized using the scene’s hierarchy.
• To facilitate the placement and relocation of various GameObjects, Scene View has been designed.
• A scene’s GameObjects can display their full, granular details in the Inspector.
• Preview the game from the perspective of the Player with the “Game View.”
• Assets / Project: A repository for various data and components used in a development or production process.

2. Elements of Unity 3D

In Unity, game play is made up of a bunch of pre-made parts that all use the same APIs.

• Assets are the Unity equivalent of any external file (sound, image, or texture). Materials can be anything from animation files, and surface renders to audio editors and mixers.
• Project — A folder that contains all of the files and assets for the current Project.
• Packages are groups of game assets that have already been compiled and integrated into Unity.
• The term “GameObject” is used to describe any conceivable in-game objects. They stand in for more substantial parts like “Transform,” “Light,” and “Script.”
• A game’s components are its fundamental building blocks, comprising the information about each playable object and the actions it can perform.
• To create a level, GameObjects must be placed on a Scene. After some separate classes have been made, they are combined and interconnected to form larger gameplay segments.
• To reuse a portion of a GameObject across multiple scenes, you can make an “Instance” of the Prefab and place it there.
• A build is a copy of the game exported to be played back in its entirety.

3. Built-in Components

In the Actor Component model used by Unity, GameObjects play the role of actors while Components serve as scripts. So, what does this entail? Simply placing a GameObject into a game will not make it work. That functionality can be added with the help of Components written in C# or JavaScript. Some of Unity’s most essential premade features are:

• Materializing a 3D Mesh is what MeshRender does.
• Light: Illuminates a scene or parts of it.
• [Case | Net] Collider: Used during collisions to enable detection of GameObjects.
• The Player’s camera can be linked to any GameObject.
• Materialize a 3D mesh as a GameObject using the MeshFilter.
• When applied to GameObjects with a 3D Mesh, the Rigidbody component causes them to react according to the game’s accurate physics model.
• Several graphical user interface Canvas Elements are available.

4. Adding and Managing Assets

Using a picture as a player is a great way to learn about assets and how they can be integrated into the initial Project we made. Here are the simple steps to take:

• To import the picture into Unity, drop it in the Assets folder.
• Drop this file into the Scenes folder to incorporate it into the active scene.
• You should now see the object’s “Transform” properties in the right-hand panel. Here, you can experiment by changing its Size, Rotation, and Position.
• After that, you can see the image in action by pressing the game’s Play button.

It’s easy to add new types of objects to your Project in a consistent fashion and rearrange them as your work progresses.

5. Engine Physics Components

The physics engine used in a game determines how the world and its inhabitants behave. Physics, at its most fundamental, is used to establish the location of things and to move them by applying forces.

Let’s examine 2D Physics to get our feet wet.

Here, we have the x and y axes to consider.

Vector2 and Vector3 are scripting classes in Unity that can be used to store numerical information. Given that a Vector2 can store two values, that’s what we’ll primarily be working with. Rather than define the ball’s position as the sum of its x and y coordinates, as is currently the case in the code, we will use a single Vector2 variable to store the value of both coordinates. This is how the code might look:

The ball’s current position is used to create a new location in the form of a Vector2.

In the first line, we have declared an instance of the Vector2 class. On line 2, we tell the location vector where the player ball is by assigning it the ball position values. We must figure out how these codes could be implemented in a game.

6. How to Add C# Script

To define the behavior of the game’s objects and their interactions, programmers use C# scripts.

Here are the Unity Script creation steps:

• Select the Assets panel and right-click. Select C# Script under the Create menu.
• A brand new file, NewBehaviorScript, has been added to Assets.
• You’re free to give the script a new name. For instance, when defining an object’s location, the script could be titled “Position” (for easy retrieval). Let’s call this thing we’re about to limit Movement since it describes how our player ball moves.

By opening the Script file (in any text editor), you can see two predefined methods in the MonoBehavior class.

• After a GameObject has been created and activated, the script will execute the Start() method. As shown in the following example, it is used to configure the initial state of GameObjects like a gun’s ammunition. Open intel slugs;

• Function Update(): All of the game’s action, such as adding forces, detecting user input, spawning, etc., happens in this method, which is called once per frame.

All other classes in Unity derive their functionality from MonoBehavior. It has a number of parameters and functions that programmers can use in their code.

7. Rigidbodies

When an object in Unity has the Rigidbody property, it responds to forces and accelerations in accordance with the laws of physics. For this purpose, you can use Rigidbody2D with XY interaction.

Here are the measures to take to incorporate a Rigidbody into the illustrative Project:

• Select AddComponent in the GameObject inspector.

• To insert a RigidBody2D component, head to Physics 2D -> RigidBody2D.

• The ball will disappear from the scene as soon as you click on it. This is due to the Rigidbody class’s Gravity Scale attribute. If you set it to 0, the problem will go away.

This allows you to specify the mass and free-fall momentum of various game objects in relation to gravity.

8. Movement of Game Objects

The Player can control the rigid body’s Movement with the arrow keys. Using the Movement script we made, this is very simple to accomplish. Now, we can edit the script to include the following lines of code under the Start() and Update() methods:

To explain what happens in the code, consider:

• ballBody If you want to give the Rigidbody represented by ballBody some speed, you can do so with the velocity = operator.
• Input parameters along the x and y axes define the velocity of the Rigidbody, which Vector2 represents.
• Input The Player’s horizontal and vertical movement inputs are processed using Input.GetAxisRaw(“Horizontal” and Input.GetAxisRaw(“Vertical”), respectively (up, right, down, left).
• The speed which an object moves in a given direction is defined by its rate.

We’ll put this “Movement” script in our files before opening Unity to apply it to an existing asset. Simply move it to where you want it to go and drop it there.

9. Accepting User Inputs

Any component’s Update() function can be modified to provide finer-grained control over how a gameObject responds to the user’s actions, as shown in the examples below.

Conclusion

We hope you found it helpful and feel more confident using Unity now that you know the fundamentals.

When making your Game Development Using Unity 3D, remember that it could take a while before you feel comfortable using all of its features. Finally, developing games in Unity is a full-time job that requires a significant investment of time and energy. In the face of a code wall, nothing is more helpful than breaking your game down into small components and attainable milestones.