Unity Game Engine Guide: How to Get Started with the Most Popular Game Engine Out There

Unity is far and away the most widely used game development platform in the world. According to the company, over half of all new mobile games are made with Unity, and it powers over 60% of all augmented reality and virtual reality experiences. Unity has made game development more accessible than ever, enabling indie developers and large studios alike to create high quality 2D and 3D games that can reach massive audiences on pretty much any device.

So what exactly is Unity, and why has it become the go-to game engine for so many developers? In this in-depth guide, we‘ll dive into everything you need to know to get started with Unity, including its key features, supported platforms, programming languages, content creation tools, and more. Whether you‘re a complete beginner looking to make your first game or an experienced programmer considering Unity for your next project, this guide will give you a comprehensive overview of the engine and the resources you need to succeed. Let‘s get started!

What is Unity?

At its core, Unity is a cross-platform game engine and integrated development environment (IDE) for creating interactive 2D and 3D content. It provides a comprehensive set of tools and features for graphics rendering, physics simulation, scripting, asset management, audio, animation, and more – essentially everything you need to make a complete game from start to finish.

First launched in 2005 as a Mac-exclusive engine, Unity has rapidly evolved and expanded over the years to become a truly platform-agnostic powerhouse. Today, Unity supports 25+ platforms across mobile, desktop, console, VR/AR, and the web, enabling developers to build their game once and deploy it seamlessly to a huge range of devices.

Some of Unity‘s notable features include:

• A powerful and flexible graphics engine with support for the latest industry-standard rendering techniques and pipelines, including physically-based rendering (PBR), high dynamic range (HDR) lighting, global illumination, and more. Unity offers both forward and deferred rendering paths to balance visual fidelity and performance.

• An optimized, data-oriented physics engine (DOTS Physics) that can simulate complex rigid bodies, joints, raycasts, and collisions with high performance on any device. This allows for realistic and immersive physical interactions in games.

• A complete JavaScript-like scripting language called UnityScript, which was deprecated in 2017 in favor of the industry-standard C#. Using C#, developers can define the behavior and game logic for all their game entities and systems.

• A drag-and-drop, WYSIWYG editor that allows designers to build game worlds and levels visually, while also providing a full suite of windows and inspectors for digging into the details of each game object and component. This makes Unity accessible to both programmers and non-programmers alike.

• An intuitive animation system that brings characters and objects to life with keyframing, blending, state machines, inverse kinematics, and more. Unity supports both pre-rendered and real-time cutscene creation.

• Built-in systems for audio mixing, video playback, particle effects, pathfinding and navigation, multiplayer networking, and user interface design, plus extensibility via plugins and framework packages.

From these raw ingredients, Unity developers can create pretty much any kind of 2D or 3D game imaginable – from platformers, shooters, and racing games to RPGs, strategy games, visual novels, and beyond. The only real limit is your imagination and experience level with the engine.

Why Unity?

So why choose Unity for your next game project over other popular engines like Unreal, CryEngine, Godot, or in-house solutions? There are a number of reasons why Unity has become the default choice for so many game developers around the world.

First and foremost, Unity is incredibly versatile and cross-platform. With support for over 25 different build targets, you can develop your game in Unity once and easily port it to PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Windows Mixed Reality, Apple ARKit, Google ARCore, and more. This write-once, deploy-anywhere approach can save enormous amounts of time and effort compared to developing separate native versions for each platform.

Performance is also a key consideration. Unity is highly optimized to provide the best possible framerate and graphical fidelity on each platform it supports, with a particular emphasis on mobile devices. Features like static and dynamic batching, occlusion culling, and the new Entity Component System (ECS) and Burst Compiler allow developers to create games that run efficiently even on older or lower-powered hardware. Plus, Unity‘s modular build pipeline makes it easy to optimize your game for different specs.

Another major draw of Unity is its massive Asset Store. The Asset Store is a marketplace where developers can buy and sell all sorts of pre-made content for their games, including 3D models, textures, audio, particle systems, user interface kits, script packages, and even entire project templates. Using assets from the store can dramatically speed up development and allow small teams to punch above their weight in terms of production value.

As of 2021, the Unity Asset Store offered over 65,000 assets and had served over 5 million registered users. According to Unity‘s own data, 60% of all mobile games made with Unity include assets from the Asset Store, and developers who use the Asset Store are able to complete their projects an average of 3 months faster.

The Asset Store also provides a platform for developers to monetize their own content by becoming asset publishers. Many successful publishers have been able to turn their Unity tools and content into full-time careers.

Additionally, Unity has put a huge emphasis on democratizing game development and enabling anyone to become a creator. This starts with its accessible pricing – Unity is completely free for individual developers and small studios until they reach $100,000 in annual revenue or funding. Paid Unity Pro licenses are also very competitively priced compared to other professional game engines.

But Unity‘s commitment to accessibility goes beyond just pricing. The engine itself is designed to have a shallow learning curve, with a gentle onboarding process and an interface that will feel familiar to artists and designers as well as programmers. There‘s a huge wealth of official and community-created learning resources available, including step-by-step tutorials, sample projects, documentation, live training, and certification programs.

With such a large and active community, it‘s easy to get help with any Unity development challenge. Entire industries have sprung up around Unity consulting, tools, assets, and support. Whatever you‘re trying to make with Unity, chances are someone has done it before and can show you the way.

This combination of versatility, performance, community, and accessibility have made Unity the go-to choice for mobile and indie developers in particular. According to Unity‘s own survey, 61% of developers choose Unity as their engine for mobile platforms. And in 2019, Unity games accounted for 71% of the top 1000 free mobile games.

How to Get Started

If you‘re brand new to Unity, the best way to get started is by downloading the engine and jumping into some of the official tutorials. You can get Unity for free from the Unity website, which provides a Hub to manage your engine installations and projects. The Unity Hub will prompt you to install the latest stable version of the editor, or you can choose a specific version to install.

Once you have the Unity editor installed, launch it and create a new project. You‘ll be prompted to choose from a selection of templates for different types of projects, like 2D, 3D, VR, mobile, etc. The templates provide a starting point with pre-configured settings, assets, and scenes that fit those project types. For your very first project, you may want to start with a blank template just to see the bare bones of a Unity project.

The editor will then create your new project and open the main Unity interface. This can be overwhelming at first glance, as there are a lot of different windows and tabs to take in. But the main ones you need to know are:

• The Scene View, where you‘ll construct your game levels and environments by placing and manipulating GameObjects directly in 3D space
• The Game View, which shows a live preview of your game from the Main Camera‘s perspective, exactly as it will appear in a build
• The Hierarchy window, which lists all the GameObjects in the current scene in a tree structure, allowing you to select and rearrange them
• The Project window, which is an asset browser for your game project where you can create folders and organize your content
• The Inspector window, which lets you view and edit the properties and components attached to each GameObject

With these windows, the basic Unity workflow goes like this:

1. Create a new scene or open an existing one
2. Add GameObjects to the scene to represent characters, props, cameras, etc.
3. Position, rotate, and scale the GameObjects in the Scene View to build your level
4. Use the Inspector to add Components to each GameObject, like mesh renderers, colliders, scripts, etc. to define their appearance and behavior
5. Create or import assets like 3D models, textures, audio, and scripts into your project
6. Attach your scripts to the appropriate GameObjects to bring them to life with game logic and interactivity
7. Press Play in the Game View to run your game directly in the editor and test how it works
8. Make changes and iterate in Play Mode until you‘re happy with the results
9. Save your scene and create a build of your game to an executable for your target platforms

Of course, this is just scratching the surface of what‘s possible in Unity. To really get comfortable with the engine, you‘ll want to dig into some of the official tutorials and sample projects on the Unity Learn platform. These guided experiences will walk you through the key concepts and components of Unity development in a hands-on way, with projects you can complete at your own pace.

Some great beginner tutorials to check out are:

• The Unity Essentials Pathway, which covers the basics of the Unity interface, asset workflow, physics, lighting, and publishing
• The Junior Programmer Pathway, which introduces coding fundamentals and component-based game design in Unity using C#
• The 2D Game Kit, which provides a complete, commented collection of scripts, tools, and assets for building a sample 2D platformer game
• The 3D Game Kit, a similar package for creating a simple 3D action RPG with a player character, enemies, abilities, and an environment to explore

Tips for Successful Unity Development

As you gain more experience and confidence with Unity, you‘ll start to develop your own workflow and best practices. But here are a few tips to keep in mind as you get started:

Plan before you build. Like any software project, it‘s important to have a clear vision and design plan for your game before you start throwing things together in Unity. Spend time upfront thinking about your game‘s mechanics, levels, art style, and technical requirements. Create concept art, wireframes, and design docs to guide your production. A little planning and pre-production can save you a ton of time and headaches down the line.

Use version control. Unity projects can get complicated fast, with dozens or hundreds of scenes, prefabs, assets, and scripts. To avoid losing work or overwriting changes, it‘s essential to use a version control system like Git or Perforce. Unity has built-in support for version control, allowing you to manage your project history, create branches, and collaborate with other developers.

Keep your project organized. On a similar note, it‘s important to keep your Unity project files and folders organized and named consistently. Develop a clear folder structure and naming convention early on, and stick to it throughout the project. This will make it much easier to find and manage your assets as your project grows in complexity.

Write clean, modular code. Unity is a component-based engine, which means that game objects are composed of reusable, modular scripts and behaviors. Take advantage of this architecture by writing clean, single-responsibility scripts that do one thing well. Avoid monolithic "god scripts" that try to do too much. Keep your code loosely coupled and use interfaces and abstract classes to define clear contracts between systems.

Optimize as you go. Performance is critical for Unity games, especially on mobile devices. To avoid a massive optimization push at the end of your project, it‘s a good idea to optimize proactively as you go. Use the Unity Profiler often to measure your game‘s CPU and GPU usage, memory allocations, and other metrics. Look for opportunities to reduce draw calls, limit physics calculations, and pool objects to avoid garbage collection. The earlier you can identify and fix performance issues, the better.

Test early and often. Don‘t wait until your game is "done" to start testing it. Test your game in the Unity editor using Play Mode as you add new features and content. Create automated tests for your critical systems and run them regularly. And most importantly, get your game in front of real players and gather feedback early. Playtesting is the best way to validate your design assumptions, catch bugs, and improve the user experience.

Leverage the Asset Store (wisely). The Unity Asset Store is an incredible resource that can save you tons of time and effort. But it‘s important to use it wisely and not become overly dependent on third-party content. When evaluating an asset for your project, consider its quality, performance, compatibility, and maintainability. Make sure you understand how the asset works under the hood, and don‘t be afraid to modify or extend it as needed. And of course, be mindful of asset licensing and give credit where it‘s due.

Know when to go native. For all its cross-platform power, there are still times when it makes sense to write platform-specific native code for your Unity game. This is especially true when you need low-level access to device hardware or OS features that Unity doesn‘t expose directly. Unity makes it easy to write native plugins in C, Objective-C, or Java and call them from your C# scripts. Just be sure to wrap your native code in a platform-independent interface to keep your game logic clean and portable.

Keep learning and experimenting. The world of Unity development is always evolving, with new features, best practices, and community-created tools emerging all the time. To stay on the cutting edge, make a habit of reading Unity blogs and forums, watching tutorial videos, and participating in game jams and hackathons. Don‘t be afraid to experiment with new techniques and technologies, and always be learning from other developers. The more you push yourself to grow and try new things, the better Unity developer you‘ll become.

Conclusion

Unity is an incredibly powerful and versatile game engine that has made game development more accessible and enjoyable than ever before. Whether you‘re an indie developer working on a passion project or a AAA studio building the next big blockbuster, Unity provides everything you need to bring your vision to life and reach players on virtually any platform.

To excel in Unity development and stand out in a crowded field, it‘s important to have a strong foundation in programming concepts, game design principles, and the Unity ecosystem. But perhaps more importantly, you need curiosity, creativity, and a willingness to tackle challenges and learn from mistakes.

Making games is hard work, but it‘s also one of the most fulfilling and rewarding forms of creative expression. With Unity, you have the tools and the community support to make your dream games a reality. So what are you waiting for? Fire up the Unity editor and start bringing your ideas to life. Happy game-making!