Okay, so, today I wanted to mess around with Unity and see if I could get a little game going. The goal was simple: get a character moving around on the screen. I’ve never done this before, so it was all new to me.
Getting Started
First things first, I had to get Unity downloaded and installed. I hit up the Unity website and grabbed the latest version. The installation process was pretty straightforward. After it was all set up, I launched Unity Hub and created a new project. I went with a 3D project because, why not? It seemed more exciting.
Setting Up the Scene
Once the project was open, I started with a simple scene. Unity already had a sample scene open, but I wanted to start from scratch. I added a plane for the ground. Then, I threw in a cube and made it look a bit more like a character by stretching it out a bit. I changed the color so I could easily see my little guy against the background.
Adding Movement
Now, for the fun part – making the character move. I needed to write some code for this. I added a new C# script to my cube character. In the script, I started with the basic Update() function. This is where all the magic happens, every frame.
- I used *(“Horizontal”) to get the left and right arrow key inputs.
- I used *(“Vertical”) to get the up and down arrow key inputs.
Then, I created a Vector3 to represent the movement direction. I multiplied the inputs by a speed variable (which I just made up for now) and * to make the movement smooth across different frame rates.
Finally, I used to move my character according to this direction vector.
Testing It Out
I saved my script and went back to the Unity editor. I hit the play button and… it worked! My little cube character started moving around when I pressed the arrow keys. It felt pretty awesome to see something I coded actually do something on the screen.
Making It Better
Of course, it was super basic. The movement was a bit jerky, and the character could just move through anything. I played around with the speed variable to see what felt right. I also realized I needed to add a Rigidbody component to my character so it could interact with physics.
After adding the Rigidbody, I had to tweak my script a bit. Instead of using , I used to move the character. This made the movement much smoother and more realistic.
Final Touches
I spent some more time tweaking things, trying out different settings, and seeing what happened. I even added a few more cubes to act as obstacles. It was pretty cool to see my character bumping into them and reacting to the physics.
In the end, I had a very simple but functional little game where I could move my character around, avoid obstacles, and just explore the space. It’s not much, but for my first try, I was pretty happy with it. It’s amazing how a few lines of code and some basic shapes can come together to create something interactive and fun. I have added this project to my favorites.
I am going to keep playing with Unity and see what else I can come up with. It’s a whole new world, and I’m excited to dive deeper into it.
