Day 0: Downloading Unity
The essential tool you’ll be using all day!
If you want to develop games, it’s essential to download a so called “Game Engine”. We will be choosing Unity for this!
Wait! What even is a “Game Engine”?
Simply put, a game engine is a program doing all the hard work for you. It comes with integrated tools to help you out with graphics, UI, game scenes, animations, audio, AI, … to just name a few. While you, as the user, can generate things visually, the game engine is doing all the other work in the background to help you create your game.
Now then… How do I actually install Unity?
This step is pretty simple.
- Head over to the Unity Hub download site
- Accept the terms, click on “Download Unity Hub” and wait for the download to start
After the download has finished:
- Open up the “UnityHubSetup.exe” (or .dmg when you’re on a Mac)
- Read the terms (of course you’ll do that 😜) click on “I Agree”
- Choose your desired installation path and click on “Install”
- If you get an error message like me, saying that the Hub is already open, you can either click on “Ok” to continue the installation or “Cancel” to abort it.
- Wait for the installation to finish
The Unity Hub
Now that we have successfully installed and opened up the Unity Hub, we need to install a Unity version.
- On the side-menu, click on “Installs”
- Click on “ADD” at the bottom right
- Choose your desired Unity version and click on “NEXT”
TIP: It’s recommended that you use an LTS version (or the “Recommended version”) for projects that will take you some time. However, if you just want to test some things out or just want to create a quick prototype of i.e. a mechanic, you can choose the top entry in the “Official Release” section! - Choose the additional modules you want to install along the Editor. When you’ve finished, click on “DONE” and the installation will start.
TIP: It’s recommended to add at least one platform module (in my example, those are WebGL and Windows), so that you can build your project and test it outside the editor. - Wait for the installation to finish.
This can take up two some hours depending on your internet connection speed. You know it has finished when the blue bar at the top of the version number is gone.
Creating a new project
Now we’re (finally!) ready to create a new project and get started!
Here’s what you have to do:
- On the side-menu, click on “Projects”
- At the top right, click on “NEW”
- A new window will open.
On the left side, you can choose your project template. 3D and 2D are the most common ones. - Name your project, choose the creation path (or stick to the default one)
- Hit “CREATE” and wait until the Editor will open up.
This can take some time, depending on your hardware.
We’re ready to go!
The Unity Editor has opened up and you’re ready to go to start creating something now!
The next article will cover the general Interface about Unity, so you will understand the most commonly used windows within the editor and what they are used for.
