There are a lot of debates about which is the best game engine to use to develop your own game.
The answer is: it depends on what you plan to achieve and the scale of your game.
I chose Unity for many reasons, but more on that later.
Installing Unity
- Head to https://unity.com/ and click on Get Started.
2. Choose your plan.
I recommend using the Personal Free Plan.
When you’re ready, press “Get Started.”
However, if you are a student, I suggest getting the student plan. It is free to apply for, and you get a lot of free packs and assets with it. Proceed to sign up.
3.Select your Operating System.
Depending on your operating system, you should get an auto-detected download button. For me, it’s Windows. Alternatively, you could manually choose your operating system by clicking “Download Other Versions”.
By pressing download for Windows (in my case), it downloads the Unity Hub Setup.
Once it’s done downloading, run the executable and go through the setup.
If you want to go through the default paths, just press Next till the end and finish the setup.
If you want to specify the folder, it should be installed. You have that option as well.
The Unity Hub requirements as of the time of writing this article are:
OS:
Windows 7 SP1+, 8, 10, 64-bit versions only; Mac OS X 10.12+; Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04, and CentOS 7.
GPU:
Graphics card with DX10 (shader model 4.0) capabilities.
Bonus Tip: You could also scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “Download Archive”.
The Unity download archive allows users to select the specific version of Unity with the preferred individual components.
4.Signing In and Activating Licences
Locate the Unity Hub shortcut or program and run it.
You should get a similar screen.
Make sure you first log in using your preferred method.
You also need to activate the license that you’ll be using.
If it is the free plan, just select “free” and proceed.
For those using the student plan:
If it’s the student plan and your application was successful, you need to go to the Unity dashboard to activate it.
Sign in and assign a set.
You will then receive an email. From there, you can enter the code to activate your license.
5.Install the Unity Version and Components.
Click on the “Installs” section and press “Install Editor.”
You can select your preferred version.
Thanks to CodeMonkey for the easy explanation.
https://www.youtube.com/c/CodeMonkeyUnity
The LTS (Long Term Support) is the recommended version as it will be supported for a long time. It is for users who want the most stable version, and the packages have been fully tested and released. This ensures that new features have a low chance of breaking your game.
The prereleases can be divided into two sections:
The Beta has the latest experimental features being tested and is the least stable. This is for users who want to try out or wish to apply the new features.
Alpha is the version that has the newer packs that are a bit more stable but are still in the testing phase.
Select the modules.
Microsoft Visual Studio is a coding and debugging editor.
The platforms that you plan to ship your game to.
Build Support for Android
The Android SDK and NDK tools will be installed.
The OpenJDK will also be part of this package.
Other platforms include
Build Support for iOS
TVOS Build Assistance
Build Support for Linux
Build Mac OS X Support
Build Support for the Universal Windows Platform
Build Support for WebGL
The documentation and language packs are also optional.
Some of these components need you to review and accept the license terms before downloading and installing them.
Press “continue” to begin downloads.
6.Opening the Unity Editor.
Once the editor and components have been installed, the editor version and the platforms that you plan to ship will be displayed.
For me, it’s 2020.3.31f1 LTS
The platforms I have installed are Android , WebGL and Windows.
To open the editor, you need to head back to the projects tab and either create a new project or open an existing or downloaded project, which should be an entire folder with the project files.
There are many templates to choose from.
2D (Core)
This is an empty project configured for 2D apps. It uses Unity’s built-in renderer.
3D (Core)
This is an empty 3D project that uses Unity’s built-in renderer.
A 3D Sample Scene (HDRP)
This template utilizes the High Definition Render Pipeline. It’s a good place to start for people interested in high-end graphics who want to create games for platforms that support Shader Model 5.0 (DX11 and above).Beyond being tuned for high-end visuals, this project includes:
Shadergraph
Visual Effect Graphs
Presets
Example content
(URP) 3D Sample Scene
The Universal Render Pipeline Template configures project settings for projects where performance, wide platform support, and ease of customizing graphics are the primary considerations. This template uses the Universal Render Pipeline (URP) and Shader Graph. URP is a prebuilt Scriptable Render Pipeline that is quick and easy to customize and lets you create optimized graphics across a wide range of platforms. URP also includes an optimized 2D renderer complete with 2D lights and pixel-perfect rendering and an integrated post-processing solution. Shader Graph is a tool that allows you to create shaders using a visual node editor instead of writing code. This template contains a sample scene that contains examples of how to configure lighting settings, materials, shaders, and post-processing effects in URP; several preconfigured Universal Render Pipeline Assets that let you quickly swap between graphics quality levels; and presets that have been optimized for use with URP.
VR (Core)
Quickstart your Virtual Reality (VR) applications with a sample scene, assets, and the recommended packages and settings.
AR (Core)
Quickstart your Augmented Reality (AR) applications with a sample scene, assets, and the recommended packages and settings.
Third person (core)
A preconfigured character controller for projects with a third-person perspective.
First Person (Core)
A preconfigured character controller for projects with a first-person perspective.
(Core) 3D mobile
Are you working in 3D?This template includes recommended packages and settings for 3D mobile development.
(Core) 2D mobile
Preloaded with recommended packages and settings for 2D mobile development.
There is an autoshowroom sample.
There are small microgames made by Unity to help in learning.
By the time of writing this article,
There are
Lego® Microgame
Customize this LEGO-themed game while learning the basics of the Unity Editor. It’s fun for LEGO fans of all levels!
Microgame 2D platformer
Customize this 2D platformer game while learning the basics of the Unity Editor. preloaded with scenes, scripts, tutorials, and more.
Karting Microgame
Customize this kart racing game while learning the basics of the Unity Editor. preloaded with scenes, scripts, tutorials, and more.
fps Microgame
Customize this first-person shooter game while learning the basics of the Unity Editor. preloaded with scenes, scripts, tutorials, and more.
Once you select your preferred template,
Enter the project name and create the project.
Yaay, we’re all setup!
