"I imagine a day where you won't be able to tell a game from a movie, with great A.I. animation and photoreal, interactive environments, etc."

Mark Walton - Storyboard artist and writer at Disney

Setting Up Unity

In this part of the course, we will create the base for a simple 2D platforming game with Unity. Nothing complex - it's simply an introduction. Afterward, we will make a build where the character can move and jump. Once we have a working build of that game, we'll use it for a later task.

Downloading Unity Hub

The personal and student plans are free to use.

First things first, we're going to need the Unity Hub that can be used to install the game engine itself and many other tools with it. Start by heading online to the Unity Store website. The personal license for Unity is completely free and perfectly suited for starting developers. Each license has its own limitations with which you should familiarize yourself.

Now, simply click the "Start here" option, and a new window will open. After you accept the terms, Unity Hub will automatically start downloading. Alternatively, you can go to the downloads page and get the Hub directly from there.

Are you a first-timer or a returning veteran?

Creating a Unity ID

One thing we'll be needing for many of the Hub features is the Unity ID. It is essentially your account, and creating one before doing anything else will save you time later on. Click on the profile picture on the top-right corner of the Hub window. After that, choose the sign-in option.

Unity ID is like a user account.

Here you can fill in your details and create a new ID. When you've clicked "Create a Unity ID", you'll need to check your email for a confirmation code.

Alternatively, you can also sign in with your Google or Facebook account.

Create an ID for using Unity.

License Activation

In order to gain access to all the Hub options, you need to activate your license on the system. This isn't a difficult process, but it does have some steps to it. Start by clicking "Manual activation" in this window. Without a license the program won’t work.

Here we need to save the license request. Simply save the file to your system, there is no need to edit it in any way Afterwards, click the link that is shown in the image below. Make sure to save your license request by clicking the link.

The following page will ask you to sign in (if you haven't created a Unity ID yet, you should do so now). After signing in, choose the license request you made previously. You’ll need to activate Unity manually.

Next, you need to activate your license. Choose the personal edition, and then the option that suits you best. Choose the personal license option that suits you best.

Now you can download your selected license file. You can use this within the Hub to finally activate it properly You’ll need a license file to activate the program.

In the manual activation window of the Hub, select the file you have just downloaded. After that, your license will have been activated, and you can move on to installing Unity itself. Use the file you just downloaded to activate the program.

Installing Unity

Now that we have Unity Hub installed and our license activated, we can move on to getting the game engine itself. Download either the recommended or the latest official version. There are some differences between Unity versions, but with an extremely simple project like this, those differences won't matter drastically. The LTS stands for long-term support.

You should choose the recommended version. It doesn't matter if it's not the one shown in the image

During this process, you can also add extra modules to your install. It's recommended that you add Visual Studio to the installation list, but anything beyond that is optional. Many of them are very useful, but we won't be needing them during this course.

Instruction video

This video goes through the installation process that was listed above.