Learn the Lay of the Land

Meet Michael G.! He’s teamed up with instructor Shawn, over in Valley Stream, NY, as part of Game-U’s New York Accelerate program. Until recently, Michael and Shawn spent most of their time in Project Spark, a gaming engine geared to beginners and young students. But today Michael took a big step forward. He’s now graduated to using the professional gaming engine Unity!

When a developer like Michael takes on a new tool, it pays for him or her to learn the “lay of the land.” New tools raise so many questions! How does one open a new project? What functions offer shortcuts (like pressing CTRL or CMD + C to copy), and what are the shortcuts? Where does one test code? How can the tool windows be arranged? Where’s the undo button? (That last one’s very important.) Basic and complicated questions both need to be answered as the developer gets his or her first project off the ground. To help Michael learn the lay of the land in Unity, Shawn introduced him to – of course – the terrain editor. Using the editor, Michael created a gaming environment and then populated it with assets from the Unity Asset Store (a treasure trove of gaming props). Check out his woodland scene! It’s a perfect pioneer world, complete with forests, little furnished houses, paths, hills, and even a premade player. (Listen for his footsteps as you play the video.) It’s a cool world and doubtless the first of many Unity adventures!

Thanks for sharing your new skills with us, Michael. We’re excited to see you take on the Unity engine and everything it has to offer. Happy developing, and stay in touch! We want to see – and play! – all the games you build.