Find the Unity Editor system requirements here:

Learn more about which version of Unity Editor to use with your course here.

Unity Editor is not compatible with Chromebooks. Students will need access to a Windows, macOS, or Linux computer in order to complete the course.

The recommended version of Unity Editor will depend upon the version of the CodeHS course being used:

The Unity Hub is a standalone application that streamlines navigation, downloads, and management of Unity projects and installations. You can use the Hub to:

No, the only software needed for this course is Unity Hub and Unity Editor.

Instructions for downloading and setting up the software are in Module 2 of Game Development in Unity. If you're using the older Game Design in Unity course (Bailey and Lawson versions), these instructions are in Module 3.

You may need to whitelist the following URL on your school’s firewall/router in order for Unity to connect to accounts and launch the software correctly:

*.client-api.unity3dusercontent.com

Any privacy agreements for Unity will be located on their website. However, we do provide links and methods to access them in the lessons they apply to.

No additional purchase will be necessary for this course. If prompted during the installation of Unity through Unity Hub, students and teachers should select the Personal license (free) option. Pro licenses are paid licenses intended for game studios or indie developers.

Students can zip the project folder and transfer it to a shared network drive, USB drive, or another cloud service where their teacher can access it. When zipping project folders, students should ensure to zip the root or top-level folder.

To view a student's project in Unity, it's important to save their work to a local drive. Attempting to open Unity project files that are stored on a network drive may cause issues.

Students share their learning experience between both the CodeHS and Unity platforms. Lessons, examples, coding exercises, assessments and all study materials will be located on the CodeHS platform. Students will then be given explicit instructions on how to fulfill each activity on the Unity platform. Teachers will be able to keep track of grading and class progress on the CodeHS platform.

This course is designed to equip students with fundamental knowledge of game design. While not 100% aligned, this course will help high school students prepare to take the Unity User Certification exams. More information can be found on the Unity Certifications site.

If students have difficulty opening downloaded tutorials, make sure that they've unzipped the downloaded project folder in the correct spot. Check to see that they've added the unzipped project folder to the Unity folder located on their computer. The Unity folder is often found in the Documents folder. Unzipped tutorial project folders must be added to the Unity folder before they can be added/opened in Unity Hub.

Students need to use the recommended version of Unity in order to load and access the tutorials in the CodeHS course (note: this is not the most current version of Unity available). Students can potentially have multiple versions installed. Follow these steps to select the correct version to access the tutorials:

Students need to save their Unity scene in their current project and submit it to their teacher after completing each assignment. If students don't save the scene, then they will lose progress when the next tutorial loads.

Students like to explore new software, but sometimes this can lead to default windows disappearing from a student's Unity project. Fortunately, it's an easy fix to get those missing windows back.

The image below shows an example of a project that's missing the Inspector window. Typically this window is on the far-right side of the Unity project. In this case, it can be restored by clicking Window in the main menu bar > General > Inspector:

In the Game Development in Unity Course, all provided project files use a default layout for the main windows. If students accidentally close any of those default windows, they can get them back by downloading and loading these layout files into Unity. The files can be loaded into a Unity project by selecting the Layout dropdown in the top right corner, then selecting Load Layout from File.

Some windows may reopen in a separate window, outside of the main Unity project window. To restore them to the main Unity window, drag the top portion of the pop-out window back into the main Unity window.

Sometimes users may lock a selected frame or select a frame in the Scene editor. This can be done under the Edit menu or the shortcut keys F or Shift + F. This can disable the panning feature in Unity's scene editor. Use either F or Shift + F shortcut keys again to disable the lock or selection. This should reinstate the scene panning feature. If not, try double-clicking on a GameObject in the Scene editor.

While testing projects in Unity, students may experience unintended gameplay behaviors. Just like developing any program or code, sometimes a little tweaking and debugging is required to arrive at the intended functionality. Let’s take a look at a common gameplay anomaly that students may experience - falling GameObjects.

If a character or GameObject appears to fall through the ground, or any other surface, there may be an issue with how physics components were added to the character. Select the GameObject in the Hierarchy window and take a look at its properties in the Inspector window. All GameObjects that need to adhere to game physics need to have a Rigidbody component. Does your character have one? If so, is Use Gravity selected?

Another physics component that your character needs is a collider. This could be a Capsule Collider, Character Controller, Box Collider, or any other “collider” component. Make sure the collider is checked and enabled. Most of the default parameters for these two components will suffice for your character GameObject.

Lastly, select the surface GameObject. This might be a plane or a cube GameObject in your Hierarchy window. In the Inspector window, check to make sure this GameObject also has a collider. Typically the surface will have a Mesh Collider or Box Collider component added automatically when the object was added to the scene.

With those physics components in place, test the gameplay again to see if your character stops falling through the ground.