You did it. You’ve installed Unity, Visual Studio, and you’re ready to dive in.
Now you’re staring at this… weird grid world with a lot of windows and panels.
Let’s break it down and make it less scary and more awesome.
🖼️ Scene View vs Game View
The two tabs you’ll use the most:
🧱 Scene View
- This is where you build and move stuff around
- Think of it as the editor or construction zone
- You can click, drag, rotate, scale objects, and zoom in/out
🎮 Game View
- This is what the player will see when the game runs
- Hit Play to preview how your game looks and behaves
- Don’t panic when your camera doesn’t show what’s in the Scene 😅 (we’ll fix that soon)
🧰 Meet the Other Key Panels
📂 Hierarchy
- Shows everything in your scene (objects, cameras, lights, etc.)
- Like your stage cast list
📦 Project
- This is your game’s file system
- Where all your scripts, sprites, sounds, and prefabs live
🕵️ Inspector
- Select an object → this shows you all its properties
- You can tweak values like position, rotation, add components, change sprites, etc.
🎯 Toolbar
- Where you press Play, pause, and stop
- Also has movement tools and layout options
📐 Layout Tips
You can rearrange panels by dragging their tabs.
Want Scene and Game views side by side? Go wild.
Messed everything up? Click Window → Layouts → Revert to Default.
🧘♂️ Pro Tip: Clean workspace = clean code (probably)
🧙♂️ Bonus: Unity Terminology Cheat Sheet
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| GameObject | Any object in your game (player, tree, button) |
| Component | Behavior or data added to a GameObject |
| Script | A C# file that adds logic |
| Transform | Position, rotation, and scale of an object |
| Prefab | A reusable GameObject template |
You’ll hear these a lot. Don’t worry—soon they’ll roll off your tongue like game dev poetry.
🎯 What You Should Try Right Now
- Open Unity
- Create a new 2D project
- Click around: Scene View, Hierarchy, Inspector
- Drag a GameObject (like a square) into the scene
- Hit Play and feel powerful for 3 seconds
🕹️ What’s Next?
Now that you’re comfy-ish in Unity, it’s time to create your very first project.
📁 Go to Lesson 6 → Create a New 2D Unity Project