2D Space Shooter 1: Installing Unity

In the following posts, we’re going to build a prototype of a 2D Space Shooter in Unity. You know the drill. Waves of enemies fly down from the top of the screen, you pilot your ship between oncoming targets, blasting away and racking up points.

We’ve all played something like this, but how would we go about making it ourselves? Well… Let’s find out!

First thing’s first. We need our game engine. We’ll be using Unity, and the best way to get it is to install the Unity Hub. It allows us to manage multiple installs and makes the process of creating a new project super easy.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed the appropriate version of Unity Hub for your operating system (I’ll be using Windows 10 for this tutorial, but the process is essentially the same no matter the OS), you’ll get a screen that looks something like this.

If you’re just getting started, your projects list will be empty, but we’re about to change that! First though, we’ll need to install at least one version of the Unity editor. On the left side of the panel, click “Installs” and then click the blue “Add” button in the top right.

Here, you’ll select your version. You can see here that the 2020 version is recommended, but there’s generally more readily available documentation for Unity 2019, so we’re going to go with that. I actually used 2019.4.18f1 for this project, but go with the most recent LTS (long-term support) version of 2019, whatever that may be when you’re reading this.

This next screen is where you’ll select your modules. Most of these options refer to where you’re planning to deploy your game. We’re mostly concerned with implementing game logic, so I won’t spend much time talking about the build process. However, I would recommend installing at least Windows Build Support (if you’re on Windows) so you can test your game outside of the editor.

If you added any other modules, you may need to accept their respective license agreements before you can begin the download process. But that’s it! Once you click “Done”, your selected version of Unity will begin downloading. This process can take a while, but once it’s done you’ll be ready to start building your game. Back in the “Projects” tab, click “New”, choose the 2D template, and I’ll see you in the next post!

Continued in part 2.