Before you write a single line of code, let’s get everything in order. This chapter is short. By the end of it your environment will be set up, you’ll know how the course works, and you’ll be ready to actually start building.
You need a PC or laptop that can run Unity. That’s it. You don’t need to know how to code. You don’t need any prior game development experience. You don’t need to buy anything.
If your machine can run Unity, you can do this.
Minimum specs Unity recommends:
The course uses Unity 6 LTS and Visual Studio Code. Both are free.
Unity has other code editor options — Visual Studio (the full one, not Code) being the main one. You’re welcome to use it if you already have it set up. The course uses VS Code because it’s lighter, faster, and the setup process teaches you something useful about how Unity and external editors actually talk to each other.
Don’t spend too much time personalizing your setup at this stage. A theme and a font are fine. Spending an hour configuring things you don’t understand yet is procrastination with extra steps.
These are purely setup lessons. There’s nothing to build yet, just things to install and understand. Read slowly. Don’t skip the “why” sections — knowing why Unity Hub exists, or why you need a specific Unity version, saves you a confusing hour later.
If something doesn’t install cleanly, don’t push past it hoping it resolves itself. A broken environment causes problems that look like your code is wrong when it isn’t. Fix the environment first.
This is the part most courses skip. It’s also the part that actually determines whether you finish.
Game development is frustrating. Not occasionally — regularly. You will write code that should work and doesn’t. You will follow every step and get a different result. You will spend an hour on a bug that turns out to be a missing semicolon. This is not a sign that you’re bad at this. It’s just what the job is.
The only thing that separates people who learn game development from people who don’t is tolerance for that frustration. You build that tolerance the same way you build everything else — by going through it repeatedly until it stops feeling like failure and starts feeling like the process.
When you’re stuck, the instinct is to look for someone to give you the answer. Resist it a little longer than feels comfortable. The moment you figure something out yourself is the moment it actually sticks.
That said — if you’re genuinely stuck and going in circles, ask. Spinning for three hours on a misunderstanding is just wasted time.
Your environment is set up. You understand how the course is structured. You know what you’re in for.
Go to Chapter 1 — Pong and start writing code.