In this lesson, students learned the fundamentals of mobile app development using the Unity game engine. They created a simplified version of the popular game 'Flappy Bird' as a hands-on project. Through this project, students gained practical experience in game design, 2D physics, user interface design, and mobile app deployment.

Learning Objectives:

• Setting the Foundation: Students became familiar with Unity's interface, terminology, and project setup, gaining the ability to create a new game project and import essential assets.

• Breathing Life into Our Bird: Students implemented basic physics in Unity, enabling a game character to respond to gravity and user input (tap or click) for control.

• Crafting the Obstacles: Students gained proficiency in creating and programming game obstacles, such as pipes, while learning to handle collision detection between game objects.

• Designing the User Experience: Students gained the skills to design and implement a user interface, including score displays and a game over screen, enhancing the player's experience.

• Adding the Final Touches: Students added enhancements to their games with sound effects and visual polish, contributing to a more immersive and engaging gameplay experience.

Gameplay Mechanics:

• Bird Control: The player can control the bird character's vertical movement by tapping or clicking on the screen. Tapping or clicking causes the bird to flap its wings and move upward, overcoming gravity.

• Gravity and Falling: The bird experiences a constant downward force due to gravity. If the player does not tap or click, the bird will gradually fall downward.

• Obstacle Movement: Obstacles (pipes) move horizontally from right to left, creating a scrolling effect. New obstacles continuously spawn on the right side of the screen and move leftward.

• Collision Detection: Collision detection is implemented between the bird and the obstacles. If the bird collides with an obstacle or the ground, the game enters a 'Game Over' state.

• Scoring: A scoring system is in place to keep track of the player's progress. When the bird successfully passes through a gap between two pipes, the player earns a point.

• User Interface (UI): The game features a user interface that displays the player's score during gameplay. When the player loses, a 'Game Over' screen appears, showing the final score and providing options to restart the game.

• Sound Effects: Sound effects are incorporated into the gameplay to provide auditory feedback. Sound effects include a flap sound when the bird jumps, a collision sound when the bird hits an obstacle, and a scoring sound when a point is earned.

• Endless Gameplay: The game offers an endless gameplay experience, allowing players to keep playing and attempting to beat their high scores.

'Watchout Bunny' is an educational game development project designed for high school students learning Unity, a popular game development engine. The game features a playful, adventurous bunny in a infinite runner type game. The primary objective is to teach students how to utilize essential Unity libraries, specifically IEnumerator, Instantiate, and Random, in a practical and engaging manner. Students eventually built the game for their phones, but this version was built to be hosted on the web gaming site Itch.io so that students could get a glimpse of what they were building.

Learning Objectives:

• Understanding the IEnumerator Library: Students learned about coroutines in Unity and how to use IEnumerator for tasks like timed events, smooth transitions, and controlling animations.

• Utilizing Instantiate for Object Creation: The game project taught students how to dynamically create game objects at runtime using Instantiate. This was used for spawning obstacles, rewards, and the bunny character itself.

• Implementing Randomness with the Random Library: Students explored how to use the Random library to generate unpredictable spawning locations of the spikes.

Gameplay Mechanics:

• Player Control: Players control the bunny character, moving it around to avoid falling spikes.

• Obstacle Generation: Using Instantiate, the game spawns spikes in various locations that the bunny must avoid.

• Random Elements: The position of the spikes are determined using the Random library, ensuring that each playthrough is unique.

Educational Approach:

• The project was structured to encourage hands-on learning, with step-by-step guidance on implementing each Unity library feature.

• Students followed along to build 'Watchout Bunny' from the ground up, starting from basic setup to more complex functionalities.

• Emphasis was placed on understanding the practical application of each Unity library, fostering problem-solving skills and creativity.

• The project included both individual and collaborative elements, allowing students to experience different aspects of game development.

Outcome:

By the end of this project, students developed a solid understanding of key Unity libraries and their applications in game development. They developed their own version of 'Watchout Bunny' for their mobile phones, showcasing their ability to integrate IEnumerator, Instantiate, and Random into a functional and entertaining game. This project not only taught technical skills but also encouraged creativity, critical thinking, and a love for game development.

'In this lesson, students embarked on an immersive journey into the world of game development, where they learned how to implement a scrolling parallax effect in Unity using the C# programming language. This engaging and visually appealing lesson allowed students to gain a deep understanding of parallax scrolling, a popular technique used to create depth and immersion in 2D and 3D games.

Learning Objectives:

• Introduction to Parallax Scrolling: Introduction to the concept of parallax scrolling and its applications in game design. Overview of the Unity project setup and scene structure. Importing and organizing assets, including background layers and foreground elements. Introduction to the DOTween library for easing animations.

• Implementation and Scripting: Hands-on coding session where students created C# scripts to control the parallax scrolling effect. Implementing smooth scrolling of background layers at different speeds to simulate depth. Setting up camera controls to follow the player or character. Testing and refining the parallax effect through real-time gameplay.

Outcome:

By the end of this lesson, students had gained practical experience in creating a visually captivating scrolling parallax effect in Unity using C#. They had expanded their toolkit of game development skills and were well-equipped to apply this knowledge to enhance the immersive qualities of their future game projects. Moreover, their exposure to open-source libraries like DOTween encouraged a spirit of exploration and innovation in their game development endeavors. This lesson served as a stepping stone towards creating more engaging and visually impressive games in Unity.