Unity Basics Course: Creating a Start Button

As interest in game development has increased, Unity has become a popular game engine chosen by many developers and game designers. Due to its powerful features and user-friendly interface, Unity can be used by developers of various skill levels, from beginners to experts. In this course, we will go through the process of creating a start button in Unity in detail. We will explain step-by-step how to design and program the button.

1. Before Getting Started

After downloading and installing Unity, you need to create a new project. You can choose either the ‘2D’ or ‘3D’ template, but in this tutorial, we will select the ‘2D’ template. The next step is to get familiar with Unity’s basic user interface. You can use the ‘Hierarchy’ panel on the left, the ‘Scene’ view in the center, and the ‘Inspector’ panel on the right to arrange game objects and adjust their properties.

2. Adding UI Elements

Unity provides various UI (User Interface) elements to easily create UI. The first thing to do when creating a start button is to create a UI Canvas. To create a UI Canvas, follow these steps:

  1. Right-click in the ‘Hierarchy’ panel and select ‘UI’ > ‘Canvas’.
  2. Once the new canvas is created, select the ‘Canvas’ object and set ‘Render Mode’ to ‘Screen Space – Overlay’ in the ‘Inspector’ panel.

3. Adding a Button

Now it’s time to add a button to the canvas. Here’s how to do it:

  1. With the canvas selected, right-click in the ‘Hierarchy’ panel again and select ‘UI’ > ‘Button’.
  2. Once the button is created, you can change the button’s text in the ‘Inspector’ panel. Expand the ‘Button’ object, select the ‘Text’ object, and enter the desired text in the ‘Text’ field of the ‘Text’ component. For example, you could enter “Start”.

4. Designing the Button

Let’s adjust the size and design of the button. With the button object selected, you can use the ‘Rect Transform’ component to adjust the position and size of the button. Set ‘Width’ and ‘Height’ to appropriate values to change the size. You can also add an ‘Image’ component to set the background of the button. Use the ‘Background’ property to change the background color or add a sprite.

5. Adding Click Events to the Button

Now that the button has been created, let’s program what actions should be executed when the button is clicked. The steps to add a button click event are as follows:

  1. Select the button object and find the ‘On Click()’ section in the ‘Button’ component in the ‘Inspector’ panel.
  2. Click ‘+ Button’ to add a new event.
  3. In the added event, you need to connect the script that will be called when clicked to the ‘None (Object)’ field. To do this, you first need to create the script.

5.1. Creating the Script

Right-click in the ‘Assets’ folder, select ‘Create’ > ‘C# Script’, and name the script ‘StartButton’. Open the created script and add the following code:

using UnityEngine;

public class StartButton : MonoBehaviour
{
    public void StartGame()
    {
        // Add game start logic here.
        Debug.Log("Game Started!");
    }
}

5.2. Connecting the Script

Once the script is written, the next step is to return to the Unity editor and connect it:

  1. Select the button in the ‘Hierarchy’ panel, then click the ‘Add Component’ button to add the ‘StartButton’ script.
  2. In the ‘On Click()’ event, select the ‘StartButton’ object from the ‘None (Object)’ field and choose ‘StartButton > StartGame’ from the dropdown.

6. Starting the Game

Now that the start button is ready to click to start the game, it’s time to add the game’s starting logic. Depending on the idea, you can further develop the script. For example, you can add actions like loading a new scene or activating game objects. To transition between scenes, you will need to use ‘SceneManager’.

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.SceneManagement;

public class StartButton : MonoBehaviour
{
    public void StartGame()
    {
        SceneManager.LoadScene("GameScene"); // Load to the game scene
    }
}

7. Saving and Running the Project

Once all settings are complete, let’s save the project and run the game. Save your work through ‘File’ menu options like ‘Save’ or ‘Save As…’, and click the ‘Play’ button at the top to run the game. Check if the button works correctly and review if there are any modifications needed.

8. Enhancing Button Styling

To improve the basic button design, you can apply various colors and effects to change values. Considering the consistency and aesthetic aspects of the UI, here’s how to change colors based on the button’s state:

  1. Enable the ‘Color Tint’ option in the ‘Button’ component of the button object, and set colors for ‘Normal’, ‘Highlighted’, ‘Pressed’, and ‘Disabled’ states.
  2. Style the button scientifically to provide visually interesting elements for the user.

9. Adding User Feedback

You can add sound effects or animations to buttons to make user feedback more intuitive. Here is how to add basic button click sound:

  1. Add a click sound file (e.g., .wav or .mp3 format) to the Assets folder.
  2. Create a new empty GameObject and add an ‘Audio Source’ component to connect the audio file.
  3. Implement a script to play audio when the button is clicked.
using UnityEngine;

public class StartButton : MonoBehaviour
{
    public AudioSource clickSound;

    public void StartGame()
    {
        clickSound.Play(); // Play click sound
        SceneManager.LoadScene("GameScene"); // Load to the game scene
    }
}

10. Conclusion

Through this tutorial, you learned the basic method of creating a start button in Unity. We explained how to add UI components, design buttons, add click events, and enhance user experience with sound effects and animations. You can now create more creative and interesting games using Unity. Continue to deepen your game development skills through various courses in the future!

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