Unity: Unstructured Indie Development

Completed by 30 learners

Ages 9-18

Live 1-on-1 Lessons

These dynamic classes will teach game development in Unity by providing endless learning at a pace that works for you and your child. All while prioritizing a teaching environment suitable for various skill levels and learning styles.

Chris Sloan (Nexus Entertainment Organization)

Average rating:

5.0

Number of reviews:

(5 reviews)

Live video meetings

Meets 2x per week (teacher suggestion)

Meets on demand

50 min

About Learning Overview Teacher Reviews

What's included

Meets on Demand

schedule meetings as needed

50 mins

per session

Teacher support

Assignments

1-2 hours per week. If more guidance would be preferred, I would be happy to assign tasks between classes

Assessment

If there is a preference for assessment of the assignments separate from during class, I would be happy to see what I can do

Class Experience

This class is designed with the individual student in mind, having the pace and goals of the class meeting their needs and interests from class to class.
The goal of this unstructured system is to allow students the freedom to explore the world of game development and programming at their own pace using UNITY with a focus on recreating aspects of games that they are highly passionate about.
This eagerness to learn not only makes it easier to process and retain information, but it also introduces complex problem solving that will introduce them to real world game development with the safety of an instructor to guide and aid them.

The Unity Engine has been a popular option for indie developers, hobbyists, and professional businesses for creating games quickly and efficiently. It is one of the most popular game engines out there, with the ability to make high quality 2D, 3D, mobile games, and more. Popular uses of UNITY are Pokemon GO, Genshin Impact, Beat Saber, and Among Us.
UNITY also uses C#, which is an easy to learn Object Oriented Programming language that is used robustly in the technology field and various software. Popular uses of C# are Web, App, Game, and other windows-based applications development.

One of the biggest struggles in game development is something called "Feature Creep". Essentially you are NEVER done working on your game, but eventually because of costs or deadlines, you have to decide when you are going to stop adding in new functionality.
With Outschool’s 1-on-1 recurring classes, students will learn the skills needed for real world game development without the limitations of "Feature Creep" allowing them to stay engaged and constantly learning. There will always be more to add into the game, emphasizing repetition and familiarity of concepts already taught, while constantly learning new skills along the way.

After each class I will log the skills learned and reviewed, along with a general idea of what we will aim to complete for the next class.
If there are any concepts or goals that you would like to add into the lessons, I will do my best to add it in as soon as it is appropriate to do so! 
If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to reach out and I will happily respond as soon as I can. I also will have a wide range of availability for scheduling or rescheduling classes.

Learning Goals

***UNITY SKILLS:***
- Create and Manage Projects
- Utilize the GameObject Hierarchy
- Modify the Inspector and Components
- Import Packages and Custom Assets
- Redesign and Create Personalized Scenes

***UNITY SKILLS CONTINUED:***
- Assign Input Management and UI Event Systems
- Level Design with Terrain and ProBuilder
- Improve Efficiency with Hotkeys and Shortcuts
- Publish and Upload Projects Online
- Access User Resources via the Asset Store

Other Details

Learning Needs

These classes are structured specifically to be flexible enough to support unique learning needs. I have a few quirks myself including Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, and a few more, so I always try to be inclusive with my teaching styles.

Parental Guidance

***COPPA COMPLIANCE - PARENTS PLEASE READ:*** Please keep in mind that most Game Development software and resources are NOT COPPA-compliant. However, the resources that I would recommend will always be FREE, and SAFE to download. Most software also go through frequent updates to stay as secure and user-friendly as possible. Because of this, some of the class time might be spent installing, troubleshooting, and learning how to use the resources, which is an extremely important skill to have as a developer. - Unity Hub is the most important, and required to manage your projects and different versions of the Unity Game Engine. https://unity.com/download#how-get-started - For programming, it's important to have something known as an IDE. The most popular and reliable ones are any of the Visual Studio programs. This could be downloaded directly from Unity Hub, however, here is a link to some of them as well if you want to review the software. VS Code: https://code.visualstudio.com/ Visual Studio Community: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/community/ - These are OPTIONAL to create your own assets. It is something that we would do further down the lessons once the student is comfortable with Unity and Programming and not required to download ahead of time. Unity Asset Store also provides FREE 2D and 3D resources if you do not wish to create your own or do not wish to download these programs. If you would like to review the programs ahead of time, below are the two I would most strongly recommend. GIMP (Photo Editing): https://www.gimp.org/downloads/ Blender (3D Modeling): https://www.blender.org/download/ ***CLASS PACING - PARENTS PLEASE READ:*** Game Development and Software Development in general involves a majority of the time being spent on troubleshooting and error handling. Learning why things fail and what might be going wrong is part of the LEARNING PROCESS and gaining SOFTWARE ENGINEERING skills. Because of this, it is important to be patient when attempting to add very specific functionality, or learning complex concepts. The class will go at the pace appropriate for the student’s needs with the understanding that the student is doing their best and trying to learn the skills. In order to emphasize the importance of retaining the information that they are learning, and making certain they are still enjoying themselves each class is designed for the student's needs and interests. If needed, parents can discuss the child’s progress to ensure the student is getting the most out of their lessons.

Pre-Requisites

A Mac or Windows PC along with basic computer navigation skills. Parental assistance (or administrative access) available for the first class in case of any technical issues setting up Zoom and Unity Hub.

Supply List

For this course, students will use the Unity Game Engine.

To install the Unity Game Engine you must first install Unity Hub (https://unity.com/download#how-get-started). 

After installing Unity Hub make certain to run the program and follow the instructions to sign in or create your Unity ID. 

Unity runs on most Windows and Mac machines but the better your video card (GPU) and the more RAM you have (8GB bare minimum) the better the experience (regardless of platform). 



Please try and install both Unity Hub, and have at least one version of the Unity engine downloaded and installed before the first class since being logging in is REQUIRED before using it, and I can not assist in that process. Please see link above for downloading and installing.
Please be aware that Unity is a professional software suite (that's great for kids!) but it does require a decent computer. The more RAM and the faster the hard drive (SSD's) the better it'll perform and the happier our learners will be! 



URLs for some of the FREE software used in this class: 

Used to manage your games, and versions of Unity Game Editors
Unity Hub - https://unity.com/download#how-get-started

Used for Programming, can be downloaded directly from Unity Hub
VS Code - https://code.visualstudio.com/?wt.mc_id=vscom_downloads
Visual Studio Community - https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/community/

These are OPTIONAL to create your own assets, Unity Asset Store also provides FREE 2D and 3D resources if you do not wish to create your own
GIMP (Photo Editing) - https://www.gimp.org/downloads/
Blender (3D Modeling) - https://www.blender.org/download/

External Resources

In addition to the Outschool classroom, this class uses:

Unity Hub

Sources

The only requirement to start this course is to make certain you have a UNITY ID set up and created along with having UNITY HUB downloaded, installed, and logged into. Here is a guide to downloading UNITY HUB: https://docs.unity3d.com/hub/manual/InstallHub.html Please keep in mind, if you are using a Linux computer, I will NOT be able to assist in troubleshooting any issues that may occur, as I am not entirely familiar with the Linux architecture.

Meet the teacher

Chris Sloan (Nexus Entertainment Organization)

Joined April, 2024

5.0

5reviews

Profile

Teacher expertise and credentials

Bachelor's Degree from Bloomfield College

I have degrees in both Game Design (B.A.), Game Programming (B.S.), and I am also pursing a degree in Education in Advanced Teaching (M.Ed.).
I have been using Unity since 2014, teaching both game design and programming since 2017, and have been on Outschool since 2022.