Minor GDD - Unity Development Curriculum

Welcome to the repository for Minor Game Design & Development - Unity Development (Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences - CMGT).

This curriculum guides students from foundational 2D game prototyping to advanced 3D game architecture, visual effects, shader development, and performance optimization using the Universal Render Pipeline (URP) in Unity.

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Quick Links & Reference Guides

• Interactive Course Presentations Portal
• Unity Tips & Complete Reference Manual
• C# Unity Code Snippets Library
• GDD Resources & Asset Catalog
• Curated Video Tutorials & Documentation
• Git & Team Collaboration Guide
• Project Starter Files & Packages

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Software Requirements & Standards

• Target Engine: Unity 6 (6000.x) with Universal Render Pipeline (URP)
• Primary IDE: JetBrains Rider / Visual Studio 2022
• Language: C# (.NET Standard)
• Version Control: Git + Git LFS (Large File Storage)

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Schedule & Weekly Lessons

BLOCK 1: 2D PROTOTYPING & CORE ARCHITECTURE

Week	Lesson Code	Topic & Content	Material & Assignment
1.1	01_basics1	Introduction Unity 2D (Workshop) • GameObjects, Components, Prefabs • Script Lifecycle (Awake, Start, Update, FixedUpdate) • 2D Physics (Rigidbody2D, Collider2D, Physics Materials) • New Input System & Cinemachine 2D Camera Follow	Lesson 1.1 Material Slide Deck
1.2	02_basics2	Object Communication & Data Containers • Physical Collisions & Stomp Detection (OnCollisionEnter2D) • Component Safety (TryGetComponent, CompareTag) • Data Architecture (Arrays, Lists, Dictionaries, ScriptableObjects) • Asynchronous Coroutines & Event Decoupling	Lesson 1.2 Material Slide Deck
1.3	03_UI	UI Layouting & Data Persistence • Canvas Scaler (1920x1080 Match 0.5) • Anchors & Pivots Responsive Layout • TextMeshPro & Decoupled UI Events • JSON Data Persistence (JsonUtility)	Lesson 1.3 Material Slide Deck
1.4	04_architecture	Game Architecture 1: Decoupling & Prefab API • Prefab as an API (The Black Box Pattern) • ScriptableObject Event Channels & Memory Safety • Robust Generic Persistent Singletons • Multi-Scene Additive Loading (LoadSceneAsync)	Lesson 1.4 Material Slide Deck
1.5	05_release_polish	The Release Candidate: Polish, Lifecycle & Telemetry • Screen Faders & First-Run Onboarding Detection • Mobile App Lifecycle (OnApplicationPause) & State Protection • Procedural Micro-Animations (AnimationCurve) & Audio Randomization • Online Leaderboards & Google Sheets Playtest Telemetry	Lesson 1.5 Material Slide Deck
1.6	--	Concept Presentations 2D Project & Feedback	--
1.7	07_blockprototyping	3D Block Prototyping & Greyboxing (Workshop) • ProBuilder 1m Grid & Modular Prefab Kit • Snapping (Grid Snap & Vertex Snap) • 3D CharacterController (Camera-Relative Movement) • Camera POV / Third-Person Cinemachine 3 Orbit • Interactive Loop (Spawn → Trigger → Goal) & NavMesh NPC	Lesson 1.7 Material Slide Deck
1.8	08_problemsolving	Problem Solving, Controlling AI & Dev Tooling (Workshop) • Breaking 3D Mechanics into 4 Simple Steps (Input → Spatial Query → State & Math → Feedback) • Unity 6 API Verification with F12 & Scene Visualizers (OnDrawGizmosSelected) • 1-Click Inspector Testing ([ContextMenu]) & Silent Bug Guards (OnValidate) • In-Game Dev Cheats (Teleportation, Slow-Mo) & DevWatch Runtime Overlay • IDE Debugger & Call Stack: Pinpoint Bugs in 30 Seconds with Conditional Breakpoints	Lesson 1.8 Material Slide Deck
1.9	09_gamejam2	Blocktober Demo & Midterm Milestone Playtests	Coming Soon
1.10	10_architecture2	Game Architecture 2: State Machines, Commands & Safe Refactoring (Theory + Working Sessions) • State machines level up: IState, guards, logging, hierarchy • Interfaces & composition (IDamageable) • Command pattern: input buffer, undo, replay • Services instead of singletons • Refactoring toolkit: small steps, NUnit test, assembly definitions • 4 timed working sessions in your own project (15, 10, 15, 12 min)	Lesson 1.10 Material Slide Deck

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BLOCK 2: 3D PROJECT, SHADERS, VFX & POLISH

Week	Lesson Code	Topic & Content	Material & Assignment
2.1	21_optimization	Performance Optimization & Rendering	Coming Soon
2.2	22_materialsandshaders	URP Materials & Shader Graph	Coming Soon
2.3	--	Concept Presentations 3D Project & Review	--
2.4	24_3Danimation	3D Character Animation & Rigging	Coming Soon
2.5	--	Milestone Playtesting & Polishing	--
2.6	26_VFX	Visual Effects & Post-Processing (URP)	Coming Soon
2.7	27_audio	Audio Systems & Dynamic Sound	Coming Soon
2.8	--	Final Project Polish & Profiling	--
2.9	--	Final Presentations & Expo 3D Project	--

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Code & Project Quality Standards

1. Zero Compilation Warnings: Code must compile cleanly without unassigned variables or deprecated API warnings.
2. Separation of Concerns:
   • Visuals (Renderers, Animators) on child object.
   • Physics (Rigidbody, Collider) on root object.
   • Logic in modular, decoupled C# scripts.
3. Framerate Independence:
   • Movement in Update() must multiply by Time.deltaTime.
   • Physics mutations must occur in FixedUpdate().
4. No GC Allocation in Loops: Avoid new, string concatenation, and LINQ queries inside Update() and FixedUpdate().