Unity: Getting Started Part 1

Unity is an incredibly powerful 2d and 3d development engine. It is predominantly used for game development but is also widely used in marketing, prototyping and the TV and movie industries. Best of all, in certain circumstances, you can use it for free. In this article, I’ll show you how to download and install Unity.

To start with, head to http://unity.com and click on ‘Get started’. On the plans page, click the ‘Individual’ tab, then click ‘Get started’ below ‘Personal’.

Click ‘Start here’ under First-time users, then click ‘Agree and download’. Save the installer to your chosen location. Running the file will install Unity Hub on your machine. Unity Hub is a hub for managing Unity installs and projects.

You will need to create an account at http://unity.com before you can use Unity. It’s free and quick to do.

Once you have installed Unity Hub, you will have to then install Unity itself. Click on ‘Installs’ on the left hand side then ‘Add’ to choose your version of Unity.

Now it may be tempting to go for the latest release of Unity, but generally it’s best to go for the LTS release that’s recommended by the app (LTS stands for Long Term Support). These versions are generally more stable.

Now that we have installed Unity, it’s time to start a new project. Click on ‘Projects’ in Unity Hub, then click ‘New’. Here we can choose some settings for the project. Here I name the project, choose 3D, then click ‘Create’.

And that’s it. We have our blank canvas, ready to start creating.

In part 2 of this article I will go over the first steps in Unity, like adding assets and applying materials.