Stage 2 of 8 · 7 lessons · ~2 months

Programming for games

Learn C# scripting in Unity: MonoBehaviours and their lifecycle, components and references, C# events, exposed fields, state machines and debugging.

Start: C# for Unity

Lessons· one lesson for each topic, in this order

Do this

Finish the first units of your engine's official beginner course.
Rebuild the player from your clone with a state machine instead of booleans.
Split one large script into at least three small components or child nodes.
Add a health component that raises an event and a UI element that listens to it.
Expose every tuning value in the editor and tune the jump or movement until it feels right.
Fix one bug using a breakpoint and one using debug drawing.
Commit after each working change.

Start with· follow one of these

CourseFree
Unity Learn: Junior Programmer Pathway
Unity Technologies · Beginner
Unity's official free C# pathway, with small playable projects in every unit
GuideFree
Learn C#
Microsoft · Beginner
Microsoft's free C# lessons, for the language itself when Unity code feels unfamiliar

Practise

Exercism
Free mentored exercises in C# and C++ to strengthen the language outside the engine

Keep handy

Unity Manual and Scripting API
The Manual and Scripting API for your exact Unity version

Also worth your time

Event function execution order (opens in a new tab)Read
The exact order Unity calls Awake, Start, Update, FixedUpdate and the rest
Game Programming PatternsGo deeper
Free book on the state, observer, component and other patterns games rely on

Before moving on: A small Unity game written in your own C# scripts: a player with a state machine, an enemy, a health component that raises a C# event, and a UI that listens to it, with all tuning values as [SerializeField] fields.

Tauseef's advice

Follow the official course for your engine, but after every lesson change the project without instructions: add an enemy, a power-up, a second level. The difference between people who can make games and people who can follow tutorials is exactly that moment of building something the video did not show.