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Game Design: Practical Unity Development

Build a complete 3D game with Unity. Learn animation, AI, networking, and more through hands-on project work.

Game Design: Practical Unity Development

  • 11 weeks

  • 5 hours per week

  • Accreditation available

  • Digital certificate when eligible

  • Intermediate level

Find out more about how to join this course

  • Duration

    11 weeks
  • Weekly study

    5 hours
  • Languages

    English, Italiano, Español, Français, PortuguêsEnglish, Italiano
  • 100% online

    How it works
  • Unlimited subscription

    $349.99 for one yearLearn more
  • Accreditation

    AvailableMore info
The CPD Certification Service

This course has been certified by the CPD Certification Service as conforming to continuing professional development principles. Find out more.

Develop complete games using Unity engine modules

Want to build real games, not just follow tutorials? This course takes you through creating a complete 3D game called AnimarsCatcher using Unity, covering everything from animation and AI to networking and performance optimisation.

You’ll work through each system hands-on, building the technical skills and creative confidence to develop professional-quality games from start to finish.

Implementing core visual and animation systems

Great games need smooth visuals and believable character movement. You’ll build AnimarsCatcher using skeletal animation blending and inverse kinematics (IK) solvers.

You’ll create camera systems that support cinematic follows and player perspectives, and add particle effects that make actions and environments feel immersive and responsive. These foundational skills establish professional visual quality in your games.

Building intelligent gameplay and UI systems

Create AI using state machines and behaviour trees, implement gameplay mechanics like collision detection, scoring, and power-ups, and build responsive UI canvases that scale across devices.

You’ll also create save systems that persist player progress between sessions. By integrating all these systems, you’ll create compelling player experiences that feel complete.

Adding audio, effects, and network features

Enhance immersion with spatial audio, 3D soundscapes with occlusion effects. Special effects layer particle systems, shaders, and post-processing for visual polish. Multiplayer networking synchronises game states across clients using Unity Netcode.

You’ll harness performance profiling to optimise your game for multiple platforms, ensuring it runs smoothly everywhere. Your finished game will demonstrate industry-standard production values.

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Syllabus

  • Week 1

    Course Overview

    • Course Videos

      Course content Game Development Process Game Planning Brief Description of Game Engine Introduction to Unity Game Engine

    • Resources

      Powerpoint

    • Unit Test

      Week course test

  • Week 2

    Character Animation

    • Course Videos

      Role modeling Bone binding Character Animation Control Animator Group animation control

    • Resources

      Reading materials and demo source code

    • Unit Test

      Character Animation tests

  • Week 3

    Game Scene

    • Course Videos

      Render pipeline Material Lights Global lighting system Shadow Rendering optimization

    • Resources

      Reading materials, demo source project, and provided assets.

    • Unit Test

      Game Scene tests

  • Week 4

    Rendering

    • Course Videos

      Render pipeline Material Lights Global lighting system Shadow Rendering optimization

    • Resources

      Reading materials, demo source project, and provided assets.

    • Unit Test

      Rendering tests

  • Week 5

    Camera Control

    • Course Videos

      Game Perspective Camera parameters Cinemachine Cutscenes

    • Resources

      Reading materials, demo source project, and provided assets.

    • Unit Test

      Camera Control tests

  • Week 6

    Artificial Intelligence

    • Course Videos

      Artificial Intelligence in Games Automatic Pathfinding Group behavior Environmental perception Finite State Machines

    • Resources

      Reading materials, demo source project, and provided assets.

    • Unit Test

      Artificial Intelligence tests

  • Week 7

    Special Effect

    • Course Videos

      Particle system Post-treatment effect Shader

    • Resources

      Reading materials, demo source project, and provided assets.

    • Unit Test

      Special Effect tests

  • Week 8

    Gameplay

    • Course Videos

      Game setting Map resource generation Timer Archiving system Archiving system Object pool Other scripts

    • Resources

      Reading materials, demo source project, and provided assets.

    • Unit Test

      Gameplay tests

  • Week 9

    User Interface

    • Course Videos

      Interface design UI Items User Interface Art Edit

    • Resources

      Reading materials, demo source project, and provided assets.

    • Unit Test

      User Interface tests

  • Week 10

    Audio

    • Course Videos

      Audio Basics 3D sound effects Occasions to use audio Game Audio Production Mixer Sound effects

    • Resources

      Reading materials, demo source project, and provided assets.

    • Unit Test

      Audio tests

  • Week 11

    Networking

    • Course Videos

      Network basis Game Networking Type Player Connection Game Object Synchronization

    • Resources

      Reading materials, demo source project, and provided assets.

    • Unit Test

      Networking tests

Who is this accredited by?

The CPD Certification Service
The CPD Certification Service:

The CPD Certification Service was established in 1996 and is the leading independent CPD accreditation institution operating across industry sectors to complement the CPD policies of professional and academic bodies.

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and join a global classroom of learners. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

  • Available now

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • create complete version of the game AnimasCatcher
  • develop the core modules through course learning
  • design basic functions of the game

Who is the course for?

This course is ideal for computer science or digital media students, hobbyists, indie developers, and career switchers with basic Python or C# knowledge who wants to break into game development.

What software or tools do you need?

Who will you learn with?

Who developed the course?

Communication University of China

The Communication University of China (CUC) is one of the China’s key universities included in 211 Project and “985 Project Innovation Platform” under the Double First-Class Initiative, which is directly administered by the Ministry of Education. CUC was the first communication university founded in 1954 . In August 2004, it was renamed from Beijing Broadcasting Institute to Communication University of China.

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  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Printed and digital certificate when you’re eligible

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$349.99 for one year

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  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
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  • Limited to 11 weeks

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