1.2 The Preparations.

As a good practice, let’s create the folders that will contain the files for our project in Unity.

Within the “Project” tab and within the “Assets” folder, we will create the “3DFirstGame” folder (right-click on “Assets” and select “Create” and then “Folder”). Then, following the same steps, within “3DFirstGame” we will create the “Materials“, “Scripts” and “Scenes” folders, which will look something like this::

Now, inside the “Materials” folder, we’ll create the material files that will help us assign different colors to our game objects. We’ll do this by right-clicking on the “Materials” folder, selecting “Create” and then “Material“. We’ll do this three times to create the three material files: “Ground_Mat“, “Rocks_Mat“, and “Player_Mat“, and we’ll assign the colors green, brown, and orange to each one, respectively.

As a next step, we’ll create the game scene we’ll be working on. To do this, right-click on our newly created “Scenes” folder and select “Create“, “Scene“, and then “Scene” again. We’ll name the generated file “3DFirstGame“.

In our “Scripts” folder we are going to create the “PlayerController” code file (by right-clicking on the “Scripts” folder, then “Create“, “Scripting” and finally “MonoBehaviour Script“).

Finally, let’s add the “Cinemachine” asset package to our project. We’ll do this by clicking the “Package Manager” tab, selecting “Unity Registry“, then “Cinemachine“, and finally clicking “Install“.

1.3 Let’s get to work!

Let’s start by opening our “3DFirstGame” scene to work on.

First, let’s create a large plane that will serve as the ground for our character to walk on. Within “Hierarchy“, we’ll create the 3D object “Plane” (right-click on an empty space within “Hierarchy“, select “3D Object“, then “Plane“) and name it “MyGround“.

We are going to assign the material “Ground_Mat” to the “MyGround” object, we are also going to assign it a scale value of “10” on the “X and Z” axes and finally we are going to assign it the “ground3D” layer in the “Layer” section (first you will have to click on “Add Layer” to add “ground3D” in the empty space “User Layer 6“).

To create our character, we’ll first add another 3D object to the scene. This object will be a capsule, which we’ll call “Player” (right-click on an empty space within “Hierarchy“, select “3D Object“, then “Capsule“). We’ll assign the “Player_Mat” material to this object, assign it the “Player” tag, and place the object at position “1.5” on the “Y” axis.

Continuing with our character, we right click on it, select “Create Empty” and call it “Ground_Check“, with this a new object will be added that will help us detect when our character is touching the ground, so we will place it close to the bottom of our character (in position “-1” on the “Y” axis).

We are going to assign two components to our “Player” object, one of them is “Character Controller” and the other is our “PlayerController” code file.

The “Character Controller” component is a Unity component that will help us facilitate the process of making our character move and is very useful when making a basic 3D character game.

1.4 The Code.

Let’s open our “PlayerController” file and apply the following code.

using UnityEngine;

public class PlayerController : MonoBehaviour
{
    public float moveSpeed = 5f; // Movement speed
    public float jumpForce = 5f; // Jump force
    public float gravity = -9.81f; // Gravity force
    public Transform cameraTransform; // Assign the camera's "Transform" component in the inspector to find out its location

    private CharacterController controller;
    private Vector3 velocity;
    private bool isGrounded;

    public Transform groundCheck; // Object to check if it is on the ground
    public float groundDistance = 0.2f; // Distance to check the ground
    public LayerMask groundLayer; // Layer that represents the ground

    void Start()
    {
        //We assign the component to our code
        controller = GetComponent<CharacterController>();
    }

    void Update()
    {
        // Check if the character is on the ground
        isGrounded = Physics.CheckSphere(groundCheck.position, groundDistance, groundLayer);

        if (isGrounded && velocity.y < 0)
        {
            velocity.y = -2f; // Make sure the character is on the ground<br />
        }

        // Obtain player input and/or controls
        float horizontal = Input.GetAxis("Horizontal");
        float vertical = Input.GetAxis("Vertical");

        // Calculate direction of movement relative to the camera
        Vector3 moveDirection = CalculateCameraRelativeMovement(horizontal, vertical);

        // Move the character in the desired direction
        controller.Move(moveDirection * moveSpeed * Time.deltaTime);

        // Jump
        if (Input.GetButtonDown("Jump") && isGrounded)
        {
            velocity.y = Mathf.Sqrt(jumpForce * -2f * gravity);
        }

        // Apply the force of gravity
        velocity.y += gravity * Time.deltaTime;
        controller.Move(velocity * Time.deltaTime);
    }

     // Calculates the direction of movement based on the camera rotation
    private Vector3 CalculateCameraRelativeMovement(float horizontal, float vertical)
    {
        if (cameraTransform == null) return Vector3.zero;

        // Get camera direction vectors (ignoring vertical rotation
        Vector3 cameraForward = cameraTransform.forward;
        Vector3 cameraRight = cameraTransform.right;
        cameraForward.y = 0f; // Flatten the vector for horizontal movement
        cameraRight.y = 0f;
        cameraForward.Normalize();
        cameraRight.Normalize();

        // Combine directions with player input
        return (cameraForward * vertical + cameraRight * horizontal).normalized;
    }
}

This code allows us to move our character using the “W, A, S, D” keys and make him jump using the “Space” key or through an external “Gamepad” type control (because they are already configured in this version of Unity).

We save our code and return to the Unity editor to assign the necessary and currently available references (the “Ground_Check” object and the “ground3D” layer to the required sections of our code component).

1.5 The Camera and the Obstacles.

To be a third-person controller, we need a camera that shows our character in “Third Person“,that allows us to see him and follow him as we move him.

For this we are going to use the “Cinemachine” version 3 components available in Unity 6.

First, we will add the “Cinemachine Brain” component to the “Main Camera” object of our scene.

Next, within “Hierarchy“, we’ll create a Cinemachine camera that can focus on and track our character. To do this, right-click on an empty space within “Hierarchy” and select “Cinemachine“, “Targeted Cameras“, and then “FreeLook Camera“. In this newly created object, we search for the “Cinemachine Camera” component and assign our “Player” object to it in the “Tracking Target” section.

This camera we just created is the missing reference in our “PlayerController” code, so we’ll assign it to complete it.

Finally, let’s create some obstacles for our character. To do this, we’ll add some “Cube“-type 3D objects to which we’ll assign the “Rocks_Mat” material and the “ground3D” layer. It’s recommended to generate them in different sizes so our character can jump over them or lean on one to reach a larger one.

Now, the moment has arrived, press Play and Enjoy Your First 3D Game 🙂 ! 

Exercises.

To reinforce what you have learned, it is necessary to practice it, so try doing the following exercises:

1. Modify values ​​in the “Player Controller” component to make your character move faster, jump higher, and fall faster.
2. Modify values ​​in the “Cinemachine Orbital Follow” and “Cinemachine Rotation Composer” components found in the “FreeLook Camera” object to experiment with different approaches to your third-person camera.

This Unity Tutorial ends here. Join us for the next tutorial where we’ll add more features to “Your First 3D Game“.

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