Start and Update methods in Unity - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Start and Update Methods in Unity

📖 Scenario: You are creating a simple Unity script to control a game object. You want to set an initial message when the game starts and update a counter every frame.

🎯 Goal: Build a Unity C# script that uses the Start method to set an initial message and the Update method to increase and display a counter each frame.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a string variable called message and set it in Start

Create an integer variable called counter initialized to 0

Increase counter by 1 inside Update

Print the message and counter values in Update

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Start and Update methods are the foundation of most Unity scripts. They let you set up your game and update things continuously, like animations, scores, or player movements.

💼 Career

Understanding these methods is essential for Unity game developers, as they control how game objects behave over time.

1

Create variables for message and counter

Create a public class called CounterScript that inherits from MonoBehaviour. Inside it, declare a string variable called message and an integer variable called counter initialized to 0.

Unity

using UnityEngine;

public class CounterScript : MonoBehaviour
{
    // Declare a string variable called message
    // Declare an integer variable called counter and set it to 0
    
    // Your code here
}

Need a hint?

Remember to declare variables inside the class but outside any methods.

2

Set the initial message in Start method

Add a Start method inside CounterScript. Inside Start, set the message variable to the exact text "Game Started!".

Unity

using UnityEngine;

public class CounterScript : MonoBehaviour
{
    string message;
    int counter = 0;

    // Add Start method below
    // Your code here
}

Need a hint?

The Start method runs once when the game begins. Use it to set initial values.

3

Increase counter in Update method

Add an Update method inside CounterScript. Inside Update, increase the counter variable by 1 each frame.

Unity

using UnityEngine;

public class CounterScript : MonoBehaviour
{
    string message;
    int counter = 0;

    void Start()
    {
        message = "Game Started!";
    }

    // Add Update method below
    // Your code here
}

Need a hint?

The Update method runs every frame. Use it to update values continuously.

4

Print message and counter in Update

Inside the Update method, add a line to print the message and counter values together using Debug.Log. Use string concatenation or interpolation to show them in the format: Game Started! Count: X where X is the current counter value.

Unity

using UnityEngine;

public class CounterScript : MonoBehaviour
{
    string message;
    int counter = 0;

    void Start()
    {
        message = "Game Started!";
    }

    void Update()
    {
        counter += 1;
        // Print message and counter here
        // Your code here
    }
}

Need a hint?

Use Debug.Log to print messages to the Unity Console. String interpolation with $"..." makes it easy to combine text and variables.