Pathfinding basics in Unity - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Pathfinding basics

📖 Scenario: You are creating a simple game where a character moves from one point to another on a grid. You want to teach how to find a path step-by-step using basic pathfinding logic.

🎯 Goal: Build a simple pathfinding script that finds a path from a start position to an end position on a grid using a basic algorithm.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a grid represented by a 2D array

Set start and end positions

Implement a simple pathfinding logic to find a path

Print the path coordinates

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Pathfinding is used in games and robotics to move characters or robots from one place to another avoiding obstacles.

💼 Career

Understanding basic pathfinding helps in game development, AI programming, and simulation tasks.

1

Create the grid data

Create a 2D integer array called grid with 3 rows and 3 columns. Fill it with zeros.

Unity

// Create a 2D integer array called grid with 3 rows and 3 columns filled with zeros
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use int[,] grid = new int[3, 3] and fill with zeros inside curly braces.

2

Set start and end positions

Create two variables: start and end of type Vector2Int. Set start to (0, 0) and end to (2, 2).

Unity

int[,] grid = new int[3, 3] {
    {0, 0, 0},
    {0, 0, 0},
    {0, 0, 0}
};
// Create Vector2Int variables start and end with values (0, 0) and (2, 2)
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use Vector2Int start = new Vector2Int(0, 0); and similarly for end.

3

Find a simple path

Create a List<Vector2Int> called path. Use a for loop to add positions from start to end moving right then down (first increase x, then y).

Unity

int[,] grid = new int[3, 3] {
    {0, 0, 0},
    {0, 0, 0},
    {0, 0, 0}
};

Vector2Int start = new Vector2Int(0, 0);
Vector2Int end = new Vector2Int(2, 2);

// Create a List called path and add positions moving right then down
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use two loops: one to move right (x changes), one to move down (y changes). Add each position to path.

4

Print the path

Use a foreach loop to print each position in path in the format (x, y).

Unity

using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;

int[,] grid = new int[3, 3] {
    {0, 0, 0},
    {0, 0, 0},
    {0, 0, 0}
};

Vector2Int start = new Vector2Int(0, 0);
Vector2Int end = new Vector2Int(2, 2);

List path = new List();

for (int x = start.x; x <= end.x; x++) {
    path.Add(new Vector2Int(x, start.y));
}
for (int y = start.y + 1; y <= end.y; y++) {
    path.Add(new Vector2Int(end.x, y));
}

// Print each position in path as (x, y)
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use foreach (Vector2Int pos in path) and Debug.Log($"({pos.x}, {pos.y})") to print positions.