Hey again! Iām Xaadiq ā a solo Unity developer from Pakistan. In Episode 1, I shared how my childhood obsession with arcades and PC gaming led me to study Computer Science.
Todayās post is about how I first touched Unityā¦ then gave upā¦ and how cloning games for a class project accidentally pulled me back in.
š My First Encounter With Unityā¦ and Confusion
Back in 2015, our instructor introduced Unity during a Visual Programming class.
It sounded exciting. A real game engine! I went home, downloaded it immediately, and opened it upā¦
ā¦And there was just a cube.
I stared at it. Moved it. Nothing made sense.
I searched for beginner tutorials on YouTube. Tried following along, but everything went over my head. Components? Rigidbody? Scripts? š¤Æ
I got frustratedā¦ and quietly closed Unity.
That was my first rage-quit as a developer.
š The Comeback: I Needed a Project to Pass!
A few weeks later, it was time for our semester project.
Everyone had to submit something solo.
One of my close friends decided to make a game. It inspired me, but also terrified me. I had no clue how to build anything from scratch. So I did what most students doā¦
I went straight to YouTube and searched: ā2D car racing Unity gameā
Thatās when I discovered a channel called Charger Games.
They had a full tutorial on building a 2D car racing game ā with code, assets, everything. It was a lifesaver.
š§Ŗ My First āClonedā Game (Thanks Charger Games)
I followed the entire tutorial, step by step.
Most of it was copy-paste and trial-and-error. But in the end?
ā
I submitted the project.
ā
It worked.
ā
I passed.
And that tiny victory felt amazing.
Soon after, I went back to Charger Gamesā channel and found a Brick Breaker tutorial.
I cloned that too ā just for fun. This time, I even modified a few things on my own.
Without realizing itā¦ I was learning to make games.
š§ I Didnāt Know I Was Becoming a Dev
I wasnāt planning a career in games yet. I was just trying to survive the semester. But those moments ā cloning projects, debugging builds, changing sprites ā planted a seed.
I learned how Unity scenes work
I touched C# for the first time
I learned the value of getting something to just run
Thatās how it all began ā not with a grand plan, but with a cloned game, a YouTube tutorial, and a need to pass a class.
š Up Next: Episode 3 ā First Industry Steps: My Internship in Game Development (2017)
What was your first Unity project? Did you clone something too?
Let me know ā and if Charger Games helped you, give them a shoutout š
Thanks for reading!