Day 3: Setting up a Professional Layout for Unity

Having to switch back and forth between views seems inefficient. Lets see if we can do better.

It’s time to set up a proper workspace for Unity development. There’s a lot of windows in which to view the game as it’s being created, and we don’t want to have to waste time having to switch between them all. So today we’ll set up a layout that is highly recommended by Jonathan Weinberger, who has used Unity to make video game and enterprise apps for the last ten years.

First we should click the “Default” layout button in the top left, and change it to “Tall”. This gives us a lot of space to properly view objects that are added to the scene. Next, we can grab the Game View tab and drag it downward.

This allows us to see the Game View and Scene View at the same time. You can even change the orientation of the Game View by dragging it to the side. This could be useful if we were developing a mobile game that is displayed vertically.

Here I show how moving an object in the Scene View also affects the Game View.

Next, the Project window (in the bottom middle of the screen) is a bit cramped, since there’s not much space to view a long list of assets. Lets change the layout from “Two Columns” to “One Column”.

Finally we can save this layout by clicking the top right Tall label again, clicking Save Layout and typing in a name for this layout. Now if we change things further, we can use this option to quickly get back to this layout.

All done! Finally, it’s time to start making games like a professional.