When we first launch Unity, we might be intimidated by all the areas, tabs, menus, and buttons on the interface. Unity is a complex game engine with a lot of functionality, so we should expect more components for us to interact with. If we break the interface down into separate components, we can examine each one independently to gain a thorough understanding of the entire interface.

As you can see here, we have identified six primary areas of the interface. We will examine each of these in subsequent sections. As you will quickly learn, this interface is customizable. The following screenshot shows the default configuration of the Unity user interface.

In the next sections, we will cover each of the following components indicated by the preceding screenshot:

• Menu
• Scene view
• Game view
• Project window
• Hierarchy...

The Unity editor's main menu bar, as depicted here, consists of eight pull-down options. We will briefly review each menu option in this section. Additional details will be provided in subsequent chapters, as we start developing our Cucumber Beetle game:

Unity's menus are contextual. This means that only menu items pertinent to the currently selected object will be enabled. Other non-applicable menu items will appear as gray instead of black and not be selectable.

The Unity menu item, shown here, gives us access to information about Unity, our software license, display options...

Referring to the first screenshot in this chapter, the Scene view is typically in the center of the Unity editor and might be tabled alongside the Game view tab. 

The Scene view is where you will spend most of your time working on your game. You will build and manipulate your game levels here. Some of the actions you will take in this view are adding and modifying game characters, lights, cameras, and other objects related to your game. 

As shown in the following screenshot, the Scene view has a set of controls lining the top of the interface. This is referred to as the control bar:

An overview of these controls follows:

Icon	Control	Description
	Render Mode	Various drawing options that impact how things are seen in Scene view.
	2D/3D	This is a toggle between 2D and 3D views.
	Lighting	Toggles lights on/off.
	Audio	Toggles audio on/off.

The Game view allows you to preview your game while you work on it in the editor. You do not manipulate your game in this view, but you can preview it. 

You can also play your game. To launch Game mode, you click the play button located in the top center of the toolbar:

You can make changes to your game while you are in Game mode. Any changes you make while in Game mode are temporary. Once you get out of Game mode, those changes will be automatically undone.

As shown in the following screenshot, the Game view has a set of controls lining the top of the interface. This is referred to as the control bar:

The following table includes each of the components of the aforementioned control bar. The image, name of control, and description are provided for each component:

Icon	Control	Description
	Display	If you have multiple cameras in your scene, you can change...

The Project window is one that you will use frequently and provides quick access to objects in your project. As you can see here, the Project window is organized in a hierarchical view on the left. Selecting a folder on the left reveals the contents in the panel on the right.

That panel displays breadcrumbs on top and has a slider in the bottom-right corner to control the size of the icons:

The Create drop-down menu in the top-left section of the Project window gives you quick access to creating a game asset in the current folder.

To the right of the Create drop-down menu is a search bar followed by three icons. The first two icons are Search by Type and Search by Label, respectively. The third icon allows you to save your search.

The Hierarchy window lists all GameObjects in the current scene. This is different than what is displayed in the Project window because a game project contains one or more scenes, and not every object in a project is in a scene. As you can see in the following screenshot, some items in the Hierarchy window have a triangle on the left. Clicking a triangle will expand the contents, showing child objects. Parenting, or subordinating GameObjects with one another, is important and something that you will gain exposure to as you start adding GameObjects to your game:

The Create drop-down menu in the top-left section of the Hierarchy window gives you quick access to creating game assets.

To the right of the Create drop-down menu is a search bar. Below the search bar and to the right is a menu icon. Clicking that icon reveals the following list of options:

As you can...

The Inspector window is where we can inspect our GameObjects. You will remember that GameObjects are composed of more than one component, and those components are what make the GameObjects worth having in our games. 

This example screenshot shows a ThirdPersonController GameObject with 11 components. The gray triangles to the left of each component allow you to expand the component and make any desired changes to that component's properties:

When you select a GameObject in Scene view, the Hierarchy window, or the Project window, the Inspector window will display the selected GameObject's components and properties. Each component has a different set of properties.

At the bottom of the Inspector window, when a GameObject has been selected, you will see the Add Component button. Clicking this button allows you to add a component to the current...