Unity 3D - Creating a collectible using simple 3D cube and particle effects. Can use for 3D and 2D.

In this tutorial, I'll create a collectible game object using simple graphics and 3D cube in Unity 3D with particle effects, animation, and simple graphics. Can you be used for both 2D and 3D games!! Also check out How to Make a Bounce Game Series https://bit.ly/39HIYBU. 👉🏼 To Sign up for email

This tutorial turns a plain Unity cube into a glowing, spinning, particle-wreathed collectible — and every technique works in both 2D and 3D games. No models, no custom shaders: just a material with a hand-made normal map, an animation clip, two particle systems, and an animated light.

Step 1 — The diamond cube

Create an empty named Collectible (a container for everything that follows), and inside it a 3D cube rotated onto its points so it reads as a diamond, scaled to 0.5. Make a new material called collectible and drag it onto the cube.

Step 2 — Texture, normal map, and emission

In Photoshop, paint a gold-yellow fill with a saturated orange-red center and save it as the face texture; drag it into the material's Base Map slot. To make that red center look carved in, build a height image: white background (high points), the center shape desaturated and painted dark (low points). Run it through the free Normal Map Online tool — drop the gray image in, tune sharpness and strength, keep blurriness low to preserve the boxy edge — and download the PNG. In Unity, set its texture type to Normal Map, then drag it into the material's Normal Map slot: the flat face suddenly has depth. Finish with Emission enabled and a yellow emission color, intensity pulled down so the glow is warm rather than blown out.

Step 3 — Looping rotation animation

Open Window > Animation with the cube selected, create a clip named collectible item, and drop the sample rate from 60 to 12. Record a 360-degree Y rotation — 4 seconds feels right after 1 proves too fast. The default keyframes ease in and out, making the loop visibly pump; select the keyframes, right-click, and set Both Tangents to Linear for a seamless continuous spin. Add a gentle bob by lowering the cube slightly mid-clip, copying the first keyframe to the end, and making those tangents linear too.

Step 4 — Two particle systems

Particles Up: a child particle system rotated -90 on X so it emits upward, cone angle reduced until it's effectively a cylinder, radius shrunk to the cube's footprint. Enable looping and Prewarm (particles exist the moment the game starts), then randomize with Random Between Two Constants: lifetime 0.2-0.8, speed 1-2, size 0.1-0.5, and start color Random Between Two Colors from yellow to orange-red. Particles Circle: duplicate the first system, switch its shape from cone to sphere so it emits all around, lower the alpha, shrink the radius, and slow the speed to 0.2-1. On both, enable Color Over Lifetime with alpha fading to zero so particles dissolve instead of popping out of existence.

Step 5 — Animated point light

Dim the directional light for a nighttime mood, then add a point light inside the collectible with a small range and intensity around 5, casting a pool of glow on the ground. Because the light lives inside the animated container, you can record it in the same clip: intensity rises toward 5 as the cube dips low and falls back to 3 as it rises, so the ground glow breathes with the bob. Add a collider when you drop it into a real game — 2D or 3D to match your project — and the collectible is ready to pick up.