Unity 3D Playmaker - Runner Series - Basic Setup Tutorial

In this tutorial runner series, I'll be looking at the basic setup game structure that you can use for all kinds of games from runners, stackers, subway surfer. In this video I'll cover basic Unity 3D Playmaker setup! Also check out How to Make a Bounce Game Series https://bit.ly/39HIYBU. Content

This opener for the Runner series builds the foundation everything else sits on: a fresh Unity project targeted at mobile, a working layout, and Playmaker fully installed. The base game you start here is deliberately generic — the series will grow it into something you could turn into a Subway Surfers-style runner, a stacker, or other games, with topics like level generation and curved-world shaders ahead.

Create the project and arrange the editor

Start a new Universal Render Pipeline project named game base. Layout is personal, but here's a setup worth copying: dock the Project window on the left and switch it from two columns to one via the three-dot menu — simpler and narrower. Keep the Hierarchy where it is, Console at the bottom, Inspector on the right, and dock the Game view beside the Scene view so you can watch both at once.

Switch to the mobile platform

The Game view's aspect dropdown won't offer mobile formats until the project targets a mobile platform. Go to File > Build Settings, pick iOS (install the iOS module first if it's missing), and click Switch Platform. After the switch, the Game view gains phone resolutions — choose iPhone X portrait and collapse the window down so you're designing in a true mobile portrait frame from day one.

Install Playmaker and the Ecosystem

Playmaker is the visual scripting tool the whole series runs on; buy it on the Asset Store if you don't own it. In the Package Manager under My Assets, search Playmaker, import it, then run the editor install. It warns you to back up first — sensible advice, though at the very start of an empty project there's nothing to lose. Let it import all its actions. Then grab the one add-on worth having immediately: the Ecosystem browser, downloaded as a package from the Playmaker website. Double-click the downloaded package and import. Uncheck show at startup on the welcome window so it stops popping up.

Dock the working windows

Open the Playmaker Editor from the new Playmaker menu and dock it next to the Console. Then open the Action Browser (Playmaker > Editor Windows) — it lists every pre-built C# action you can drop into states — and dock it beside the Inspector. Round out the layout with the Animation and Animator windows docked at the bottom. Finally, in the default sample scene, keep the post-processing volume (it's already configured and useful later) and delete the sample assets. That's a complete, ready-to-build Playmaker workspace — basic setup, but it's the road every game in this series starts on.