Some sort of a text editor or Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is required for coding. Here we provide some options and recommendations.

 

Course recommended editors for Unity & C#

Visual Studio

• 1st recommendation for Windows users
• Community edition is free
• Integrates the ✨Copilot AI✨
• Note Visual Studio and VSCode are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PRODUCTS

 

VSCode (Visual Studio Code)

• 1st recommendation for Mac users
• Free
• Integrates the ✨Copilot AI✨
• Note Visual Studio and VSCode are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PRODUCTS

 

Other editors with good Unity & C# support

Jetbrains Rider

• Strong C# editor with great Unity support
• Paid, 30 day trial, for individuals then ~15€/mo
• Integrated AI features are another 10€/mo

 

Cursor

• VSCode fork that claims a quicker and more flexible ✨AI integration✨
• Currently recommend to use Claude 3.5 Sonnet as the AI model

 

Some other editors (there are many)

Sublime Text

• Nice lightweight code-focused text editor
• Pay-if-you-want, basically free with a nag

 

Notepad++

• Another lightweight code-focused text editor

 

Neovim

• For the hardcore
• Modal editor, many keybindings and things to learn
• Some people love it and want vi bindings in all other editors too
• If you go this way make sure you also have time for the materials and assignments

 

Zed

• “Multiplayer editor” — collaboration features built-in
• Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) for AI features, e.g. create account at https://console.anthropic.com and pay Anthropic per usage
• Currently recommend to use Claude 3.5 Sonnet as the AI model

 

Not recommended

Visual Studio for Mac

• Retiring on August 31, 2024, not recommended