This tutorial explains how to set up a fall detector in a Unity 2D game that detects when the player has fallen off a platform or off the map and respawns the player back to a checkpoint. This will be covered across three tutorials. We will look at how to add checkpoints in the next tutorial.

Sample code

Here is the sample C# code for the PlayerController script up to the point shown in the above video. This script will be completed in the next two tutorials.

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class PlayerController : MonoBehaviour {

  public float speed = 5f;
  public float jumpSpeed = 8f;
  private float movement = 0f;
  private Rigidbody2D rigidBody;
  public Transform groundCheckPoint;
  public float groundCheckRadius;
  public LayerMask groundLayer;
  private bool isTouchingGround;
  private Animator playerAnimation;

  // Use this for initialization
  void Start () {
    rigidBody = GetComponent<Rigidbody2D> ();
    playerAnimation = GetComponent<Animator> ();
  }
  
  // Update is called once per frame
  void Update () {
    isTouchingGround = Physics2D.OverlapCircle (groundCheckPoint.position, groundCheckRadius, groundLayer);
    movement = Input.GetAxis ("Horizontal");
    if (movement > 0f) {
      rigidBody.velocity = new Vector2 (movement * speed, rigidBody.velocity.y);
      transform.localScale = new Vector2(0.1483552f,0.1483552f);
    }
    else if (movement < 0f) {
      rigidBody.velocity = new Vector2 (movement * speed, rigidBody.velocity.y);
      transform.localScale = new Vector2(-0.1483552f,0.1483552f);
    } 
    else {
      rigidBody.velocity = new Vector2 (0,rigidBody.velocity.y);
    }

    if(Input.GetButtonDown ("Jump") && isTouchingGround){
      rigidBody.velocity = new Vector2(rigidBody.velocity.x,jumpSpeed);
    }

    playerAnimation.SetFloat ("Speed", Mathf.Abs (rigidBody.velocity.x));
    playerAnimation.SetBool ("OnGround", isTouchingGround);
  }

  void OnTriggerEnter2D(Collider2D other){
    if (other.tag == "FallDetector") {
      // what will happen when the player enters the fall detector code (this will be added later)
    }
    if (other.tag == "Checkpoint") {
      respawnPoint = other.transform.position;
    }
  }

}

Next tutorial: Adding checkpoints in the game