Unity C# Coding Conventions & Best Practices

.This guide outlines standard naming conventions, member ordering, and Unity-specific coding practices to help maintain clean, consistent, and scalable code across Unity projects.

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1 ✅ Naming Conventions

This is the first and the foremost thing you should improve in your code. This alone holds the power to make your code look organised and professional.

🔹 Class, Interface, and Enum Names

• Use PascalCase

public class GameManager {}
public interface IInteractable {}
public enum WeaponType { Sword, Bow, Gun }

🔹 Fields

• Private fields: camelCase with _ prefix (which I do not prefer or recommend due to its ugly look and unnecessary effort in finding a variable when coding; so, I simply use camelCase without the underscore)

• Public fields: PascalCase

• Constants: ALL_CAPS_SNAKE_CASE

[SerializeField] private float _movementSpeed;
public string PlayerName;
private const int MAX_LIVES = 3;

🔹 Methods

• Use PascalCase for all method names

public void TakeDamage(int amount) {}

🔹 Local Variables & Parameters

• Use camelCase

void Move(float speed)
{
    float adjustedSpeed = speed * 2f;
}

🔹 Properties

• Use PascalCase, and expose only when necessary

public int Health { get; private set; }

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2 🧱 Member Ordering (Inside a Class)

This one is more on the beautification side but beautiful_code = readable_code💡

Organize class members in the following order:

🧪 Example

public class PlayerController : MonoBehaviour
{
    // 1. Constants
    private const float Gravity = 9.81f;

    // 2. Static Fields and Methods
    private static int _globalScore;
    public static void ResetScore()
    {
        _globalScore = 0;
    }

    // 3. Instance Fields
    public float speed;
    protected Rigidbody rb;
    [SerializeField] private int _health;
    private bool _isAlive;

    // 4. Unity Event Methods
    private void Awake()
    {
        rb = GetComponent<Rigidbody>();
    }

    private void Start()
    {
        _health = 100;
        _isAlive = true;
    }

    private void Update()
    {
        Move();
    }

    // 5. Public Methods
    public void TakeDamage(int amount)
    {
        _health -= amount;
        if (_health <= 0) Die();
    }

    // 6. Protected Methods
    protected virtual void Die()
    {
        _isAlive = false;
    }

    // 7. Private Methods
    private void Move()
    {
        rb.velocity = new Vector3(Input.GetAxis("Horizontal") * speed, rb.velocity.y, 0);
    }

    private bool IsAlive()
    {
        return _isAlive;
    }

    // 8. Coroutines / Event Handlers
    private IEnumerator FadeOut()
    {
        yield return new WaitForSeconds(1f);
    }
}

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3 🔐 Access Modifiers

• Always declare your variables and functions with access modifiers (public, private, protected, internal)

• Prefer private fields and expose them through public properties or [SerializeField]

• Avoid public fields unless absolutely necessary

[SerializeField] private int _ammoCount;
public int AmmoCount => _ammoCount;

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4 ✏️ Formatting & Style

🔹 Braces

• Use Allman style: braces go on a new line

if (isActive)
{
    Activate();
}

🔹 Variable Declarations

• One variable per line

private int _score;
private float _speed;

🔹 Spacing

• Add blank lines between logical code blocks and method definitions

📌 Tip: Keep Related Things Close Together

For example, if you have a Jump() method and jumpForce variable, keep them near each other. You can also use #region in C# to logically group related code. This is especially helpful when your code stretches for 100s of lines which it will when following all these formatting standards.

#region Jump

[SerializeField] private float jumpForce;
private void Jump() { ... }

#endregion

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5 🗂️ File Structure & Namespaces

• One public class per file

• File name should match the class name exactly

• Use namespaces to reflect folder hierarchy and logical organization (needed for larger codebases where your class names might conflict with Unity’s classes)

namespace Game.Enemies.Bosses
{
    public class DragonBoss {}
}

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🔗Refer this super informative blog for more in-depth guidelines.