Gem Hunter Match is an official Unity cross-platform sample project that showcases the capabilities of 2D lighting and visual effects in the Universal Render Pipeline (URP) in Unity 2022 LTS. It’s been tested on popular desktop computers and common iOS and Android devices.

This is a sample slice of the popular grid-based, match 3 genre. Gem Hunter Match shows developers and artists how they can use multiple 2D light techniques, available with URP and Unity 2022 LTS, that can make static objects and casual gameplay more fun, interesting, and visually appealing.

The techniques you’ll see in the sample include using:

• A Sprite Custom Lit Shader Graph to apply custom lighting per tile.
• VFX Graph to create glare and ripple effects.
• The Tilemap system for the gameplay logic and background board visuals.
• UI Toolkit for in-game UI.
• The 2D Animation package for smooth skeletal animation and Inverse Kinematics (IK).
• A sprite mask and render texture to add the character to the UI.

We recommend you read the supporting mini-manual that accompanies this sample to fully understand the steps to create these URP 2D lighting techniques in your Unity projects.

Another helpful resource is the Unite 2023 talk, Lighting and AI techniques for your 2D game, which provides an overview of the main effects in Gem Hunter Match.

Get started with Gem Hunter Match

This sample shows how you can create great-looking 2D dynamic lighting in match 3, word, and card games, in which static scenes and gameplay are common.

The sample uses the Sprite Custom Lit Shader Graph to create custom lighting that illuminates the pieces in a simple but visually appealing way. This custom shader is combined with out-of-the-box 2D lighting features, secondary textures, and VFX Graph capabilities in URP.

You can add the sample content to your own creative (non-commercial) projects or add your own systems, graphics, levels, or collectables to the sample.

Visit Unity Samples to explore individual files in this sample.

How to play Gem Hunter Match

Open the Main scene in the Scenes folder, or any of the levels directly, and press Play. You control everything with the mouse or touch screen; swipe gems to line up at least three of the same color, remove blockers like the wooden box by matching next to it, or the rope, by matching the gems underneath it. Matches of more than three gems generate boosters and coins that you can use to purchase additional boosters in the shop when you complete a level.

Distributed under the Unity Companion License (“License”). Unity Technologies ApS (“Unity”) grants to you a worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, and royalty-free copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, and distribute the software that accompanies this License, subject to the following restrictions, terms, and conditions. Link