Unity_GitHubActionsAndPages: Project showing the Unity + GitHub Actions build and deploy to GitHub Pages

A sample Unity project demonstrating how to build and deploy a WebGL build using GitHub Actions and host it via GitHub Pages.
This project uses game.ci for Unity CI integration.

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🧭 Table of Contents

• Overview
• Live Demo
• Features
• Setup Instructions
• License

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📌 Overview

This project is created as an experiment to show the build and publish capabilities of GitHub actions for a Unity project. The workflow heavily relies on the use of game.ci and GitHub Actions. The final project will be published on GitHub Pages

Each time a new PullRequest is merged into master the build-and-deploy-WebGL workflow will trigger, building and publishing the Unity project for WebGL. The build artifact is then pushed to the WebGLBuild branch. Which in turn is used as a source for GitHub pages.

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🚀 Live Demo

Play the project here.

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🎮 Features

• 🔄 CI/CD – Fully automated build and deploy workflow with GitHub Actions.
• 🌐 WebGL Output – Hosted on GitHub Pages for easy sharing.
• 🧱 Unity Sandbox – Move 0-friction blocks around with WASD in a minimal Unity scene.

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🛠 Setup Instructions

If you would like to apply this simple workflow to your Unity project, follow these steps:

1. Disable Compression Format in Unity

GitHub Pages does not support Brotli or gzip compression natively.

1. Open your Unity project
2. Go to Edit > Project Settings > Player > Publishing Settings
3. Set Compression Format to Disabled

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2. Create the Build Branch

This branch will host your compiled WebGL build.

git checkout -b WebGLBuild
git push origin WebGLBuild

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3. Configure GitHub Pages

1. Go to your repository on GitHub
2. Navigate to Settings > Pages
3. Under Branch, choose WebGLBuild, and set the folder to / (root)
4. Save your changes

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4. Add the GitHub Actions Workflow

1. Go to: ./.github/workflows/
2. Copy the contents of build-and-deploy-WebGL.yml
3. In your GitHub project:
   1. Open the Actions tab
   2. Press New workflow
   3. Choose Skip this and set up a workflow yourself
   4. Paste the contents of the build-and-deploy-WebGL.yml
4. Update the file
   1. Line 30 & 44: Point to your Unity project folder
   2. Line 61 & 85: Change WebGLBuild with your build branch name
   3. Line 85: Change FlorisDeVries/Unity_GitHubActionsAndPages to your repository name
5. Rename the workflow and press Commit changes...

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5. Set Up Your Personal Access Token (PAT)

1. Create a new token: Personal Access Tokens
2. Select Only select repositories, then select your project repository
3. Add minimally required Repository permissions to Access Token:
   1. Contents => Read and write
   2. Metadata => Read-only
4. Copy and save your token securely
5. Add it to your repo
   1. GoTo Settings > Secrets and variables > Actions
   2. Create a New repository secret
      1. Name: ACTIONS_PAT
      2. Value: Token value

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6. Add Unity License and Credentials

You’ll need your Unity license for CI builds:

1. Open Unity Hub
2. Go to Preferences > Licenses
3. Click Add → Choose license type (e.g., Personal)

4. Locate your license file:

   1. Windows: C:\ProgramData\Unity\Unity_lic.ulf
   2. Mac: /Library/Application Support/Unity/Unity_lic.ulf
   3. Linux: ~/.local/share/unity3d/Unity/Unity_lic.ulf

5. Add the following secrets to your GitHub repo:

   • UNITY_EMAIL: your Unity account email
   • UNITY_PASSWORD: your Unity password

     NOTE: If you use SSO sign-in (e.g. Apple, Google, Facebook or other), go to Unity Cloud → Security and create a specific password.

   • UNITY_LICENSE: contents of the .ulf license file

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7. Try It Out 🎉

Push to the main branch to trigger the workflow.

Or, add this to your workflow YAML to enable manual triggering:

on:
  push:
    branches: [ main ]
  workflow_dispatch:

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📄 License

MIT © Floris de Vries

📚 Resources

Here are some helpful links and references related to this project:

• 🎮 Unity

  • Unity Manual – WebGL Deployment
  • Unity Licensing FAQ

• 🤖 CI/CD & Automation

  • game.ci Documentation
  • GitHub Actions Documentation
  • GitHub Pages Documentation

• 🔐 Authentication & Security

  • Creating a Personal Access Token (GitHub)
  • Unity Cloud Account Settings

• 💡 Related Projects & Examples

  • game-ci/unity-actions (GitHub)

• 🛡️ Badges

  • shields.io