I still can't understand the logic behind switching scenes between the gameplay scene and main menu?

Unity Engine
1

I have 3 scenes.

  1. Gameplay (Where all the game objects are stored)

  2. Main Menu

  3. Manager

Switching scenes is easy. And using the escape key to back to the main menu is also easy.
My problem is when I go back to the main menu and loading the main menu the Gameplay scene is removed or I need to remove it so the ui and other stuff of the Gameplay will not overlap with the Main Menu ui and stuff.

But then my whole game progress is destroyed too. And in my logic or in most of the games when you go back to the main menu the game is paused and you have a resume/continue button and a start a new game button.

My problem is that I don’t understand what and how should I do when going back to the main menu ? Should the game to be paused ? Should I remove the Gameplay scene or leave it with the Main Menu at the same time in the Hierarchy ? But if both scenes in the Hierarchy what next ?

I’m confused with the logic when going back to the main menu.

My game is a first person adventure.

2

Main menu in your case should be overlay. So you have your game as base scene. Then additive menu scene on top.
This way you don’t need to destroy base game scene, just show/hide UI panels in menu scene.

You can destroy base game scene, in case is game over/end game and back to menu. Otherwise just pause the game. But you probably could avoid switching scenes all together. Is just show/hide things on top.