New to Game Development - I'm not sure what I should be learning to make this type of game

I would like to optimize my learning path to include a focus on the functions required to develop a game I’ve had in mind for years. The trouble I’m having is that I have no idea how these types of games utilize the various components available with game engines like Unity.

I do have development experience in multiple languages, but I’ve never worked with graphics, games, etc and so I’m kind of lost when it comes to figuring out whether I should be learning / using sprites, widgets, 3D, etc. I’m hoping to get some pointers on how other similar games might be doing it so that I can get a better idea of what I should be experimenting with and learning. (Of course, that would be after foundational topics like getting around Unity, etc).

My game idea is inspired by games like Uplink, Hacknet, and Nite Team 4, where it’s not really a world you travel around in, but an interface you use, like software, maps, terminals, email, etc. I imagine games like Hacknet simply use text input / output controls, but Uplink and NT4 have more interaction and animation, and with NT4 being much newer, some 3D (2D?) as well. But, what are they using to achieve that? How?

I realize the “how” is a very broad question, but I’m hoping someone can point me in the direction I should be marching. What topics should I be aiming to dig into?

** I did try to through some google-fu at this question, but when using the terms hack, hacking, hacker, and game, the vast majority of the results are about reverse engineering, creating cheats, and otherwise hacking existing games. Trying to search for creating a game entirely based on GUI, UI, Interface, etc also included a majority of results about using Unity’s UI, Main menus, etc.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Man, I came into this thread expecting to have to type out the same old thing I always say for these types of posts, but it turns out your situation is a lot simpler. Just look into Unity’s UI system. Since you can effectively do everything to clone an Uplink/Hacknet game using the UI and your own programming ability, that should be enough to get you started.

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Just to add to @Schneider21 's answer, you should definitely start by learning to use Unity’s UI system in the standard ways — that is, just a hierarchy of UI widgets that you show and hide as needed (often making great use of Unity Events). But you also mentioned wanting more interaction — don’t dive into that right away, but when you need it, you can approach that either using Unity’s animation system (which works just as well for UI objects as it does for sprites or 3D models), or by simply writing code to move UI elements around via their RectTransform.

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Thank you both, @Schneider21 @JoeStrout !

Both answers are perfect and I feel more confident now on where I should be investing my time. And noted on animation. It’s good to know that’s what I should be looking at when the time comes.

Truly appreciated.

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