Unity simple countdown timer not working (C#)

Question

I'm trying to add a simple countdown timer to my game in Unity but the timer does not go down in game. Programming language is C#.

Here's my code:

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.UI;
using UnityEngine.SceneManagement;
using System.Collections;

public class GameManager : MonoBehaviour
{
    public static GameManager instance;

    private int score, highScore;
    public Text scoreText, highScoreText;

    private float time;
    public Text timeText;

    public bool started, gameOver;

    public GameObject gameOverPanel;
    public Text gameOverScore, gameOverHighScore;
    public Button playAgain;

    void Start()
    {
        instance = GetComponent<GameManager>();

        score = 0;
        scoreText.text = "Score: " + score;
        highScore = PlayerPrefs.GetInt("HighScore");
        highScoreText.text = "Highscore: " + highScore;

        time = 45;
        gameOver = false;
        UpdateTime();
    }

    void Update()
    {
        if (started)
        {
            time -= Time.deltaTime;
            UpdateTime();
            if (time <= 0)
            {
                GameOver();
            }
        }
    }

    public void IncreaseScore()
    {
        score++;
        scoreText.text = "Score: " + score;
        time += 5;
        UpdateTime();
    }

    public void StartTimer()
    {
        time = 45;
        started = true;
    }

    public void UpdateTime()
    {
        string minutes = Mathf.Floor(time / 60).ToString("00");
        string seconds = Mathf.Floor(time % 60).ToString("00");
        timeText.text = string.Format("Time: {0}:{1}", minutes, seconds);
    }

    private void GameOver()
    {
        time = 0;
        UpdateTime();
        started = false;
        gameOver = true;
        gameOverPanel.SetActive(true);
        gameOverScore.text = "Final Score: " + score;
        if (score > highScore)
        {
            gameOverHighScore.text = "High Score: " + score;
            PlayerPrefs.SetInt("HighScore", score);
        }
        else
        {
            gameOverHighScore.text = "High Score: " + score;
        }
    }

    public void LoadGame()
    {
        SceneManager.LoadScene("GameScene");
    }
}

I think there's an issue somewhere in the UpdateTime() function. I mostly followed tutorials online to get here as I'm only a beginner so please don't judge too harshly and I'll try my best to understand any answers you give me. I feel I haven't made any mistakes and I'm not receiving any compilation errors in my Unity console either. Thank you.

Answer 1

You need to put your started variable to true in the Start() with started = true;

void Start() {
    instance = GetComponent<GameManager>();

    score = 0;
    scoreText.text = "Score: " + score;
    highScore = PlayerPrefs.GetInt("HighScore");
    highScoreText.text = "Highscore: " + highScore;

    time = 45;
    gameOver = false;
    UpdateTime();
    started = true; //HERE
}

If you dont do that, the if (started) in the Update() is always false, so the code inside will never run.

Answer 2

you never call start timer.

your start method should look like this

void Start()
{
    instance = GetComponent<GameManager>();

    score = 0;
    scoreText.text = "Score: " + score;
    highScore = PlayerPrefs.GetInt("HighScore");
    highScoreText.text = "Highscore: " + highScore;

    gameOver = false;
    StartTimer();
    UpdateTimer();
}

Because you never call StartTimer from your start method. your started variable is always false and never gets updated.