Unity+3D

=**Description**= Unity is a cross-platform game engine designed to make the creation of interactive games easier and more accessible to independent developers. With now over 200,000 registered developers and over 30 million installations of their plugin for viewing interactive games over the web it is one of the fastest growing game engines available [1 ]. This highly extensible system has been used by the likes of Cartoon Network, Coca-Cola, Electronics Arts, and many others.


 * [[image:unity3d.jpg]] ||
 * = Figure 1 ||

The primary version of Unity is free to download and contains all the functionality that is likely to be needed by the average educational developer. The application __does__ require some programming skills to create functionality with objects placed within the game environment. However, even a new programmer could find themselves up and running in less than day. Additionally, because of its widespread acceptance there is a large developer community and many tutorials that can have you finishing your first game in less than a day.

//Platform Support:// //Current: iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad, Mac, PC, Web, Wii, Xbox 360// //Coming: Android, PlayStation 3//

=History= Unity Technologies began development of its engine in 2001 and launched it in 2005 at Apple's World Wide Developer Conference. During this early stage the Unity development platform worked solely on a Mac, and could only be published to Windows or Mac operating systems. Over the next 4 years Unity Technologies would grow by leaps and bounds. Technologically the development platform could now be run on windows while Wii and iPhone were added as distribution platforms. The company then received a large capital investment by venture capitalists known for funding brands like Electronic Arts, Apple, and Google 1]. This additional capital enabled Unity to provide a significant portion of the engine for free as well as increase the size of their company three fold. Since then the additional platforms of Xbox 360 and iPad have continued to prove Unity 3D as the cross platform engine of choice.

**Impact on Teaching and Learning** Unity 3D has significantly increased the accessibility of interactive content for research and practical application. With a relatively low learning curve this free engine provides a powerful solution to the future of serious game development. It has already been used in a wide variety of educational situations such as training modules, medical simulations, and architectural visualizations. Additionally, since Unity can be connected with any .NET framework it also has the inherent ability to submit information to Learning/Content Management Systems. Figure 2 below shows Unity being used to test the effectiveness of immersive environments in education. Further information about that project can be found in the research section below or at this link.


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 * = Figure 2 ||

The future of serious games as a financially feasible business model, a practical method of teaching, and as a realistic tool for the average teacher to self-create is still in question. In fact, some researchers and educators feel like they are unable to compete with the quality of content coming from the gaming industry. It is believed that this lack of visual comparison to high-end video games may cause less than desirable educational results [[|2]]. None-the-less, it seems obvious that interactive content will be a growing element of education whether we are ready for it or now. The game industry is projected to grow at an annual compound rate of 9.1% per year 3]. This means more money flowing into the development and refining of the tools used to develop games bringing layman creation closer than ever before. Perhaps one day the world will see widespread home based development of interactive applications as it has seen with video production and photo manipulation.

=Examples or Demonstrations=

Unity Examples:
Tropical Paradise - [] Shadows & Physics - []

Educational Examples:
Math - [] Citizenship & Geography - [] Corporate Education - [] Physics (Goo World) - [] Wolf Culture - []

Research:
Immersive Education Research - []

=Developer List:= Game List - []

=References:= [1] [] [2] [] [3] []

=External Links:= Serious Games Initiative - []

=Author:= Jon Kevan is a Education Technology Masters student at University of Hawaii at Manoa. He current owns and operates the medical animation company Seyet LLC, and develops interactive educational content using Unity 3D. email: jkevan@hawaii.edu