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Responsibilities

     I developed and taught a 3 hour beginner’s crash course on the Unity Engine. For this I created a 30 slide presentation going over how Unity functions. I taught about how Unity is an object orientated engine and how you can create games by making objects interact with each other.

     When teaching how to code with Unity I decided to go forward with teaching the basics of C# (instead of Java or Unity's new visual scripting). I chose this because learning the fundamentals of C# scripting is important to all beginner developers. You can make quality games in other programming languages or even visual scripting, but I feel like for the Unity Engine specifically its helpful to learn C# to set the foundations of your knowledge on how the engine works .

Goals

     The two goals of my workshop were to have all my students develop their own physics based ball rolling game, and to help them understand each step of making that game. I built the game and then walked the students through what each line of code did and how they could further develop that prototype.

     My course started with a brief explanation of Unity and how it worked. I described how Unity is both a 3D and 2D game engine and how it has a variety of applications. Then I did a brief explanation of all the Unity scripting fundamentals and object orientated scripting theory. This part of course had me explaining things like void Update, Start, OnCollisionEnter/Stay/Exit, Awake and other C# fundamental functions. I went over how the students can use this information to make their ball move, make their ball jump, and complete levels by having their ball collide with a victory flag.

     Along with this I also discussed the Unity component system. We went over adding geometry colliders, rigid bodies, scripts, and audio sources to game objects. We also went over how they can interact with those components in their code to make things like jumping sound effects, changing the ball's speed, and other changeable variables. Once we finished going over all the course material the students began scripting and following along as I deconstructed my prototype to them.

Outcome

     The course was a success as the students all walked away with a functioning prototype. There were two students in particular who showed a genuine passion to learn and kept asking for clarification and further explanation as to how Unity works. After talking with them, I learned they wanted to make their own roguelike together. After the Jam, I continued to offer support and I even video called a few times to help them troubleshoot some bugs in their game. I mention this because it felt so fulfilling to actually be able to spark interest in game development and to help young students build their dream game.

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