For this course, students will use the UNITY Game Engine.

To install the Unity Game Engine you must first install Unity Hub (https://unity3d.com/get-unity/download). 

After installing Unity Hub, sign in with Google and/or create a unique Unity ID. 
On the left hand side of Unity Hub you will see an option that says "Installs". Click on the installs tab and then click the blue "Add" button on the top right corner. Install the latest "LTS" release (2019 as of this writing). This will install the actual Unity Game Engine. 

Unity runs on most Windows, Mac and Linux machines but the better your video card (GPU) and the more RAM you have (8GB bare minimum) the better the experience (regardless of platform). 

Please try and install the UNITY Engine PRIOR to class starting. Please see link above for downloading and installing.
Please be aware that UNITY is a professional software suite (that's great for kids!) but it does require a decent computer. The more RAM and the faster the hard drive (SSD's) the better it'll perform and the happier our learners will be! 



URLs for primary software used in this class: 

Unity - https://unity3d.com/get-unity/download 

Visual Studio Code - https://code.visualstudio.com/download

Blender - https://www.blender.org/download/

GIMP - https://www.gimp.org/downloads/ 

除了 Outschool 教室外，本課程也使用：
Unity Hub

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THIS CLASS - PARENTS PLEASE READ:
- This is a Game Development class that primarily uses the Unity Game Engine and Visual Studio Code to teach game design and coding respectively. 
- Planning, design, art, coding, math, science, music writing, reading, logic, coding, social science, etc., are some of the many topics covered in this class - NOT JUST CODING (like in real game / software development). 
- This is not a drop in class. Each class session and class level leads into the next.
- Unity Engine is professional software and we do our best to make it accessible to everyone. Please be patient as this is a group class and everyone is at different levels (this is a GREAT thing). 
- Troubleshooting is a major part of software/game development. You do not just write code and expect things to happen. There will be a lot of troubleshooting and learning why things fail in this class. PLEASE BE PATIENT as this is a massive part of the LEARNING PROCESS and of teaching SOFTWARE ENGINEERING skills. 
- Game development is very complex and does not happen in a bubble. Multiple programs will (must) be used. These programs include (but are not limited to) Unity Hub, Unity Engine (Game Development), Visual Studio Code (Coding) and more. These programs are also updated frequently (sometimes weekly) so there is a a lot of downloading, installing and troubleshooting in this class - just like in real professional game development. 
- Coding is NOT the sole focus of this class. While there will be coding (and it significantly increases by class level), coding alone does not make a video game. 
- Finally and most importantly, this is class is both EDUCATIONAL and FUN!!!!!!!!