Introducing Xbox Academy: Microsoft's new free game development workshop that teaches people how to use Unity

The workshop is in partnership with Playground Games, the studio behind Forza

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Microsoft Store has launched Xbox Academy
Microsoft
Jack Webb @JackWebb924 September 2020

If game development is your thing or you're just interested in seeing how games are made, Microsoft's new Xbox Academy workshop is for you.

Microsoft Store has launched its brand new Xbox Academy – a free, digital workshop, offering people courses in video game development.

The workshops, which will run throughout September, will be hosted by East London Arts and Music (ELAM) and Playground Games, a Bafta-award-winning Xbox Game Studios company responsible for the Forza racing games and the recently-announced new Fable game.

Microsoft hopes that these Xbox Academy courses will inspire the next generation of games creators, aiming to give them insight into the game design and development process.

Simple steps on how to get started
Microsoft

Curtis Le Blanc, Director of Games at East London Arts and Music, said: “It's a real pleasure to work with the talented people of Playground Games and Microsoft Store in delivering these sessions.

Many of the students at ELAM have started their education in games development and other areas based on the inspiration from industry leaders just like the game creators at Playground."

The workshops will be all digital and all you need to do to attend is sign up and watch along on your computer.

Ahead of each session, participants will be provided with instructions to get set up ahead of the workshop, including downloading the latest version of Unity and 3D Game Kit.

Earlier in the week, we were invited to a preview session to one of these workshops where we were given a crash course in Unity, which is free game-making software you can run and use on your computer.

We were lead through the process of downloading Unity and all the necessary add-ons to get the software to work and followed along as we saw a 3D platformer game come to life.

The Unity game-maker interface can be daunting...
Unity

The course goes into detail about how game developers tackle the creation of levels; from creating simple routes to the objective versus trying to incentivise the player of the game to take a risk and go for the more difficult option.

An example of this our sessions was having a bridge from the start area to the end. As we learned more about Unity and what we're able to do, we were shown how to create an alternative route to the end, offering more of a risk-reward style of play to get to the objective.

We found the session to be extremely insightful and rewarding, giving an understanding of the more technical side of game-making, touching upon the overall level design and difficulty.

Whether you have dreams of one day making your own game or if you have an insatiable thirst for all things gaming, the courses are designed to help elucidate how studios get started.

Granted, as we followed along and created our own game, in the end, it didn't turn into anything special. But, as the session comes to a close, you are shown how to export what you've made and encouraged to upload it to websites like Itch.IO and get feedback from the community.

Xbox Academy is one of many virtual workshops and training being offered by Microsoft Store associates – to inspire, serve and help upskill anyone who wants to learn the process.

“I'm thrilled that Playground Games is part of Xbox Academy and that our team members Maria Lee and Ryan Greene can share their experience and knowledge,” added Gavin Raeburn, Studio Director of Playground Games.

"This event is another great way that we can pass on some of the expertise within the studio to inspire the next generation of game creators.”

Spaces are limited so head to https://microsoftevent.eventbuilder.com/XboxAcademy to register for one of four sessions being run across September 12 and 13.