Teaching computer game development with Unity

engine: a case study

Natalia V. Moiseienko1 , Mykhailo V. Moiseienko1 , Vladyslav S. Kuznetsov1 ,
Bohdan A. Rostalny1 and Arnold E. Kiv2,3
1
Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University, 54 Gagarin Ave., Kryvyi Rih, 50086, Ukraine
2
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O.B. 653, Beer Sheva, 8410501, Israel
3
South Ukrainian National Pedagogical University named after K. D. Ushynsky, 26 Staroportofrankivska Str., Odesa,
65020, Ukraine

Abstract
Computer game development is a popular and engaging topic that can motivate students to learn various
aspects of software engineering, such as design, programming, testing, and teamwork. However, there is
a lack of research on how to effectively teach this topic in the context of secondary education. In this
paper, we present our experience of designing and delivering a course on computer game development
for master’s students in the specialty 014.09 Secondary education (Informatics) at the Kryvyi Rih State
Pedagogical University. We describe the objectives, content, software tools, and teaching methods of the
course, as well as the challenges and outcomes of its implementation. We also evaluate the course using
a framework proposed by Ritzhaupt [1] based on student feedback and learning outcomes. Our results
show that the course was successful in achieving its goals and enhancing students’ knowledge and skills
in game development. We also identify some areas for improvement and provide recommendations
for future iterations of the course. We conclude that Unity Engine is a suitable platform for teaching
game development in secondary education, as it offers a low barrier to entry, a rich set of features, a
cross-platform compatibility, and a wide adoption in the game industry. We also argue that a team-based
approach is beneficial for fostering collaboration and creativity among students.

Keywords
computer game development, software engineering education, Unity Engine, secondary education

The software industry is a dynamic and market-oriented industry that requires constant
innovation and adaptation to changing customer needs and technological trends [2]. One of
the most prominent and lucrative segments of this industry is the video game industry, which
produces interactive entertainment products that appeal to a wide range of audiences and
platforms [3, 4].
According to a report by Gamesindustry.biz and Newzoo, the global games market value
reached $189.3 billion in 2022, surpassing the film and music industries combined (figure 1).

3L-Person 2022: VII International Workshop on Professional Retraining and Life-Long Learning using ICT: Person-oriented
Approach, October 25, 2022, Kryvyi Rih (Virtual), Ukraine
Envelope-Open [email protected] (N. V. Moiseienko); [email protected] (M. V. Moiseienko);
[email protected] (A. E. Kiv)
GLOBE https://kdpu.edu.ua/personal/nvmoiseienko.html (N. V. Moiseienko);
https://kdpu.edu.ua/personal/mvmoiseienko.html (M. V. Moiseienko);
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/author/38339185000 (A. E. Kiv)
Orcid 0000-0003-0789-0272 (N. V. Moiseienko); 0000-0003-4401-0297 (M. V. Moiseienko); 0000-0002-0991-2343
(A. E. Kiv)
© 2023 Copyright for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
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237
Figure 1: Global Games Market Value 2022 [5].

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The report also projected that the games market will grow to $217.9 billion by 2025, driven by
the increasing popularity of mobile, cloud, and streaming gaming [5].
Given the significance and potential of the video game industry, many educational institutions
that train software engineers have incorporated game development as a part of their curriculum.
The main motivations for teaching game development include enhancing the attractiveness
and effectiveness of the curriculum [6, 7, 8, 9, 10], preparing graduates for the competitive and
demanding game industry [11, 12], fostering teamwork and collaboration skills [13, 14], and
developing project management and problem-solving abilities [6, 7].
However, teaching game development is not without challenges and difficulties. Some of the
common barriers that hinder the integration of game development courses in higher education
are the lack of interdisciplinary skills, time constraints, insufficient interest and expertise among
teachers, and the perception that game development is not a serious academic topic [15, 16].
As teachers of Computer Science at the Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University, we believe
that offering an elective course on computer game development for master’s students in the
specialty 014.09 Secondary Education (Informatics) is a valuable and rewarding opportunity to
increase their motivation, engagement, and professional satisfaction.
The purpose of this paper is to share our experience and insights on designing and delivering
a course on computer game development using the Unity Game Engine [17], which is one of
the most widely used and powerful platforms for creating games across various genres and
devices. The aim of this course is to introduce students to the principles and practices of game
development using industry-standard software tools. We emphasize problem-solving, project
planning, SDK work, and teamwork as essential skills for successful game development. We
also view this course as a way to entertain and inspire students to pursue their passion and
creativity.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows: Section 2 reviews the related work on teaching
game development in higher education. Sections 3 and 4 describes the design and implemen-
tation of our course, including its objectives, content, software tools, and teaching methods.
Section 5 discusses the challenges and lessons learned from our experience. Section 6 concludes
the paper with some recommendations and future directions.

1. Background
The first task of the game development course was to select an approach. Defining the content,
goals and objectives of game development is an important step, especially in the light of limited
material and time resources.
A review of publications on the subject shows that the implementation of training programmes
on game development is quite diverse. It varies from individual courses (Jones [18], Parberry et al.
[19], Sweedyk and Keller [20]) and the inclusion of relevant sections in the traditional computer
science program (Coleman et al. [21]) before the course sequence (Clark et al. [22], Fachada
and Códices [23], Parberry et al. [24], Rocco and Yoder [25], Prokhorov et al. [26]). Content of
individual courses from the use of engines developed for training (Gamemaker [7], RPG Maker
[6], Alice [27]), development of own game engines (Labyrinth [28, 29], CAGE [30]), technical
design [24], Flash [31] to a complete game development training course covering all aspects of

239
the game [18, 16].
The idea of developing a proprietary engine seems tempting at first, but, in experience, does
not pay for itself by the time it takes, and eventually students will never see it again after the
course [32]. The real game engine should simplify and speed up the development process and
allow students to create interesting games in a short period of time. The problem of finding the
most suitable game engine for this course is not very simple, and there are different opinions
on this issue from the XNA Game Studio library to Unity and Unreal [32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 19, 37].
Dickson [32] offers to use the Unity game engine [17] to teach game development. Given its
widespread use in the industry (de Macedo and Rodrigues [38], Toftedahl and Engström [39])
and even for teaching game development in the middle school [40], this seems logical.
There are also several important CS sections directly used in the development of computer
games: the basics of physics, multimedia, network basics, computer graphics, and the basics of
game artificial intelligence (Ahlquist and Novak [41], Millington [42], Yannakakis and Togelius
[43]).
Game design usually refers to the design of the game and focuses on story, mechanics,
character modelling, environment, process content generation, etc., which is enough material to
take a whole semester without going into too much detail. There are many textbooks covering
these broad topics, such as Adams [44], Ahlquist and Novak [41], Saulter [45], Bond [46]. These
areas are compulsory for the course.

2. Selecting the software

Once the approach to the gaming course was defined, the next question we faced was what
tools to use to create games.
More recently, developers have made widely available many powerful game engines and
development environments that provide functionality for video game development. An overview
of some of the best known is presented below.
Godot Engine [47, 48]
Cost and Licensing: Completely free and open source under the permissive MIT license.
System Requirements (minimum): Memory: 4 GB, Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 6200,
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400, OS: Windows 7.
Platforms: Linux, Windows, OS X, Wii, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3, PS Vita, Android, iOS,
BBX, web-games with asm.js, NativeClient.
Overview and Features: Godot Engine is a feature-packed, cross-platform game engine to
create 2D and 3D games from a unified interface. It provides a comprehensive set of common
tools, so users can focus on making games without having to reinvent the wheel. Games can be
exported in one click to a number of platforms, including the major desktop platforms (Linux,
macOS, Windows) as well as mobile (Android, iOS) and web-based (HTML5) platforms.
Unity Engine [17]
Cost and Licensing: Personal Free version (your project revenue or funding cannot exceed
$100,000 a year), Unity Pro package $125 per month (includes an impressive amount of services
not included in the free version).
System Requirements (minimum): Graphics Card: DX10, DX11, and DX12-capable GPUs,

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CPU: X64 architecture with SSE2 instruction set support, Windows 7 (SP1+) and Windows 10,
64-bit versions only.
Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows Phone 8, BlackBerry, PS3, Xbox360, Wii U and web-
browsers.
Overview: Unity is a cross-platform game engine. The engine can be used to create 2D/3D,
virtual reality, and augmented reality games, as well as simulations and other experiences (Axon
[49], Takahashi [50]). The engine has been adopted by industries outside video gaming, such as
film, automotive, architecture, engineering and construction.
Features: Creating and Destroying GameObjects, Access the Components, Events for GameOb-
ject, Dealing with Vector Variables and Timing Variables, Physics Oriented Events, Coroutine
and Return Types.
Unreal Engin [34]
Cost and Licensing: Free (5% royalty on gross revenue more than $1,000,000),
System Requirements (minimum): CPU: Quad-core Intel or AMD processor, 2.5 GHz or faster,
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 470 GTX or AMD Radeon 6870 HD series card or higher, RAM:
8 GB Windows 7 64-bit or Mac OS X 10.9.2 or later.
Platforms: iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8, Xbox360, PS 3, PlayStation Vita, Wii U.
Overview and Features: Unreal Engine is a complete suite of development tools for anyone
working with real-time technology. From design visualizations and cinematic experiences to
high-quality games across PC, console, mobile, VR, and AR, Unreal Engine gives you everything
you need to start, ship, grow, and stand out from the crowd.
XNA Game Studio [35, 36, 51]
Cost and Licensing: Free download from Microsoft site.
System Requirements (minimum): Graphics Card Shader Model 1.1 support, DirectX 9.0
support, Operating System: Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 (All editions except Starter).
Platforms: Windows, Xbox 360, Zune.
Overview and Features: XNA Game Studio 2.0 – application framework, integrated develop-
ment environment. Features: Game component models, New framework library designed to
support Microsoft Windows, XBOX 360, and Zune game development, Integration with XNA
Framework Content Pipeline.
From an analysis of the capabilities of the video game development tools described, it can
be concluded that they are all quite powerful. The choice of a specific tool is determined by
the characteristics of the project being developed. Their use for educational purposes is almost
equal, although the choice may be influenced by the size of the proposed course.
The second parameter to choose the instrument was its cost. All the tools described are free
of charge for educational purposes and thus meet our needs.
The third, perhaps most essential, requirement is compliance with the minimum system
requirements of the equipment and associated software. State educational institutions are at
a disadvantage in this respect. Therefore, for the first version of the course “Computer game
development” in our university was chosen Microsoft XNA Game Studio, which has a narrower
range of possibilities.
We assumed that the experience of our students in C/C++ and C# programming would
allow them to easily learn XNA. However, we were wrong. By the end of the course, many of
them were halfway to the games. The greatest success was achieved by the group of students

241
who developed the Tower Defence class game, but it was completed as part of the bachelor’s
qualification work.
The problem with this approach is that in order for students to feel the process of developing
games, they need an environment that they can easily use to create games. The focus of the
course was to make the game good, not just work at all. We wanted our students to have
experience working with a real engine, real skills if they decided to develop games.
The situation improved after the computers at our university were upgraded. We were able
to work with a serious game engine. We decided to use the Unity Engine because it has a less
steep learning curve than Unreal. It can be used to develop games for any platform, including
the Web, for real games, not just training games for learning. Unity scripting can be done in C#
or JavaScript, with which our students have already had experience.

3. Organization of the course

We wanted to build the course in such a way that students could learn the basics of Unity
quickly enough and focus on creating the game for most of the semester.
After studying Paul E. Dickson’s works (Dickson [32], Dickson et al. [33]), our first thought
was to build a course based on a book with examples that could guide both us and our students,
for example, Unity 3.x Game Development Essentials [52]. One game is built throughout the
book, each chapter introduces a new concept and aspect of the game. All examples of code are
written in JavaScript and C#. This book quickly gives an idea of colliders, particle systems, etc.
for anyone with no experience in game development. The work on the book provides enough
information to study the basics of Unity.
One of the problems is the rapid development of Unity and the need to find relevant materials
for work. Unity has an active online community that helps to find textbooks to cope with the
new features and changes in Unity and could base the course on one of the online textbook
series. However, since the duration of the course was only one semester, it was necessary to
develop a manual sufficient to carry out the laboratory tasks in order to use the books only as
an additional source of information.
Our goal in this course is to give students a sense of the game development process with
a focus on project management, teamwork, and problem solving. The first part of the course
focuses on teaching students to use Unity, and the second part focuses on developing real play
by groups of students. Classes were held for 3 hours per week: 1 hour of lectures and 2 hours
of laboratory work. The basic structure of the course is shown in table 1, 2.
The method that we used in the first part of the course, to organize the study of Unity students,
was to combine work on the assignments in the classroom with the performance of additional
creative tasks by ourselves. In each work, students had to understand in detail what had been
done in the classroom in order to determine how to complete the extra assignment. During the
first part of the semester, students sought to learn how to solve various problems with Unity
before they began working on their final game projects that required these skills. During this
work, students built a basic game in which the player could control the movement and actions
of the character in their environment.

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Table 1
Course part 1. Basics of work in Unity.
Topics Dura- Course Materials Deliverables
tion,
hours
1. Introduction 3 Unity features. Examples of games created on Unity. Laboratory
to Unity Unity installation. The difference between 2d and 3d work 1
design. Overview of the main elements of the scene:
Camera, GameObject, Direction Light. Moving the
scene. Camera object. Location of objects on a 3d
scene.
2. Textures, 3 Adding new textures to the project. Creation and use Laboratory
materials and of materials. Shaders and their use. Work with ag- work 2
elements of the gregated characters and their components. Creating
scene a Terrain. Terrain Landscape Editor. Trees, grass and
surroundings. Placement of a player on Terrain.
3. Scripts and 3 Install Visual Studio Plug-in for Unity3d. Creating Laboratory
object move- scripts. Apply a script to an object on the stage. The work 3
ment structure of the automatically generated script. Creat-
ing a character movement using a script.
4. Player man- 3 Using the Asset store. Download unitypackage. Use Laboratory
agement ready-made unitypackage. Creating unitypackage. work 4
The structure of projects created by other developers.
Use of ready-made asset. Character Controller and
its application. Move the object with the keyboard.
Dynamic object creation.
5. User interface 3 User interface and its application. Examples of basic Laboratory
controls. Bindings and orientation of controls relative work 5
to the working area of the screen. Creating elementary
events. Customize Canvas to different screen resolu-
tion properties
6. Animation 3 Using ready-made character animations. Create your Laboratory
own animation. Editing curves. Structure and main work 6
properties of the Animation component. Animator
component

4. Results
It’s hard to measure success when students are building different games. By calling the game
playable, we mean that the students have created a mechanic for the game (possibly with minor
errors), combined the art assets with the mechanics and made some introduction (history, list of
game items) that enters into the game. In order to evaluate the results of our course “Computer
game development” we used some parameters offered by Ritzhaupt [1] to evaluate its such
course.

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Table 2
Course part 2. Game development based on Unity.
Topics Dura- Course Materials Deliverables
tion,
hours
1. Game Devel- 1 Game development life-cycle. Game terminology. Game Con-
opment Basics Overview of game industry cept plan
2. Creating a 3 Uploading models to the project. Features of creat- Characters
character ing game characters. Customize avatars for models modelling
that use humanoid animations. Working with the and anima-
Animator component. Animator controller settings. tion
Retargeting of humanoid animated clips.
3. Finding a way 3 Creating a game scene. Navigation grid settings. Add Group
and adjust obstacles. Implementation of the move- projects
ment of the character on the navigation grid. element
4. Inverse kine- 5 Animation settings. Attaching skeletal parts to objects. Group
matics Creating a script to work with inverse kinematics. Fix- projects
ation of skeleton points. LineRender component. element
5. Characters 6 Creating a slider and stylizing it. Move the coordinates Group
not controlled of the slider to the position above the target. Creating projects
by the player goal health scripts. Using Raycast. element
6. Construction 12 Creating a game level. Overlay post effects on the Final Game
of game levels main camera. Set up bots to search for enemies. Game
level layout. Creating multiple teams. Configuration
and error correction. Possibility of application of scat-
tering of bullets at shooting.

4.1. Usefulness of course elements for students

For studying the elements of the course that proved successful, we asked the students to indicate
which elements of the course were useful for learning in the range from 1 – “not useful” to 5 –
“very useful” (table 3). Of particular interest are the highly rated elements: teamwork in labs
(𝑀 = 4.05; 𝑆𝐷 = 0.71), working with peers inside and outside of class (𝑀 = 3.9; 𝑆𝐷 = 0.9), and
the hands-on labs activities (𝑀 = 4.03; 𝑆𝐷 = 0.92). These results underline the importance of
sufficient work in the computer laboratory and cooperative training in the game development
course.

4.2. Student assessment of gains

Students were asked to evaluate their post-graduate achievements in a number of areas related
to the development of games on a scale of 1 to 5 (table 4). The results showed that they made
the most progress in understanding the game’s development (𝑀 = 4.03; 𝑆𝐷 = 0.83) and the
ability to use the Unity Engine (𝑀 = 4.18; 𝑆𝐷 = 0.87). In all other areas, progress has also been
above average.

244
Table 3
Useful course element percentages, mean, and standard deviation.
Useful Elements 1 2 3 4 5 M SD
The way in which the material was approached 0 5 40 32,5 22,5 3,73 0,88
The pace at which we worked 2,5 10 45 30 12,5 3,4 0,93
Working with peers inside and outside of class 0 7,5 22,5 42,5 27,5 3,9 0,9
Viber discussion group 2,5 7,5 32,5 40 17,5 3,63 0,95
Teamwork in labs 0 2,5 15 57,5 25 4,05 0,71
The presentation of the final group project 0 10 20 45 25 3,85 0,92
The hands-on labs activities 0 5 25 32,5 37,5 4,03 0,92

Table 4
Student learning gains percentages, and mean.
Student Gains from Course 1 2 3 4 5 M SD
Understanding the main concepts in game
0 5 25 42,5 27,5 3,93 0,86
development
Understanding the game development process 2,5 2,5 10 60 25 4,03 0,83
Understanding Unity Engine using in game
0 5 15 37,5 42,5 4,18 0,87
development
Ability to think through a problems in game
0 1 10 20 9 3,93 0,76
development
Confidence in your ability to work in game
0 5 25 47,5 22,5 3,88 0,82
development
Feeling comfortable with complex game
0 2,5 35 45 17,5 3,78 0,77
development

4.3. Final project game

In the second part of the course, students worked in groups (3–4) to create final game projects.
We allow students to decide for themselves which games they want to develop and how to
split into groups. Each group decided who would play what roles and what they would need
to do to finish the game. Lectures on this part of the course covered a wide range of topics.
Some specific aspects of game development that students are likely to need were discussed.
All practical tasks for this part of the course are related to keeping students on their way to
finishing the final project games. These include students presenting game ideas, project plans,
vertical slices, usability tests, a final game, and weekly reports on who has achieved what.
Most of the groups were able to successfully build a playable game for the final project, which
is significantly better than the previous version of the course. Students created RPG games
(figure 2), quest games (figure 3), logical games (figure 4) and action games (figure 5). The
variety of these games shows that students are free to create games of their choice instead of
being limited to the genre and content given by the teacher.

245
Figure 2: RPG game.

Figure 3: Quest game.

246
Figure 4: Logical game.

Figure 5: Action game.

247
5. Conclusions
In this paper, we have presented our experience and evaluation of teaching a course on computer
game development using the Unity Game Engine for master’s students in the specialty 014.09
Secondary Education (Informatics) at the Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University. We have
described the design and implementation of the course, as well as the challenges and outcomes
of its delivery. We have also assessed the course using a framework proposed by Ritzhaupt [1]
based on student feedback and learning outcomes.
We have found that our course was successful in achieving its objectives and enhancing
students’ knowledge and skills in game development. We have also observed that students
were highly motivated, engaged, and satisfied with the course. We have identified some areas
for improvement, such as providing more guidance and feedback, balancing the workload and
difficulty, and diversifying the assessment methods.
We have concluded that the Unity Game Engine is a suitable platform for teaching game
development in secondary education, as it offers a low barrier to entry, a rich set of features, a
cross-platform compatibility, and a wide adoption in the game industry. We have also argued that
a team-based approach is beneficial for fostering collaboration and creativity among students.
We have also reflected on the pedagogical implications of teaching game development in
secondary education. We have suggested that teaching game development requires a shift from
a teacher-centred to a learner-centred environment, where students have more autonomy and
control over their learning process and teachers act as facilitators and mentors.
We hope that our paper will inspire and inform other teachers who are interested in teaching
game development in secondary education. We also hope that our paper will contribute to the
growing body of research on game development education and its impact on student learning
and motivation.

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