With that said, the JAVAK Makeosity ELE (Experimental Learning Environment) project is not over. Though we are now turning our attention to what really started JAVAK, the music app from AtomHacks, and a project we all really want to pursue, we may be returning to the ELE project in the near future. Our goal when we started was to make a proof of concept for a game that could teach CAD, and in the process gain real life experience and learn much more about the fields that interest us. And it was a journey with quite a few potholes, quite a few obstacles, but still unbelievably fun. In the end, we did exactly what we set out to do, but it is still just a proof of concept. It needs work to make it into a full on polished game that could teach kids CAD and even more than that. Dr Kaun and Makeosity had a great image for the game, and we hope that they will be able to achieve it. Though Kiana and Ashley will soon head off to college, and Violet, Jenny and I are about to begin our last year at Bronx Science (with all the college apps and school stress that comes with it), the option to continue working on it is still in the back of our minds. We haven't decided on where JAVAK is going yet, how far we want to take it, and whether we want to continue in the future. We'll just have to see where this journey takes us.
With that said, Autodesk has recently released a new Game Engine, Stingray (check it out , which throws a bit of a curveball at us. We developed the game in Unity, since it was a software I had used extensively before, and some of the other members had heard of or interacted with, but the game was built with Autodesk help and targeting Autodesk CAD software. Therefore porting it over to Autodesk's new Game Engine, Stingray, would be incredibly convenient. The team and I are going to check it out when it gets released for students on the 19th, and we will keep you all updated.
Finally, one of Dr Kaun's goals is to increase the spread of these tools, and this game, and one of our goals, as students of FIRST Robotics, is to spread STEM. With that in mind, I would love to attach a WebPlayer version of the game to this blog, but due to the way Unity saves and loads the game (and trust me, if you play it, you will want to save the game), that's not possible. However, I can share the Standalone with you, so here is a link to a zip file with the entire game. For windows users, just run the .exe. There is a Mac version, but since I don't have a Mac, I am unable to test it. Click here for the download link and enjoy!
-- Arun, an A of JAVAK