Unity has announced the winners of the 2023 Unity for Humanity Grant. The eight winners will each receive a share of the $500 thousand prize pool, as well as mentorship and technical support to bring their projects to fruition, and were judged on factors such as vision, impact, inclusion, and viability. Unity also states that “all of the social impact creators receiving funding this year are using real-time 3D to drive change in truly innovative ways.”
Unity’s suite of development and monetisation tools are a driving force behind many of today’s biggest games across multiple platforms including mobile, console and PC. As such their winners reflect the full gamut of Unity’s reach, but three of their eight are on mobile.
World Reborn, which is referred to as “the world’s first activism adventure game,” combines AR with real-world actions such as picking up trash or making charitable donations, to save the world after it is fractured into multiple realities.
A Week at Belisamas Lake is a narrative-based fishing game, which follows protagonist Lotus as they recover trash from a local lake in a future where humanity has overcome the climate crisis.
Patito is designed for parents who want to talk about consent with their children, or suspect that their child may be the victim of sexual abuse, providing a sensitive approach to educating children and their parents on these topics.
“Patito has been funded by Pink Bear Games and each member of the team until now. But now, thanks to the grant received from Unity for Humanity, we can move forward with this noble project,” said Pink Bear Games director Isabel Vasquez in a YouTube video.
Positive Playing
Other projects selected as winners of the grant include Quantum’s Pursuit, a game designed for hospitals to teach children to use their new bionic limbs while gaining insight on their individual needs, and SoulPaint, a VR title which aims to make it easier for patients to describe complex emotions or mental health issues to healthcare professionals.
The Unity for Humanity grant represents a growing push for games which can inspire positive change in the world and the playerbase. Last month, we spoke to Ustwo director Jennifer Estaris and Utrecht University associate professor of transformative imagination Joost Vervoort about how games can be used as a force for good.