Unity for Humanity awards grants to drive social change

Unity, the maker of the Unity game engine, announced 2024 Unity for Humanity grant winners and honorees, all of whom will receive bespoke awards from a pool of $500,000.

Judged based on the vision, impact, inclusion, and viability of their projects, the eight winners will also receive technical support from Unity to bring these projects to life.

“Each year, we are humbled and inspired by the dedication of our creators who are passionately driving positive change in the world,” said Jessica Lindl, vice president of social impact at Unity, in a statement. “From a pool of nearly 500 applications, this year’s winners and honorees stood out for their thoughtful and innovative approaches to addressing a wide range of global issues using Unity’s platform. We’re immensely proud to champion their work and look forward to watching their visions become a reality.”

Jewel, the multi-platinum singer-songwriter, New York Times best-selling author, mental-health pioneer and cofounder of Inspiring Children Foundation (ICF) and Innerworld, threw her support behind this year’s Unity for Humanity campaign as a guest judge, providing a unique perspective for selecting the final list of winners and honorees. For over 20 years, ICF has transformed lives through a whole human approach to physical, emotional, and mental health.

“Making a meaningful difference to people’s lives through accessible tools is an important mission of mine, so it was an honor to be a guest judge for this social impact program that is empowering change around the world”, said Jewel, in a statement. “I look forward to seeing the positive impact these projects will have when they’re widely available.”

The winners

This year’s winners are:

• Akiiwan: Survival is a crafting/survival game in which players discover the stories and wisdom of Indigenous nations through their crafts, tools, and survival skills.
• Crab God: Mother of the Tide is an entertainment game meant to create a positive impact on ocean
• conservation and climate change.
• Eddie and I is a VR experience that blends interactive storytelling with hand-tracking technology to teach sign language and promote empathy.
• Maya: The Birth of a Superhero is an immersive story following Maya, an ordinary 21st century girl, as she transforms into a uniquely female superhero whose powers derive from the process of menstruation.
• Surgeons without Borders is leveraging the power of a Unity-based VR gaming network to collaboratively reduce infant mortality by lowering congenital heart disease (CHD) mortality in infants, a leading cause of infant mortality worldwide.
• The Arctic Lighthouse is an AR Game about climate change connecting young changemakers from all over the globe on a mission of protecting portals to a sustainable future.
• The Light Within is a mobile adventure game featuring a biracial protagonist and queer characters that equips players with real-world tools for improving their mental health.
• YourHaven allows young people to design immersive, scalable mental health and wellness support to reduce youth violence and improve employability skills and wellbeing.

Honorable mentions

• BetaBEN is centered around empowering the visually impaired community with unprecedented levels of independence and mobility by transforming the way they perceive and navigate their environment.
• Waves of Jeju is a virtual reality game that educates players about environmental justice and climate solutions, while facilitating cross-cultural awareness and healing.

More details

Crab God: Mother of the Tide
Chaos Theory Games

Crab God is an entertainment game meant to create a positive impact on ocean conservation and climate change. Gamers play as a colossal crab who is guiding its crab babies (crablings) through a great migration across the ocean, from the Great Barrier Reef to the Mariana Trench. Players must nurture a healthy ecosystem that can support them on their journey in order for their crablings to survive.

Chaos Theory already offsets stage 1 and stage 2 emissions, meaning the production of the game is carbon neutral. Crab God will also offset all emissions from player engagement, making it a truly green game.

Surgeons Without Borders
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

The Surgical Mediverse and VR3S platform leverages the power of a Unity-based VR gaming network to create a global collaboration, aiming to enhance medical outcomes and equalize access to advanced health technologies worldwide.

The goal of the project is to reduce infant mortality by lowering congenital heart disease (CHD) mortality in infants. In the U.S., CHD mortality has dropped by over 50% due to advanced surgical techniques.

However, success remains dependent on surgeon experience. Surgeons Without Borders’ focus is on improving mortality, especially in low-to-middle income countries (LMICs) where experience is limited. Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a cost-effective tool for surgical planning and has the potential to greatly improve outcomes worldwide. The team at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center has developed a VR Surgical Simulation Suite (VR3S) for detailed 3D surgical planning and has multiuser capabilities to connect surgeons globally and, someday, save all children’s lives.

The Arctic Lighthouse
Platô Cultural & The Necessary Space

The Arctic Lighthouse is an AR Game about climate change connecting young changemakers from all over the globe on a mission to protect portals to a sustainable future. The game, featuring physics-based interactions and 3D scenarios, introduces players to a scientist from a collapsed future, who invites them to join the mission to rewrite the future and save the planet. Players travel back and forth from an “Arctic Lighthouse” in 2073 to complete challenges and discover and “re-integrate” portals to sustainable futures in their present.