Gravity Sketch is a tool for sketching in 3D in VR or on an iPad. It allows for real-time collaboration in VR and can import and export the most common 3D formats.
COST: Free
Gravity Sketch
Twine
Twine is an open-source visual coding platform for creating interactive stories online. At its most basic it serves as a way to craft a story that requires user interactivity to experience. You don’t need to have coding experience to create stories in Twine but the possibilities open up with some knowledge of HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
Twine is a great option for prototyping branching narrative and nonlinear storytelling as well as experimenting with interactive user experiences. The level of interactivity ranges from simply clicking to trigger the next portion of the story – similar to flipping the page of a book, to something more akin to “choose your own adventure” novels or text-based video games.
COST: Free
Unity
Unity is a game design engine developed by Unity technologies. Originally only for MacOS it is available for Windows as well and can create games for the most modern game and VR consoles as well as for most mobile and desktop platforms.
Similar to Unreal, Unity is capable of creating real-time visuals for games (both 2D and 3D) as well as interactive simulations, film layouts, and other experiences.
Unity has less of a learning curve to get started than Unreal and it is easier to create web-based experiences with it. The backbone of Unity is C#, though users can get started without any coding experience. It is harder though to create photorealistic graphics with Unity than Unreal.
There is a robust asset store with 3D and 2D assets.
COST:
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Free for students or until a company generates $100 000 annually or if released on closed console systems (PlayStation, Switch, etc.)
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After this, $1800/yr/seat or higher depending on the tier
Unreal
Unreal is at its core, a game engine created by Epic Games but it has a large swath of applications in the live performance industry. Unreal offers an excellent real-time 3D environment that can create stunning visuals without rendering. Programming can be done either with its built-in nodes or directly in C++. It is capable of releasing on most modern gaming and VR systems as well as Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android.
Unreal is used extensively in virtual production pipelines and can be connected to either professional tracking gear or more consumer-grade options such as the HTC Vive.
There are substantial assets available both paid or for free available on the Epic Marketplace and the engine comes with example content built into it.
While there are many great tutorials available online (both from Epic and from the creator community) Unreal has a fairly steep learning curve and requires pretty hefty computer resources to run.
COST: Free until a project makes 1 million dollars in gross lifetime revenue
