The Microsoft Store in Sydney, Australia began a workshop that will provide individuals some lessons in game development. The cross-platform game engine that is being used in the workshop, Unity, is free for download and can be taken home by the students.

On April 10, the Microsoft Store in Sydney began a workshop of free game development classes called Xbox Academy. Gamespot confirmed that this was created in partnership with the Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE), a non-profit college that specializes in game development, animation, and design.

The workshop was intentionally scheduled during Australia's Easter school holiday to encourage students to learn the process of game development and to discover if they would be interested in pursuing a career in this field.

The workshop features three different courses conducted by tutors from AIE, which are game design, game programming, and game development, all done on the Xbox One. Each of the courses is said to be linked to a course being taught at the AIE, which opens doors for students who wish to continue learning more about the program.

Each course runs for three hours, and Xbox Academy is completely free and paid for by the Microsoft store.

The game engine used in Xbox Academy, Unity, is free to download, and it can convert the Xbox One into a game developing kit. This allows participants of the workshop to save their work from the course in a USB flash drive and continue their work on their own.

Interested participants can enroll in the Xbox Academy the Microsoft Events page. For this short course of Xbox Academy, the Microsoft Store aims to teach 120 students and hopefully more.

Xbox Academy will be running from April 10 to 22 at the Microsoft Store in Sydney. However, the company is working on expanding the program to other locations as well.