Virtual U 2.0 Source Code Released to Public
University management simulator releases source code to further project goals and expand combination of interactive entertainment and public policy training
NEW YORK, NY (September 24, 2002) -- The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announced that the source code to Virtual U 2.0, the university management simulator, is now available to the public on the Virtual U Web site (www.virtual-u.org). The 2.0 version of the source code gives programmers, simulation designers, game developers, and others access to all the new features and formulas used in Virtual U. The second version of the source code also features improved readability and documentation.
"Virtual U has proved to be an outstanding and well-recognized combination of public policy and cutting-edge interactive entertainment design and development," said Jesse Ausubel, program director for Virtual U at the Sloan Foundation. "After the release of Virtual U 1.0, we received numerous requests to open up the source code and made the commitment to do so with the second version."
Previously recognized as one of the top independently produced titles at the 2001 Independent Games Festival, Virtual U is a complex simulation of the day-to-day management of a university system and is in use at numerous universities. Players must balance budgets, set admission policies, ensure sufficient availability of classes, and encourage professional growth among the faculty. The goal of the product is to introduce managers to the complexities of university management and to provide a new way for university administrators and stakeholders to explore their own approaches to university management.
"Game based simulations are a growing trend in software development, yet few have been built," said Ben Sawyer of Digitalmill (www.dmill.com), which is heading business and community development for the project. "With the source code for 2.0 available to the public, we are doing our best to share with academics, policy makers, students, and game developers the knowledge we've gained. The second version of Virtual U added many new features that were important to the evolution of Virtual U as a leading game-based simulation. The public source code allows users to add new features or change existing formulas. Just as importantly they can learn how a product like this is actually engineered."
"Virtual U is one of the greatest accomplishments in my more than 20 years in university management," said Dr. William Massy, designer of Virtual U. "With 2.0 I was able to work with the entire project team and make it even better. With the new source we've improved the documentation because Virtual U and other simulations like it can be improved with more input from the public. As I said during our first source release, the debate and exploration of our code should prove to be just as interesting as the project itself."
Source Availability Details
The first pass of the public source code has been posted to the project's Web site (www.virtual-u.org/publicsource/). The public source code will allow academics and programmers of all backgrounds to look at and learn from the project's unique modeling engine, which was developed by Enlight Software (www.enlight.com) and Massy's Jackson Hole Higher Education Group (www.jhheg.com).
Virtual U is published under a public source license that provides free use of the source code for any non-commercial project without the Sloan Foundation's consent. All modifications to the source code as published must also be provided to the project's community.
"We intend to move the Virtual U software code base toward a 3.0 release over the next few years," Sawyer said. "Our goal is to continue to make Virtual U available for as long as possible, but at this stage public support is needed more than ever."
About Virtual U
The development of Virtual U was made possible through a partnership that includes the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the Jackson Hole Higher Education Group, the Forum for the Future of Higher Education, Institute for Research on Higher Education, and Enlight Software. The program's creation was motivated by the desire of Massy and Sloan to help a range of college and university stakeholders better understand their institutions as dynamic systems through the use of a comprehensive simulator like those found in many computer games.
Virtual U is available for free from the Virtual U web site (www.virtual-u.org) as well as in a boxed form for $45 (includes shipping) which can be ordered via www.virtual-u.org/ordering.html. Proceeds from the sale of boxed copies of Virtual U are used to make incremental improvements to the software.
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