Realm Forge Academy: Forging the Future of Education with Modern Tools and Purpose-Driven Pedagogy

By D.W. Denney


The education landscape is shifting. Traditional four-year degrees are pricing out the very people who need them most, while the industries shaping our future — immersive technology, artificial intelligence, blockchain, game development, spatial computing — are evolving faster than any institution can keep up with. Meanwhile, aspiring creators and builders are left choosing between crushing debt and being left behind.

Realm Forge Academy was built to solve that problem.

Build Worlds. Not Debt.

That’s not just a tagline. It’s a promise — and it’s the founding principle behind everything we do at RFA.

Continue reading Realm Forge Academy: Forging the Future of Education with Modern Tools and Purpose-Driven Pedagogy

Where Two Worlds Become One: Building a Browser-Based Mixed Reality Tool for Education

By Donald Denney | Realm Forge Academy

There’s a moment in every emerging technology’s lifecycle when it crosses over from novelty to necessity. For mixed reality, that moment is now — and it’s happening inside web browsers.

As part of the Realm Forge Academy course Defining a New Reality: Enter the Metaverse, I’ve built a browser-based mixed reality tool that lets students use their device camera to detect a flat surface in their physical environment and place a 3D avatar into a fixed position in the real world. No app store. No headset. Just a browser and curiosity.

[Image: Screenshot of the MR tool detecting a surface and placing an avatar]

Continue reading Where Two Worlds Become One: Building a Browser-Based Mixed Reality Tool for Education

🔮✨ The Architecture of Wonder: Understanding Magic Systems in Fantasy

By Professor DeeDubs | Realm Forge Academy


When we watch a wizard cast a spell in our favorite fantasy story, something magical happens beyond the fictional incantation itself. We either lean forward, invested in whether the magic will work—or we lean back, sensing that the author will simply make whatever happens most convenient for the plot. The difference between these two experiences isn’t luck or talent alone. It’s architecture.

Fantasy author Brandon Sanderson has articulated a framework for thinking about magic systems that has quietly revolutionized how creators approach the fantastical. His observations—often called “Sanderson’s Laws of Magic”—aren’t rules to be followed rigidly, nor are they secrets known only to published authors. They’re learnable principles that help us understand why some magical moments leave us breathless while others leave us shrugging.

More importantly, they’re tools you can use in your own creative work.

Continue reading 🔮✨ The Architecture of Wonder: Understanding Magic Systems in Fantasy

AR Art Overlay Prototype

Using AR to bring an art piece to life has rapidly turned into an active and exciting art genre. I was contacted by an artist looking for new ways to share their art with the world. They asked if I would be able to prototype an AR app that will take their finished art pieces and make it deeper by adding audio, animations, and information to the existing piece. I decided to create a prototype to help determine the feasibility of this idea.

I chose my cyber warrior ai art piece

I then enhance it with special FX, artist information, and audio.

Here is a video of the final presentation. The artist is very interested in moving forward with some exciting new projects.

Skills demonstrated in this prototype:

  • AR Development
  • Develop AR experiences that use trackable targets in the environment
  • Build AR projects to mobile devices
  • Create basic application interactions with Visual Scripting
  • AR Design
  • Research future AR use cases to prepare for developing new kinds of applications
  • Evaluate platform capabilities and limitations in order to determine whether or not a given feature will work.

Virtual Reality AI Character Prototype

I created my AI virtual assistant named “Guie” over 10 years ago to help me with debugging code on large programming projects. She has been invaluable to me over these years while researching and developing applications for a wide variety of devices from Desktop PCs to mobile. I am very excited to announce that she is now available in XR to assist me with VR and AR application development.

I am proud to present this project as a demonstration of my skills in all aspects of the multimedia production process in addition to creating VR experiences. I hope you will agree that this turned out to be a great prototype!

Sample of my storyboard.

Following the best practices for multimedia development, I started by creating the storyboards and design documents. This critical step must not be skipped, even when developing a small project by yourself.

XR Rig Input Manager

Next I engineered a Virtual Reality Interaction Rig that will allow me to build and debug the project using VR devices.

AI Art representation of me working in my multimedia studios.

I tapped into my 20+ years of multimedia production skills to create the graphics used in the scene, as well as recording and producing the audio script.

Once all of the multimedia elements were in place, I began the process of bringing the project to life in Unity. Controlling and animating a 3D character is a fun and challenging task!

The final step was engineering the APK package for installation on the VR device. There are a complex set of configurations that must be correctly assembled in order for the package to be allowed into the secure OS that powers the VR headsets. Feel free to reach out to me if you would like a copy of the prototype.

Augmented Reality AI Character

One of the most exciting uses for augmented reality is to display AI characters into the real world. I was challenged to use the knowledge I have gained in the field of AR to produce a prototype that would place a life-size 3D character into the real world.

Continue reading Augmented Reality AI Character

XR Fusebox Project

AI generated art representing my multimedia production studios.

I’m very proud of my completion of the augmented reality fuse box challenge project.  This was a very exciting course in which I learned  how to program A/R image target recognition applications without an external third party engine.  Using only Unity built-in functionality I was able to define an image target and spawn a 3D object onto that target through the user’s camera. 

Continue reading XR Fusebox Project

AR Face Filter

New recruits use facial tracking filters to take memorable “selfies”

These days most folks are familiar with facial tracking and recognition technology. It has become quite commonplace to have the camera track your face while in a zoom meeting. Who hasn’t been able to resist adding cat ears or a king’s crown to your video feed while the boss drones away during a meeting?

Continue reading AR Face Filter

D W Denney Cyber Security Warrior

AI Generated Story… Not quite fiction but not quite truth

Don Denney is a cyber security warrior who protects the digital assets of his clients from malicious hackers. He has over 10 years of experience in the field, and has successfully defended against various cyber attacks, such as ransomware, phishing, denial-of-service, and more. He uses his skills and knowledge to identify vulnerabilities, implement countermeasures, and monitor threats. He also educates his clients on best practices and latest trends in cyber security. Some of his notable achievements include:

Continue reading D W Denney Cyber Security Warrior

Space Maids

A space maid is a person who works as a maid in a space station, a spaceship, or a planet. A space maid wears a uniform that is similar to a traditional maid outfit, but with some modifications to suit the environment and the tasks. For example, a space maid may wear a helmet, a jetpack, or a spacesuit, depending on the situation. A space maid may also have some cybernetic enhancements or gadgets to help with cleaning, cooking, or fighting.

https://soundraw.io/edit_music?m=648ca15aa435a800126e4242

Continue reading Space Maids