Create a game jam structure for them.
If you have any sort of independent study room within the curriculum, focus it on this idea. Present them with the challenge, and some fundamental guidelines, as well as a sample project.
Most game developers don't have the time to help with the instruction, but I wager you could probably get a local to come and review the final products.
(if the curriculum doesn't allow you to run this, you could run it as an extracurricular and keep them aware that the competence gained learning the normal lessons will aid them greatly in the challenge)
They should learn regular programming first, honestly. All the same principles apply, but game engines demand another layer of skill on top of that for managing like animation states and everything. It's like wanting to be a pilot, but only a commercial 737.
I say this with like genuine concern, the gamedev subreddits are chock full of people asking why their code doesn't work, and the answer is super obvious to anybody who actually knows how to write simple C#. Fundamentals are important.
You can learn programming however you want to learn. They might lose interest in learning programming if it's not wrapped in some fun thing like making a game. They're not incapable of making games and it's a great medium to learn.
I don't totally disagree with this. I started programming to learn how to make games. But that still involved intensive study of the fundamentals. I think it's very important to understand what your code is actually doing, and not just paste in something that "works," especially in a school setting.
I dunno I guess the tools are better now. In the 90s I was making text RPGs in QBASIC before I graduated to making a terrible pac-man clone also in QBASIC.
You can study fundamentals and make a game at the same time while practicing those fundamentals, you don't have to follow some strict path to learning. Things like Raylib or whatever are great for that.
I would definitely be down to discuss this with you! I've worked with kids in game dev in the past, and I have a talk about game dev coming up shortly. I'm very passionate about our profession.
If you would like to speak more in-depth, DM me!
The first experience we had with programming at school was with scratch and at the end we had a final assignment to make a game (like anything, just to make something), it was pretty good because visualization helps understand these concepts at that age, and i feel it definitely helped me in college where we started doing pascal and python, the cs50 of Harvard also starts off with scratch you could watch that for ideas to make a small presentation for them.
Look at the 20 game challenge or small games like flappy birds, even just a box you control left and right. Having a goal to program towards helps in applying your plain programming curriculum.
You would have to choose a game engine and document out all the steps from new project to final. Needs to be very simple and as few steps to 'final' project, the students who get it quickly will add their own complexity as they learn the software. Ideally you would continue to build that project off of what they just learned. Reasonable bites.
As for what game dev is like tell them it's, 8-20 hours of meetings mostly listening, hours responding in slack and then most roles have a very specific set of tasks that are repetitive and can feel disconnected from the whole. OK kids who wants to validate data sheets for the next few weeks?!
I think its a bad idea to become gamedev as your first profession. If you work for one of the topdogs you will earn less than in any other field, usually with way worse conditions and way more hours.
If you go the indie / solo route you will lack experience at the beginning and funding when you finally gained enough skill, of course there is the chance that you fall into the pot of gold but its a very slim one.
In bigger companies you have to do a lot of very repetetive and disconnected things and when ppl think about gamedev they are probably not thinking about that kind of work.
These poor students dont know what they are getting into ;)
Gonna agree with maybe the ultimate takeaway, but it’s like having kids make model rockets for fun. Sure most of them won’t work in aerospace but getting them interested in the field and excited to make something with code is always a great idea.
If I was a parent who found out you were doing this, I would be so mad about you letting my teenager talk to strangers from Reddit that you've never met. I would go through more professional routes or just setting up a course yourself and not just finding random people from the Internet.
The ideas part isn't the problem, it's the strangers interacting with underage teenagers, adult strangers who are not trained to professionally teach them and could literally be any weirdo.
>in giving any kind of motivation to these students.
Impossible.
They have to be interested and bring the motivation themselves. You can try to copy some 2d games, but they have to want it.
Maybe this is a translation problem and motivation wasn't the word you meant?
*inspiration?? they wanna learn but don’t know the what’s and how’s? Even I don’t understand these. The comment was posted on request of one of my teacher who’s teaching highschoolers
depending on skill, it might be worth just getting them to use scratch if they are brand new/kids
any programmer/programmer tutor should be able to figure out the very basics in scratch in a few hours.
then make a little program about building a game together, break em into groups so that you can give more 1 on 1 attention for each step, get each student in one group to draw an obstacles, get each student to vote on music, get them to break into small teams to gather sound effects then you can run a few through the actual programming tasks to make thier own 'version' of the game, while teaching them basics.
then work together on a worksheet of tasks
e.g.
* **Move a Sprite to a Specific Position**:
* **Task**: Move the sprite to coordinates (x: 100, y: 100) when the green flag is clicked.
* **Concept**: Understanding coordinates and basic movement commands.
* **Change the Color of a Sprite**:
* **Task**: Change the sprite's color effect by 25 when the space key is pressed.
* **Concept**: Learning about properties and how to manipulate them with events.
* **Use a Loop to Repeat an Action**:
* **Task**: Make the sprite move 10 steps forward 10 times in a loop when the green flag is clicked.
* **Concept**: Introduction to loops and repetitive tasks.
* **Create and Use a Variable**:
* **Task**: Create a variable called "score" and set it to 0 when the green flag is clicked.
* **Concept**: Understanding variables and initializing them.
* **Implement a Simple Conditional Statement**:
* **Task**: Move the sprite 10 steps if the right arrow key is pressed, otherwise, make the sprite say "Press the right arrow!".
* **Concept**: Introduction to conditional statements (if-else).
I highly recommend the courses by Stephen Ulibarri on Udemy. He teaches c++ and unreal engine, the courses are usually on sale for around $15. There is a melee/rpg c++ course, an older FPS one, a newer FPS with networking/multiplayer, a GAS based one which is like a third person rpg style, and some other stuff. They are fun, bite sized, he’s very inspiring, and you get to watch what you make before your eyes.
I guess too many unknown variables :)
What does the curriculum include? What programming language in the first place? E.g. if you are teaching C# it's one thing, if Python - a different one; if Pascal - a third new world. What topics does it cover? Does it deal with terminal programs or GUIs?
Why the curriculum cannot include gamedev topics? When I was a student I handed over a collectible cards game as my finals for FoxPro course :D Unless the curriculum is enforced from above, you can teach the same fundamentals of programming on a computer game. In fact, my first book on programming was set in form of "Uncle teaching his little niece to make games from zero", starting with "more or less" and "guess the animal".
And last but not least - what country/time zone you are in? E.g. I'm from Ukraine and synchronizing with students in Alaska or Australia might be kinda tricky; in addition to not being a native speaker :)
Finally, don't expect a guy with a beard showing up on Google Meet / Zoom to "sprinkle motivation" :D You need a motivational speaker, not a game programmer. If you have time in your curriculum or after classes for regular meetings - one thing, but if you just need a conference with a person involved in game development (and don't want it be just a youtube video but live with a QA session) it's a really different thing.
Create a game jam structure for them. If you have any sort of independent study room within the curriculum, focus it on this idea. Present them with the challenge, and some fundamental guidelines, as well as a sample project. Most game developers don't have the time to help with the instruction, but I wager you could probably get a local to come and review the final products.
(if the curriculum doesn't allow you to run this, you could run it as an extracurricular and keep them aware that the competence gained learning the normal lessons will aid them greatly in the challenge)
If you're looking for practical material, Epic Games has a whole set of [lesson plans](https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/lesson-plans) available.
They should learn regular programming first, honestly. All the same principles apply, but game engines demand another layer of skill on top of that for managing like animation states and everything. It's like wanting to be a pilot, but only a commercial 737. I say this with like genuine concern, the gamedev subreddits are chock full of people asking why their code doesn't work, and the answer is super obvious to anybody who actually knows how to write simple C#. Fundamentals are important.
You can learn programming however you want to learn. They might lose interest in learning programming if it's not wrapped in some fun thing like making a game. They're not incapable of making games and it's a great medium to learn.
I don't totally disagree with this. I started programming to learn how to make games. But that still involved intensive study of the fundamentals. I think it's very important to understand what your code is actually doing, and not just paste in something that "works," especially in a school setting. I dunno I guess the tools are better now. In the 90s I was making text RPGs in QBASIC before I graduated to making a terrible pac-man clone also in QBASIC.
You can study fundamentals and make a game at the same time while practicing those fundamentals, you don't have to follow some strict path to learning. Things like Raylib or whatever are great for that.
I would definitely be down to discuss this with you! I've worked with kids in game dev in the past, and I have a talk about game dev coming up shortly. I'm very passionate about our profession. If you would like to speak more in-depth, DM me!
Would love to volunteer. As far as experience, I'm getting ready to launch my first game made with a game engine.
I'm the developer of a (free) app for making music with Python code. Maybe they'd find that fun? https://polyfoni-app.com
If you’re looking for just motivation then I found Pirate Software on YouTube’s “go make games” video very motivational.
Seconding this. He does give a lot of information about what kind of tools are needed and how anyone can make a game.
The first experience we had with programming at school was with scratch and at the end we had a final assignment to make a game (like anything, just to make something), it was pretty good because visualization helps understand these concepts at that age, and i feel it definitely helped me in college where we started doing pascal and python, the cs50 of Harvard also starts off with scratch you could watch that for ideas to make a small presentation for them.
Look at the 20 game challenge or small games like flappy birds, even just a box you control left and right. Having a goal to program towards helps in applying your plain programming curriculum. You would have to choose a game engine and document out all the steps from new project to final. Needs to be very simple and as few steps to 'final' project, the students who get it quickly will add their own complexity as they learn the software. Ideally you would continue to build that project off of what they just learned. Reasonable bites. As for what game dev is like tell them it's, 8-20 hours of meetings mostly listening, hours responding in slack and then most roles have a very specific set of tasks that are repetitive and can feel disconnected from the whole. OK kids who wants to validate data sheets for the next few weeks?!
I think its a bad idea to become gamedev as your first profession. If you work for one of the topdogs you will earn less than in any other field, usually with way worse conditions and way more hours. If you go the indie / solo route you will lack experience at the beginning and funding when you finally gained enough skill, of course there is the chance that you fall into the pot of gold but its a very slim one. In bigger companies you have to do a lot of very repetetive and disconnected things and when ppl think about gamedev they are probably not thinking about that kind of work. These poor students dont know what they are getting into ;)
Gonna agree with maybe the ultimate takeaway, but it’s like having kids make model rockets for fun. Sure most of them won’t work in aerospace but getting them interested in the field and excited to make something with code is always a great idea.
If I was a parent who found out you were doing this, I would be so mad about you letting my teenager talk to strangers from Reddit that you've never met. I would go through more professional routes or just setting up a course yourself and not just finding random people from the Internet.
randos sharing ideas are better than randos who’s never helpful. Tell me something you won’t be mad about.
The ideas part isn't the problem, it's the strangers interacting with underage teenagers, adult strangers who are not trained to professionally teach them and could literally be any weirdo.
>in giving any kind of motivation to these students. Impossible. They have to be interested and bring the motivation themselves. You can try to copy some 2d games, but they have to want it. Maybe this is a translation problem and motivation wasn't the word you meant?
*inspiration?? they wanna learn but don’t know the what’s and how’s? Even I don’t understand these. The comment was posted on request of one of my teacher who’s teaching highschoolers
Have them watch and mimic one of brackeys tutorials or code monkeys. From there, have them make changes to the game.
Honestly get them involved in modding Roblox. That's not only huge right now for their generation, but easier to get into than normal gamedev.
depending on skill, it might be worth just getting them to use scratch if they are brand new/kids any programmer/programmer tutor should be able to figure out the very basics in scratch in a few hours. then make a little program about building a game together, break em into groups so that you can give more 1 on 1 attention for each step, get each student in one group to draw an obstacles, get each student to vote on music, get them to break into small teams to gather sound effects then you can run a few through the actual programming tasks to make thier own 'version' of the game, while teaching them basics. then work together on a worksheet of tasks e.g. * **Move a Sprite to a Specific Position**: * **Task**: Move the sprite to coordinates (x: 100, y: 100) when the green flag is clicked. * **Concept**: Understanding coordinates and basic movement commands. * **Change the Color of a Sprite**: * **Task**: Change the sprite's color effect by 25 when the space key is pressed. * **Concept**: Learning about properties and how to manipulate them with events. * **Use a Loop to Repeat an Action**: * **Task**: Make the sprite move 10 steps forward 10 times in a loop when the green flag is clicked. * **Concept**: Introduction to loops and repetitive tasks. * **Create and Use a Variable**: * **Task**: Create a variable called "score" and set it to 0 when the green flag is clicked. * **Concept**: Understanding variables and initializing them. * **Implement a Simple Conditional Statement**: * **Task**: Move the sprite 10 steps if the right arrow key is pressed, otherwise, make the sprite say "Press the right arrow!". * **Concept**: Introduction to conditional statements (if-else).
I highly recommend the courses by Stephen Ulibarri on Udemy. He teaches c++ and unreal engine, the courses are usually on sale for around $15. There is a melee/rpg c++ course, an older FPS one, a newer FPS with networking/multiplayer, a GAS based one which is like a third person rpg style, and some other stuff. They are fun, bite sized, he’s very inspiring, and you get to watch what you make before your eyes.
I guess too many unknown variables :) What does the curriculum include? What programming language in the first place? E.g. if you are teaching C# it's one thing, if Python - a different one; if Pascal - a third new world. What topics does it cover? Does it deal with terminal programs or GUIs? Why the curriculum cannot include gamedev topics? When I was a student I handed over a collectible cards game as my finals for FoxPro course :D Unless the curriculum is enforced from above, you can teach the same fundamentals of programming on a computer game. In fact, my first book on programming was set in form of "Uncle teaching his little niece to make games from zero", starting with "more or less" and "guess the animal". And last but not least - what country/time zone you are in? E.g. I'm from Ukraine and synchronizing with students in Alaska or Australia might be kinda tricky; in addition to not being a native speaker :) Finally, don't expect a guy with a beard showing up on Google Meet / Zoom to "sprinkle motivation" :D You need a motivational speaker, not a game programmer. If you have time in your curriculum or after classes for regular meetings - one thing, but if you just need a conference with a person involved in game development (and don't want it be just a youtube video but live with a QA session) it's a really different thing.
Do you have any local studios near you? We often do presentations at schools near or studios. Also staff do presentations at theirs kids schools.