Workshop Options

Game Design 101

Analyze and dissect the board and computer game classics, old and new, to see what makes them tick - and what makes them fun. Work individually or in small teams(2-4 person) to make your own unique board or card game.

Learning Objectives:

• Real game design techniques from the games industry!
• Survey of trends in board and computer game design
• Practice in "paper prototyping", a process used by real game designers to polish their computer games' core gameplay
• Exposure to formal methods in game design and the budding field of "ludology".

Concerns: Is there enough of a connection to the "tech" here? I would love to make a whole course out of this, though I could compress it down to four days if I had to for one of the other programming courses.

Game Design and Development with RubyGame

Work in small teams(2-4 person) and make a game from start to finish with the Ruby programming language and the RubyGame framework. Use real-world game design techniques with a real-world programming language!

Learning Objectives:

• Real game design techniques from the games industry!
• Exposure to many independent games
• Programming in Ruby, a popular new programming language
• Basics of 2D graphics and animation

Concerns: This is a lot of topic to cover in 9 days. I want to use Ruby instead of something like Flash because Ruby is simple, free, and kids can acquire it easily, plus it can be used for many things besides animation and games. Would this overlap too much with the Flash workshop?

Fun and Board Game Design

A world of board and card games exists beyond Monopoly and Sorry!. Meet fun, interesting board games from Europe and the United States, and work individually and in small teams(2-4 person) to make your own unique board and card games!

Learning Objectives:

• Exposure to games such as Icehouse, Kill Doctor Lucky, Settlers of Catan, Carcasonne, and other significant board games
• Capturing a theme or feeling and expressing it in a board game
• Recognizing the elements of fun and improving on them incrementally with testing

Concerns: I think this is fascinating because I know about these games, but to someone who doesn't know about the really interesting board games, it might not be compelling.

8-Bit Music

Compose your retro magnum opus! Learn how people are using old video game hardware to make fantastic modern music, from techno to hip-hop, from rock and roll to heavy metal, and from classical to country. Choose your weapon - NES or Game Boy - and learn how to write "chiptunes", the first music genre of this generation.

Learning Objectives:

• A basic introduction to assembly language programming and computer organization
• History of video game systems since 1980
• Composing and arranging music with a limited sonic palette, using either textual formats or trackers
• Exposure to a broad range of musicians who work with repurposed computer hardware
• Moving composed works from software simulation to physical hardware.

Concerns: I think this would be fun, and I have experience with this, but I'm not exactly the world's best musician. I'm also not sure if today's kids have the same nostalgic connection to the music of the older video games as I do.