Computer Camp 2011
Well, it has been a fun-filled and exhausting week at Landry Academy’s Computer Camp 2011. We had seven students, ages 13 to 17, most of whom had never touched a compiler before this class. It was a great bunch of kids!
They had a contagious passion that made the insane deadline (4 days from concept to demo) achievable. During almost every block of time that the camp had scheduled free-time for the kids, you’d find them in the classroom, hard at work on the project.
Brainstorming
On the first day, we spent several hours installing the tools that we needed to create games (Visual Studio 2010 Express and XNA). We had a brainstorming session that evening to plan what type of game we would build. The class was fairly evenly split between a scrolling shooter (like Defender or 1942) or an Angry Birds clone. We ultimately decided on an original game that combined the two concepts.
Four birds (controlled by four players) fly along, shooting pigs with seeds and dropping eggs on them. There are three types of pigs: normal pigs (on the ground and in trees), pig-a-troopers (who parachute in), and the king pig (who tosses baby pigs at you).
Sprite Sheet
The game’s art is a mix of characters from the Angry Birds game, random images we found via Google searches, and some hills that were drawn the night before we gave our class presentation to the students from the other academic areas.
All the in-game sound effects were created by the students. I think the effects came out great, and I think they really add a lot to the final game. [The music was downloaded from the website of a talented composer who recreated the Angry Birds theme in Garage Band.]
Along the way, the students learned about how simple, manageable components of a game are implemented, and how those simpler parts combine to make a more-complex whole. They also learned about the tools that game developers use to create games, and how to trim and prioritize an overly ambitious design to meet a looming deadline.
Gameplay
After the presentation, the students forked their implementations from the group’s, with each putting his unique stamp on the game. For example, one student replaced the birds with spaceships, and tweaked the scoring system. Another student added a health meter for the birds, and removed them from the game when they took too much damage.
This was my first time teaching a class (outside of corporate training). I’ve never worked with students who had no programming experience, and I’ve never taught teenagers. I could not have picked a better group of kids to introduce me to the world of high-school-level instruction. I thoroughly enjoyed my week at camp, and the students seemed to as well.
Video
Click here to see a video of the game that the class made. Note that the version of the game that was presented to the other classes at camp supported 4 players. When capturing the gameplay video, I only had one controller.
Click here to see a video of Week 3 at Camp Landry. The computer class appears between 1:45 and 2:30, but the computer students are peppered throughout the video. [John and Matthew make an appearance around 7:55.]
Downloads
- Click here to download the source code and media that was used to build the game.
- Click here to download Addison’s version of the project.
- Click here to download Albert’s version of the project.
- Click here to download the EXEcutable for the game. You will need the XNA 4 runtime and an Xbox 360 controller connected to your PC to play this game.