Design your own video game! In this introductory camp, you will learn how to create your own adventure game using basic game mechanics. Design your own hero, create your own world and chose your adventure. You will learn how to code and script-program your own 2D games using Inkscape and Godot. Finally, you will be able to upload your game to the internet and play it with friends and family.
When?
Every Saturday, 10:00am-12:00noon, February 4 - March 25, 2023 (8 sessions).
Who?
This camp is for students aged 10-14 years.
Cost:
$295 (including tax).
If the fee is a barrier to your participation, a limited number of bursaries are available for eligible families - please email camps@visst.ca to inquire.
Where?
The Vancouver Independent School for Science and Technology (VISST) - 1490 West Broadway,Vancouver, BC.
Why should you attend?
Exercise both the left and the right side of your brain by learning coding and designing your own fantasy world.
Build something you can share with your friends and family.
Try something you won’t find in school that combines coding and video game art.
Earn a certificate of completion from the Vancouver Independent School for Science and Technology.
What will you learn?
Hello World!: We will start with an Introduction to coding using Inkscape and Godot. Students will start designing their own heroes. They will also program simple character movements.
A-mazing World!: With heroes to work with, students can now start crafting their own worlds for their heroes to explore. They will learn how to set up tilemaps and generate a custom maze for their heroes to navigate through.
Level Up Graphics: Students will spend more time on the graphical side of game design and level up their game’s aesthetics, starting with their heroes. They will transform their heroes from a simple circle to whatever vision they have for them.
Look Out!: Every adventure has hazards and hurdles to avoid and overcome. Students will come up with their own idea on what hazards to introduce into their game’s world.
Ka-ching!: Every adventure should have a purpose. Students will decide what the purpose of their game is and what rewards their heroes should get to move their adventure along.
Timers and Scores: How do we know how many points we have? How long do we have to escape our mazes? Students will learn how to set up global variables that can communicate information from one game element to another.
Lives and Game Over: What happens when we run into too many hazards? Typically the adventure ends. We will end the current adventure and start again from the beginning. Students will spend some time creating their own “game-over screens” to indicate the end of an adventure and to reload the player into a new game should they choose to restart.
Audio and Final Polishes: What’s a game without audio? Sound effects and background music will be added as finishing touches to really bring the adventure to life.
Play with Friends: Students will be able to export their games into playable formats that can be uploaded online.
Camp Instructor
Thanh Nguyen is a multimedia artist with over a decade of experience in teaching creative technology and digital fabrication in the Metro Vancouver region.
Since graduating from the Art Institute of Vancouver with a degree in Game Art and Design, she has been teaching game design and programming, 3D modeling and animation, and CNC Machining operations.
Most of her programming is conducted through Byte Camp and MakerLabs, but with the increasing interest in creative tech she has made appearances at schools across the lower mainland to help meet those demands by consulting teachers or working with the students directly.
She has also spent many years developing specialized curriculums to cover creative technology courses and is always looking for ways to provide accessible avenues of learning to students keen on learning about the digital arts.
www.linkedin.com/in/thanh-nguyen-a2775826
Additional Notes:
Students are encouraged to bring their own laptops but if you want to borrow one from us, we have a limited number available. Please email us to request one.
Refund policy: Email us at least 1 week (7 days) prior to the start of the camp for a full refund.
Questions?
Please email camps@visst.ca