#173285 - keldon - Mon Mar 29, 2010 10:02 pm
I'm involved in a project that requires game programmers to tutor 11+ children to create games. You will be paid by day rates. Any takers?
#173445 - wintermute - Wed Apr 07, 2010 12:47 am
That's something I'd love to get involved in but I don't think I'd be able to right now. Not sure my GF would be too happy about me working away from home with our second child due next month.
Just out of interest though, what tools are you using & do you have a curriculum planned for this already?
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#173455 - headspin - Wed Apr 07, 2010 10:06 am
| wintermute wrote: |
| our second child due next month. |
Congrats WM :)
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#173459 - ritz - Wed Apr 07, 2010 2:59 pm
| wintermute wrote: |
| ... second child due next month. |
Quick, get in all your sleep now before it's too late! Seriously tho, congrats.
#173465 - keldon - Thu Apr 08, 2010 1:03 am
| wintermute wrote: |
That's something I'd love to get involved in but I don't think I'd be able to right now. Not sure my GF would be too happy about me working away from home with our second child due next month.
Just out of interest though, what tools are you using & do you have a curriculum planned for this already? |
Re: tools
I'm currently coin flipping between the following:
- Python + Pygame
- JavaFX
- Flex (Flash)
- XNA (because it has that XBox factor)
Re: curriculum
The course duration is four weeks, consisting of two four hour sessions each week. A curriculum has not been developed yet, I'm trying to retrace my steps a little in terms of delivering programming lessons - I was much younger and an less experienced so it was a little easier back then to teach people at this level (which I will explain now).
As mentioned they will be 11+ children, but these are not necessarily going to be junior hackers. Some may be, but the course needs to cater for children who are activists as opposed to theorists. So we may want to consider the Suzuki method to get instant results.
By the end of it they want to be [in]formally introduced to games development and have an idea of how to further the discipline should they want to.
#173468 - headspin - Thu Apr 08, 2010 3:42 am
#173472 - keldon - Thu Apr 08, 2010 8:41 am
| headspin wrote: |
| Why not DS + devkitARM? |
Well this is going to be their first time programming so we'll want them to have the least to think about in their introduction to games development. Especially with the time given and the structure required. Well we're only going over the structure today, and the DS does have the N-factor (okay I'm going to stop that now) lol
#173477 - wintermute - Fri Apr 09, 2010 12:27 pm
Some links that might be of interest.
http://garykac.blogspot.com/2007/04/teaching-gba-homebrew-to-kids.html
http://code.google.com/p/spritely/
http://cse4k12.blogspot.com/
the PSP luaplayer might be worth a look too, maybe even microlua for DS.
A couple of days a week might be workable, when are you getting started? I'd certainly be up for helping put together some simpler tools that might be useful at the very least.
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#173482 - sgeos - Fri Apr 09, 2010 8:42 pm
I think luaplayers are a good start. What you really need to do for round two is build a proper game engine with scriptable content and wire it up to lua. A professional scripter is really just a programmer who doesn't have the mad skills to get right next to the metal. (Okay, some of them are total hacks who don't have any sort of mad skills...)
Lua has the teaching advantage of being "small" as far as languages go, but it is also very powerful. It can also run on any modern computer, so you could plug it into an engine that runs on XNA or the DS or whatever. You could even cover communication between the scripting layer and the engine, the engine and various libraries, libraries and the OS, and the OS and the filesystem at a very high level.
I may as well throw something crazy on the table... I'd be happy to help out if you can fly me there. =)
#173484 - ScottLininger - Fri Apr 09, 2010 9:32 pm
Another option... great for kids who have never programmed.
http://www.agentsheets.com/
-Scott
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#173489 - keldon - Sat Apr 10, 2010 5:31 pm
They're looking for summer term delivery; after the talk on Thursday it seems that the young people are interested in action type games. Lua is cool and it would be pretty cool if they could modify scripts on the DS or transfer script updates via WiFi.
I'm going out for pool in a bit and need to oil my bike so I'll type more tomorrow morning.
#173491 - sgeos - Sat Apr 10, 2010 7:35 pm
In that case, it seems like your ideal architecture is an action game that can load scripts from a micro SD card, unless you can get PC to DS wifi file transfer set up. I'm not sure if you want to talk about assets, but to the extent you dynamically load scripts, dynamic stage loading might make sense.
Perhaps you could write AI scripts for a platformer? I'm not sure what could be customized for this project and how much time you have to prepare it.
#173563 - keldon - Thu Apr 15, 2010 6:14 pm
Hmm; assets need to be covered but I've taken an approach of immediate response due to the target market. I'm working on a "backlog" right now though, so I will have to come *back* to the DS side of things - but here is a link to the document I've created on the learning aspect
https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZyTBQtJEecJZGhwOG5kam1fMTA4ZnhtcGg0NzM&hl=en
#174854 - keldon - Mon Jul 26, 2010 12:51 pm
Just to update you (since I last posted in April), the funding was not secured and with the change in government and the drastic cuts this opportunity may take some time to come around again (such that people can get paid day rates, etc.)
As for me, I've just invested in a Mac, iPhone dev and CS4 Production Premium ...