High School "Game Development Fair"?

Learn Content
1

I’ve been thinking for some years about how to get more kids into programming, as I think it’s probably the #1 most valuable activity for learning how to think logically, break a hard problem into smaller problems, etc. I see programming as the gateway to a career in science and engineering, and the world can always use more scientists and engineers. I’m particularly interested in getting more girls into the software development, as it’s suffering from a real chicken-and-egg problem where very few girls are entering because there are very few girls in it.

Now when I was a yoot, science fair was a big thing. You started with your local school fair, and if you did well, proceeded to district, state, and international. There were good prizes to be had, particularly at the higher levels, including college scholarships.

I’m wondering if a similar model could be applied to game development? Here’s what I’m imagining:

High schools could host a “Game Development Fair” where small (1-5) teams of kids build a video game over the course of, say, 6-8 weeks. Then they make a poster display, much like science fair, with pictures and description of their game, plus a notebook containing source code and art sketches etc. They set these up on fair day, and meet with judges who try their game out, listen to their 5-minute shpiel, and then score them on criteria like originality, technical quality, art quality, etc.

At the end of the day, winners are announced in various categories, and shown (probably as videos submitted ahead of time) up on the big screen for everyone to see. Hopefully sponsors will have ponied up some prizes too. All students get constructive feedback, and the posters are left up for a public viewing period as well.

I’m thinking we would particularly encourage kids to enter who have never done something like this before. We could go to the art classes, and tell the kids there to find a partner and turn their artwork into a game. We could post flyers in the music rooms encouraging musically gifted kids to find a team and contribute that way. If spun right, it could be a very creative endeavor that might draw in kids who otherwise would never consider something like this.

What do you think? Am I completely nuts? Does something like this already exist somewhere?

2

I feel like GirlsWhoCode dot-com is sucking up a lot of oxygen there, including donors and grants. Or look on the various App stores for the flood of “learn to code” Apps (nearly all schools have iPads and are looking for educational stuff to do with them.)

As far as using Unity3D in public schools, I’d want to clarify the education license. It looks maybe free now for “qualifying” not-for-profit schools, but a lot of old “schools count as >$100,000” is out there. Ideally, anyone Searching should find many blogs from teachers using it licensed in High School with no problems.

But I’m not sure Unity3D is the best for that. Just with C#, I’ve found that Visual Studio with Forms is easier to program 2D games with. Can have pictures, sounds and motion - plenty of stuff to have fun with. Unity allows 3D models, but I feel like making them is beyond most grade-schoolers. Of course, a VisualStudio Forms program is dog-dirt slow and useless for distributing a game, but that’s not so important here. Then there are competing programs like Scratch (merits aside, it is popular.)

3

I think the closest to this idea are summer events and courses for high schools organized by agencies and training centers. The NYU Game Center, for example, offers an annual 12-week workshop > Future Game Designers for 16 students from local high schools. Unity3D could also have something similar. Seems to me that the Academy Class gives classroom certifications in Unity 3d Jumpstart in the UK, I’m not sure though about other European countries.