   Educator seeking advice on game development summer camp
  I was just hired by SciQuest, a local science museum, to run their "Gamer Camp". It is a 5 day, 3 hours a day, summer camp program for children in grades 7-9 that focuses in practical video game development. There are three tiers, each requiring the child completed the previous gamer camp the summer before. Because last year was SciQuest's first year offering the Gamer Camp, Gamer Camp 1 has a full lesson plan, but Gamer Camp 2 starts June 22nd and does not even have an outline yet. Gamer Camp 3 will not be held until next year and details on it are nonexistent.My boss has asked for my assistance in determining what Gamers Camp 2 will focus on. Because I just started I have not yet even taught Camp 1 (but have access to its documentation). I have come looking for advice on what direction I should take with teaching video game development in Gamer Camp 2 & 3 (I clearly need to know what the penultimate material will be so that I can teach them the prerequisites).In gamers camp 1 we:- DAY ONE: Explain binary, basic workings of a computer, history of video games, play classic video games- DAY TWO: Discuss "what makes a good game?", introduce them to Game Maker 7 and have them make a Maze game. At the end of the day they swap computers and play each others game.- DAY THREE: Make a Scrolling Shooter game, similar to the classic game 1942 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1942_(video_game)- DAY FOUR: Basic sprite creation with CB Model Pro*, adding those sprites to the game, and implementing more advanced techniques into the scrolling shooter (such as conditional sprite animations)- DAY FIVE: Improve upon the scrolling shooter further by adding Lives, Health, High Score, Title Sequences, Instructions, and other finishing touches. They then upload their favorite game to yoyogames.com and once again play each others games.The children are given flash drives and take their games home with them. Having something palatable to show is necessary for Gamers Camp 2 and 3. *CB Model Pro runs poorly (non trivial lag) on our computers (donated Dell Dimension 8200's). I have trivial/negligible experience with 3d modeling programs and sprite design. Is there a superior alternative to CB Model Pro? This section is most likely to be cut for time constraints. The current thought on Gamers Camp 2 is that they should create a simple isometric or overhead RPG (or adventure game, like this: Pyramid Panic), and be given a basic introduction to scripting. We have an affiliate (I am unclear with our exact relationship to him) who works with the Torque game engine, and it is my bosses thought that if we end up teaching them Torque by the time they get to Gamer Camp 3 (to be started next summer) then  some of the children could get jobs working for him. Apparently a similar arrangement has occurred in the past and been considered mutually beneficial. Should I move them away from the Game Maker 7 engine? Should I move them to Torque immediately with Gamer Camp 2? Because of the type of program, I am told these children tend to be rather on-the-ball and generally gifted (or at least talented/dedicated regarding computers). Is Torque even a good idea at all? Is waiting till Gamer Camp 3 better for 3d?How much scripting should I teach them? I cannot go too in depth because it decreases the fun factor, and we only have 15 hours per camp. Some basic necessities that come to mind are: variable assignment, functions, Boolean logic, predefined functions (and how to look things up), and basic mathematical operations. These would likely end up on an easily visible poster in the lab as a quick reference.------Thank you VERY MUCH for reading this and helping me. Any insight from the kind people on this forum will make the transition into this job much easier - as is I am expected to play a principal role in designing something I am unfamiliar with and a continuation of something I have never taught. ------I am a 22 year old Math student. I have taught robotics to teenagers, web design to gifted 5th graders, and tutored my peers in Math & Physics. I am 95% self taught at computers and consider myself an intermediate level programmer. I have made a MUD from scratch, but have never used rapid game design tools.   
  Wow.... teaching fundamentals of game programming to children grades 7-9 in about 15 hours and having something to show at the end is pretty ambitious!"then some of the children could get jobs working for him"double wow!  some guy would hire 9th graders who have 45 hours of experience in a game dev camp spanning over 3 years?? :PYou plan to make a full iso RPG by the end of camp 2?Hrmm...I'm not sure how much time you have to prepare but here's what I would do if i were you...#1 - Code/create the iso RPG yourself (culled down to something simple like a single area or something).  Make sure it's fully pollished, looks nice, doesn't crash, no glaring bugs etc.#2 - intentionally remove a few of the most key things in art, scripting and maybe all the dialog is removed so they get to create the storyline by filling in the dialog.#3 - when the kids come in, they get a copy of the game minus the key features#4 - their tasks are to make the missing models (ie maybe the main character and a few objects in the game world?) as well as to fill in the missing script (maybe some details about the combat or ai behavior?)That would make it so the kids would feel like they created and learned something (and they would have!) but still be able to fit it into the time frame you are talking about.my opinion anyhow (:   ;  Yeah, I know it is very ambitious (its the boss's idea). If any of the children got hired would be working as an intern, and would very likely have gone out and padded their resume on their own. That side of things isn't my concern, except that it gives me a push towards using Torque. What I am focused on is teaching the children something tangible, them having fun, and them having something to show for it. [also keep in mind these games are very small scope due to the ever present time constraints]I like your approach, but have two things to bring up: I have no artistic skills or talent - making my own sprites is right out. I have limited knowledge of rapid game development engines. I do not know which engine to use for such a thing. I am concerned that Game Maker 7 is too proprietary and may be limiting them (at the moment we are using the free version, so some of the more advanced commands are off limits - I don't know if we have licenses for it, Ive been trying to hunt down my boss all day). If you look at the link I edited into my original post ( here is the same link ), it shows a Google book that discusses designing 'Pyramid Panic' for Game Maker. The screen shot should give you a good feel for the game. I think this is reasonable objective for Camp 2, but I am concerned that I may be forgoing including something necessary for Camp 3 - whatever that is, probably basic 3d.That is reasonable for them to get done in a week, along with some basic scripting exposure, don't you think?   ;  Yeah that looks like it might be doable.You might go through the steps yourself and see how long it takes you, then try and figure out how much longer it might take a kid who isn't a graduate student and who likes games but maybe isn't ready to accept that making them is hard work hehe.I would still suggest doing the tedious / hard parts first and giving that as a basis for them to work on so that they get to work on mostly fun stuff while learning a little about the harder stuff.I used to teach martial arts to teenagers so haha... sometimes they can be a lil instant gratification oriented :PPlus it'd be cool to have them minimize their effort for maximum results by not having to work on low level stuff such as representation of the map, collision detection, etc.Keeps them happier, they still learn a lot, and makes your life easier (hopefully)!Cheers to you for trying to share the magic of game dev with a wider audience (:   ;  I recall running across a book on one of my tutorial hunts, Snake Wrangling For Kids, which is a book on Python for kids ages 8 and up (and free). Its a rapid development scripting language that's often recommended here for beginners, and is generally accepted as being easy to learn and get quick results with, although i'm not certain if it will fit into your tight timeframe. Perhaps you could have them make a simple demo during the course? The best advantage of this i think would be that they get practical real-world experience in programming. For the 3rd course you could also introduce them to 3rd party libraries like Pyglet, Pygame, or Panda3D.   ;  I am familiar with Python and its usefulness in introductory programming, but it seems to me that loading Python up, teaching them about it, and not using it in their game would ultimately be perceived as a distraction. The only way I can see to get it into Game Maker 7 (and I have just about convinced myself that its the way to go for Camp 2, despite its proprietary nature) is if we compile their code into a DLL and include that. This is something Game Maker is capable of, but only with the full version. Still can't find my boss (probably busy with a class) so I don't know if we have licenses.Thank you both for your replies.---- EDIT:We do not have licenses, but we will get them. I talked with my boss about teaching basic python, compiling that into a DLL (something I don't actually know how to do, any hints?), and then incorporating that into Game Maker (I'll go to their forums to figure out the specifics of that).   ;  WOAH!Once (back in 1997 or so) my "Formal Languages & Automata" teacher told me that one day, the book we were reading would be used in Elementary school with Computer Science specialization. I know some PhD thesis (like compression algorithms etc) are now basic exercises in college... but I think, this is just too much, I mean, 7 yr old kids as game programmers... holly sh*t! I wish I had 7 again, to start over, born in a different country (of course) and be what I've always wanted to be. ;  I don't know if C++ would be all that hard to teach. I'm only 14 years old, and I work with it all the time.   ;  Alternative for Torque.Unity3Dhttp://unity3d.com/(there is good 30 day version)You could remake similar scrolling shoter, but this time with 3d graphis.Some (commerical) premade 3d models are neaded, but script logic can be kept at 2d level.(learning basics of 3d modeling takes more time than you have)My opinion is that makeing RPG games is slow walk in valley of bugs,and makeing shot`em up is flying f-16 in firecrackers./Tyrian   ;  Well he said 7-9th GRADERS not years old (:3dmodelerman: yeah totally, about your age i was programming games in qbasic and ti-85 basic and dablling in c++, it's deff doable.   