A Milestone: Game Design Camp at the Sea Base

I remember when I was a child, taking trips and counting the milestones (literally) as we passed them.  Whether you've got a project to do, or a trip to take, it's nice to have milestones to count, even if we didn't plan or place the milestones.

This week, in the efforts to create a Makerspace at the Long Beach Sea Base, we passed... accomplished... a huge, giant, enormous, very fulfilling milestone.

In the lab at the Long Beach Sea Base, in a room overlooking the water, eight youth in elementary and middle school participated in the Long Beach Learning for Life's first public game development program using the Unity game engine.  The class content was developed by Morio Murase (techie) and Caprice Rothe (creative) and rehearsed in semi-private deliveries with select youth.  It builds on experiences from sessions in Unity delivered by Microsoft at their campus in Playa Vista.

During the week, these eight youth developed their own 2D side scrolling games using Unity, played each other's games and participated in discussions and presentations by independent game developers.

And... dare I say it?... Everything was AWESOME!

Photos are included, but you may want to check out the very cool videos that show the kids work and our guest speakers (and subscribe to channel Squigglemom).  There are more activities planned for summer.  Information will be available on the Makersville site in the next few days.  Sign up for the contact list... to get our emails.

The Games we Make: http://youtu.be/zrR1rUXAeos

Playing with the Oculus Rift: http://youtu.be/8MxKht500ko

Guest Speaker - 3D Artist and Indie Game Developer Barrett Meeker: http://youtu.be/ay9ErUNAwNw

Guest Speaker - Game Programmer and Indie Game Developer Hector Llanos.  http://youtu.be/wUG4iJkHlwA

Barrett's game, Homesick, on pre-order (scroll down a bit and look to the right): http://www.luckypause.com/homesick/

And some of my other posts on the subject that you might want to read:
http://belmontshore.patch.com/groups/trish-tsoiasues-blog/p/why-is-minecraft-so-popular

Microsoft's youth outreach Game Jam.  One day, we too will do one of these.
http://belmontshore.patch.com/groups/trish-tsoiasues-blog/p/live-from-microsofts-game-jam

A little enthusiasm about the Unity tool.  http://belmontshore.patch.com/groups/trish-tsoiasues-blog/p/unity-3d-game-development-terrain

There's more, much more.  If you'd like to keep updated on random cool topics, please subscribe to my blog!
Our Tech Explorer lab is made possible through the generosity of the Long Beach BSA, IBuyPower computers and Sceptre monitors.