MANCHESTER – Who says you can’t play games in class? For some township high school students it wasn’t so much playing games, but designing them.
MTHS advanced multimedia program students will submit their 2D games to the 2023 GameSalad Video Game Creator Challenge.
During this process, they developed the knowledge and skills to creatively design and implement elements of an original gaming product using various multimedia editing tools and GameSalad’s interactive multimedia online development software.
They were also inspired by their own personal favorite video games.
“Pokémon Black and White is one of my most favorite games of all time,” student Matthew Borrayo remarked.
Student Jurissa DeOcampo said her favorite video game was “Shovel Knight: Dig, because it’s a very exciting, colorful, fast-paced game that takes a lot of focus. It’s very easy to learn the basics of it, and anything complicated is not necessary to have fun, but improves gameplay and it has many silly and diverse characters and an interesting story.”
“I take a lot of inspiration from Portal 2, by Valve. It provides the player an interesting look into how to solve problems,” student Landon Fitts said.
For student Isaac Panora it was “Super Mario Maker because I used to play it a lot as a kid and learned a lot about level design just from this game alone.”
“I’ve been playing video games for a long while now, and I’ve played a lot of great games. I can’t choose just one. I do add some references to these games in my own games, at times,” Dylan Maikisch said.
Student Anthony Sanabia said his favorite video game was “Destiny 1 due to the game design and art style that grabbed my attention and left me addicted.”
“My favorite game of all time is Prime Fortnite. There is nothing that could make that time in the game better, it was the perfect game,” student Tylar Wojcik noted.
As to what they enjoy about game design work Borrayo said “I especially enjoy coding the game itself because I see it as a good challenge.”
“I like the freedom of creating whatever I want,” Fitts answered.
As to where they start in the game design process the class had varied answers.
“I start my process brainstorming ideas for my characters or enemies – my vision of what those main characters will be. Then, I start designing an animated sprite of my main character,” Maikisch said.
Panora said, “when coming up with a new game, I usually imagine a player character, imagine a setting for the game, and come up with ways this can become a game. Most of my games really do originate from just my pure imagination.”
One student incorporated her pet skunk Buckwheat into her game. Another student, a musician, was finalizing the musical component for his game.
“I aspire to engage students of all backgrounds and interests, to broaden students’ perspective about how programming and technology are relevant to self -expression and problem-solving. We need our students to be involved in technology, and to play an active role in shaping the future,” their teacher, Laurie Grote told The Manchester Times.
She added, “For this competition, students assumed the role of a video game designer. Their task was to come up with an idea for a new video game. They worked to develop the theme of the game, its rules, and the mood and style of the game.”
“They designed the user interface, composed music and sound effects, and produced game art,” Grote added. “There’s no question – students are interested in video games. Games inspire their work.”
“I left my career in New York City to work as an instructional assistant and coach at MTHS, in 2004. The following year, I began teaching visual arts at Keansburg High School,” she said.
Grote crafted a type of visual arts curricula that wasn’t present in that district – Interactive Multimedia and she was awarded the NJ Governor’s Teacher Recognition Award for reinvigorating Keansburg High School’s art department – introducing its students to cutting edge technologies and career options in multimedia and technical design.
She explained, “(Manchester’s) program of studies is designed to assist students in the development of video games. Students learn to think like a game designer, determine how different types of professional games are structured, and learn principles and strategies for designing their own games.”
Grote said, “partway through the process, students shared their projects for peer review and incorporated user feedback before publishing their game.”
