Video game design for kids
Categories: Teens & tweens, Fun & activities, Education, Toys & games, Gadgets & tech
Video games and kids -- you can argue about whether or not they make a good combination, but there's no question that the latter loves the former. But even if you don't approve of playing video games, writing them is certainly a different story. Only, how the heck does a kid learn to do that? Well, in North Carolina, they can do it by going to the library.The main library in Charlotte, North Carolina is offering kids a summer workshop where they can learn the rudiments of video game design. Students have to decide where to place objects in the game, how high characters can jump, and how non-player characters react to the players' characters. Naturally, the four-day sessions only touch on high-level concepts, but they serve to get kids interested and off to a good start.
Kids like video games and learning to create them is a great way to get kids interested in software development -- a fun (for the first twenty-five years or so, anyway) and lucrative career path. It's great that the library is offering this introduction; I only wish it was the norm rather than the exception.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jan Bay 7-23-2008 @ 7:21PM
I would say that if developing the games will give kids incentive to visit the library and learn some skills, that is a good thing. Who can say that they won't cut their teeth on that and move on to other areas? I have no problem with video games so long as they aren't violent..and there are way too many of those.
Jan from http://www.unique-baby-gear-ideas.com/
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Jenni 7-23-2008 @ 9:31PM
I remember learning how to do programming on an old AppleIIe growing up. I would spend hours doing this! I did more programming than playing games. I think this is a great activity for kids. Especially in the world we live in today!
I'm not opposed to playing video games at certain ages, for certain amounts of times, and the introduction to violent games does need to be monitored; they're not for every kid!
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