Club Plans Updated!

Signups just started but we already have four kids signed up! Also, Jol and I have chatted and are a bit more on the same page.

I know computer game stuff but Jol has run tons of clubs and knows what kids want. One of the things Jol made sure to emphasize in our talks is gifted kids don't want to just watch, they want to be involved and take part in all things.

To make sure all kids can be actively involved, I'm going to have computers setup, multiple projects set up and ready to run, and a system to make sure each kid has their own development playspace that won't break anyone else's work.

We'll start the semester with every kid having their own branch (sandbox to play in where they won't break others) in git (a revision control tool) for their work and give them a crash course in what git is and how to use it! The git repository

While kids will always be able to test things locally, we'll also start the semester with a server setup to run an automation tool called "Jenkins". This server will have "jobs" for every kid and for the main branches so with one click, they can publish their work to the test box. This is important because while the kids can run their work locally, for the real thing, we need to be able to test the results on joysticks and with big monitors.

My hope is to have a menu system set up so kids will be able to launch the latest version of anyone's game from a joystick-controlled menu.

Game Projects!

What projects are we going to make? My current thinking is we're going to do at least 3 games, likely with lots of variations to each one. We're going to get our feet wet by taking some classic, super simple games and expanding on the game ideas until they are hardly recognizable. This lets me bring in a working project for everyone to play with right from the start. We can all play a working game and then talk over design changes we want to make to it and implement those changes for 1 or 2 classes.

Now for some specifics! First up, I think we will be tackling one of the most classic games ever created, PONG! Second up, we'll do the sliding tile puzzle game. For our final project, we'll try and tackle something bigger, like making something akin to the Killer Queen game from the arcade!

I'll break down the specifics of each of these in upcoming posts so stay tuned!