The BBC Microbits are finally here. Come and program them in the after programming club on Friday's!
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On Saturday 11th June, the programming club students took the arcade cabinets to the Digimakers Technology event hosted at @Bristol. It is run by Bristol University. We demoed the cabinets and ran two programming workshops for students attending the event on how to program for the arcade cabinet. Delegates took an hour to learn how to program their Pacman games and upload it onto the cabinet. We also used the event to change in some joysticks on the cabinet It was great, well done everyone.! The deadline is fast approaching, do not forget to get your game entries in! Click here for YGD website
The Digimakers event is coming round soon, Saturday 11th June. Sign up for the free technology workshops online. It is great we have been before! Click here for more information.
Mr Watts ran a session on creative story telling using the online software Twine. Year 7 students were shown how to write their fighting fantasy style decision stories using the free software.. Students then planned out and wrote their interactive stories over the course of the morning session. They were able to program the story using the built into commands available in TWINE. The Year 7 students were helped with their literacy and story design by members of the digital leaders and programming club.. On Wednesday 11th May we ran a programming workshop for Year 5 students from Colston’s primary school. Students got to grips with the Gamemaker programming software and programmed their own Pacman game using the tutorials from Mr Watts.. They were then shown how to upload them and try them out on Cotham's Arcade machine.. The primary students were assisted througout by students from the games programming club. It was a great morning with 80% of the students saying that they would continue to learn Gamemaker in their own time. A team of KS3 students from Cotham visited Bristol University to learn about the Games development and programming. They acted as games testers for the final year group projects,. They got to test the games out and talk to the students about the work they do. They are came back buzzing about the event. I am thinking of organizing a trip to EGX in September. It is the UK's biggest gaming convention. I think tickets and transport could be around £40 each. It looks amazing. Who is up for it? Click here for more details
I have put together a couple of lessons for Year 7 to try out Construct 2 our newest programming software.. I have recorded a video tutorial based on the written one provided by the developers. If we like it, we can make it into a full SOW for next year! Click here for the lessons.
The results of the programming competition are in. Click here to see the results
The first house programming competition is open. See the flyer below for details. Get your entries in and win house points for your house!
I am running a Computing movie night once a term this year. We will be showing a Computing based movie in the main hall on the big screen with popcorn and drinks. Click here to view the movies..
I have finally got round to adding to my gaming wall displays in my classroom. Check them out in B009, i hope you like them. They complement my retro games cabinet nicely :o)
I have uploaded some excellent map design resources into Resources section of the website. Many of them are taken from when I worked in the industry and they were part of the game design for several published games. I have also uploaded some great templates from BAFTA to help guide you with your games design ideas.
I have made a number of games industry books available for people to borrow if they would like. I have uploaded the books list to page under EXTRA> GAMING BOOK LIBRARY. Let me know if you would like to borrow any.
Some of the books: Here is the video from the introduction to the 10-14 Game making Award category that our very own Ben was shortlisted in. The professional version of Construct 2 has now been installed on the school network. It is an Alternative to game maker and is very powerful. It can export to HTML5 webpages and mobile apps.
It is very quick and easy to use. Give it a go. I have uploaded a some video tutorials for you to get started. Enjoy! Ben, Mr Watts and Mr Lawrence all attended the Young Game Designers BAFTA finals ceremony in London over the Holidays. It was a great day out and a very impressive event. Unfortunately neither Ben or Mr Watts won their category but they are keen to return next year. Click the link below to find out more information. Click Here to view the highlights of the event Click Here to see the full winners list Some Pictures from the Day Unity Game engine has been installed in B002. Tutorials have been uploaded to this site in the resources section. Enjoy!
Mr Watts had joined one the programming students in being nominated for an award at BAFTA's Young Game Designers event. Mr Watts is up for the Game Mentor award.
The awards are given out on July 25th 2015 at BAFTA HQ in London. It should be a good day out, fingers crossed that we do well. http://ygd.bafta.org/competition/ygd-mentor-award One of our students is one of the finalists for the Game Making Award.
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has today announced the finalists in a nation-wide game design competition for 10-18 year-olds. The 40 young hopefuls, who were selected by a jury of industry experts, will attend a special awards ceremony at BAFTA’s headquarters, 195 Piccadilly in London, on Saturday 25 July, where the winners will be revealed. The full release can be found here: http://www.bafta.org/press/press-releases/bafta-young-game-designers-finalists-2015 One of our students is one of the finalists for the Game Making Award. If you follow the links through from the press release, you’ll get to http://ygd.bafta.org/competition/game-making-award His game is the Gravity Square. http://ygd.bafta.org/competition/competition-news/2015/gravity-square A game company Oyster world has contacted as, looking for game testers, if you are interested please click on the link below:
www.oysterworldgames.com Digimakers @ Digital Bristol Week – Saturday 7 February 2015
The university’s initiative Digimakers, has been asked by the BBC to organise a number of workshops in computing and electronics for 12-18 year olds. The event will form part of Digital Bristol week and will take place 10.00-16.00, Saturday 7 February 2015 at the Merchant Venturers Building, Woodland Rd, Clifton. The list of workshops include:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For students aged Year 10-13 interested in Engineering. This is an opportunity to meet the new Royal Academy of Engineering President Dame Ann Dowling DBE FREng FRS The event will take place 12th February 2015, 2.00-3.30pm, Engine Shed, Temple Meads, Bristol. This is an opportunity to hear a short presentation from Dame Ann Dowling followed by Q&A. Some recent engineering graduates will also be in attendance to talk about their experience and the differing opportunities that exist in engineering. More information about the event can be found here Contact [email protected] for further details Digimakers will return to its usual venue, At- Bristol, Saturday 28 February 2015. [Flyer attached] Digimakers is a series of free hands-on workshops in computing and electronics for 8-18 year olds, parents and teachers. From programming software to hacking hardware we will show you more ways to have fun with technology. If you have a Raspberry Pi and you are not sure what to do with it, come along to our drop-in centre where we have a team of helpers on hand to show you how to get started. Sign-up here. We are looking for groups of students who are working on projects at school or home who would like to show off what they have been working on in our show-and-tell section. If you would like to nominate a group of students or individual please contact. [email protected] Taking place this Saturday at @Bristol, Digimakers are hosting a number of programming workshops, ranging from programming a flying drone to learning games programming with Unity. These are usually very fun workshops. SIgnup up now before they get booked up.
You can signup via eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/digimakers-sign-up-to-workshops-november-29-2014--tickets-14502971779 The students take apart the last of the computers ready for building into the mini cabinets. |