Latest update: December 10, 2010
Oregon has an after-school program for teams of middle school and high school students called the Oregon Game Project Challenge -- OGPC. The goal of this program is to get students interested in computer science by creating a computer game that addresses a constructive theme.
Each team will use an inexpensive (free for the basic version, $20 for the Pro version) program called Game Maker to create a game relating to the theme. Game Maker lets you do most of your "programming" through a drag-and-drop interface, although scripting is also available. It's easy to learn, and students can create very interesting and fun games in a short time.
In the 2008 pilot season, the OGPC theme was Energy Issues. In 2009 the theme was Water Resource Issues. In 2010, it was Health and Wellness. The 2011 theme has not yet been chosen.
The season will culminate with a statewide tournament at Chemeketa Community College in Salem on Saturday, April 30, 2011. At the tournament, your students will have plenty of opportunities to share what they've created, learn from others, and compete in many different award categories. For more information on the OGPC competition, visit the TechStart OGPC page.
If you would like to receive OGPC bulletins, Send an email to ogpc@techstart.org.
If you would like to learn more about what would be involved in coaching a team and using Game Maker, consider attending a free workshop in Corvallis on Saturday, December 11, 2010. Here are the details:
Date/Time: Saturday, December 11, 2010, 10 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Locations: Room 1007 of the Kelley Engineering Center (morning) and Room 244 of Batcheller Hall (afternoon) at Oregon State University.
Directions:
Click here for directions to the Kelley Engineering Center from the north and south.
(You can also set your GPS or Google Maps to "2500 NW Monroe Avenue, Corvallis, OR".)
Click here for a map showing where Kelley is in the community.
Click here for a map showing that part of campus.
Parking: Parking at OSU is free on Saturdays. Park in the staff lot right in front of the Kelley Engineering Center.
Price: Free! No commitment to coach is required; you can decide that later.
Registration: Go to: http://www.regonline.com/916063 to reserve a space.
Agenda:
| 10:00 a.m. to Noon | An overview of the OGPC program and a presentation on the role of coaching a team, led by Tom Thompson, an experienced OGPC coach. This session will be in Room 1007 of the OSU Kelley Engineering Center. |
| Noon to 1:00 | Break for lunch on your own (the Memorial Union Food Court is a good place) |
| 1:00 - 3:00 | Hands-on workshop on Game Maker, led by Mike Bailey from the Computer Science department at OSU. (Coaches don't have to be Game Maker experts but it helps to know something about it before they turn their team members loose.) This session will be just down the street in Room 244 of OSU's Batcheller Hall. |
Here are TechStart's Coaches Training Notes in
one,
two, and
six slide-per-page formats.
These were updated on December 7, 2010.
Mike Bailey has been putting together a collection of notes on using Game Maker,
and a few other (helpful) links.
You can find it at
http://cs.oregonstate.edu/~mjb/gamemaker.
