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[Tenderfoot]

Hey guys,

For the past few years I've taken a job as an instructor at a nationally recognized science and technology camp. The camp is very computer oriented, and very popular. Last year I worked with Grades 3&4, and made a little flash maze game with them.

This year I've been bumped up an age group (to grade 5&6), and one of the things all of the kids love is to make games. I figure since these kids are more capable I can teach them some pretty intense gamedev stuff.

My idea was that I was going to create a library that allows campers to create objects (in OpenGL [2d, though]) with a simple function [ whatever = newObject(GLuint image, float x, float y, float width, float height);], and then the kids would be able to manipulate the position and size of these objects using code I teach them, ultimately allowing them to make their own games.

What do you think? Do you have any ideas on how I could expand on this? Is there any other cool science / tech projects you think the kids would love?

[george]

Why not use an existing library, like Scratch or Processing? I guess using your own would keep things simpler.

[Guillaume]

Hey,

I work for a similar organization in France, with kids between grades 5 to 7 on one hand, and 8 to 12 on the other hand.

Game Maker is always a great introductory tool. RPG Maker is pretty cool for the younger ones; however, Python and PyGame remain my tool of choice for the brighter ones who want more of a challenge. I'd really recommend those.

However, I wouldn't want to delve in 3D with the kids- even though explaining to those who want to know more is always awesome, the itme is just not enough.

Could you (by private message if you want) tell me about the organization you work for and what kind of you work you do? I'll probably be moving to the US in a year (for MSc. + PhD.), and I'd like to continue working with geek kids