So if you didn’t know this about me before then you’re going to learn it now! I teach for the University of New Mexico in Los Alamos! Yep it’s true. I teach Middle and High Schoolers how to make Video Games! What’s really cool about that is this is going to be my fourth year teaching, that means I’ve been teaching since a little after I graduated High School.
Now you’re probably wondering how I got this cool little job. Well if you’re not
Oh man what was I thinking?
wondering (which I never really do when somebody says that I’m probably wondering) then I’m going to say it anyways. Back in early 2009 I went to UNM to go to a local Game Developer’s event. I happened to be starting a little program with a bunch of schools in Albuquerque to create an after school club to teach video game development so I brought along fliers. About mid day I met someone (unfortunately I do not remember his name… I should look it up) and handed him a flier (they looked like shit by the way) and he asked if I could take this program up to Los Alamos. I quickly said yes. Two weeks later I get an email and I’m hired! I’m so awesome.
Well today I am going to show you the game the kids are going to make this year! I seriously just finished it 15 minutes ago and still have to write all of the documentation for it. Also I need it to be tested so put bug reports in the comments below.
May I present to you the amazing, stupendous, exhilarating game
The Legend of Example
Arrow keys to move, Space Bar to Attack
This game took me about 40 hours to complete which is unfortunately a bit long for my usual development cycle. It was created in Stencyl Works which is the first time I ever used that engine, hence the long cycle. The game is set in a mysterious dungeon and you have to go up against some pretty fierce monsters and solve mind bending puzzles to get the grand prize in the amazing treasure chest!
If you didn’t notice, yes it is a Zelda clone. Why? Because I like Zelda and it is a great starting game for beginners since it covers a lot of the bases. You may be wondering why no items. Well I want to leave that to the kids. They get all of the basics here so with a little guidance within my handouts they will be able to make things like bombs and arrows. If they’re really daring then they can make a boomerang also. Thing is we only have a week so those really are extras.
Maybe I should dress up like the old man…
I could totally pull it off
Right Click and Save to download the game here!
Well tell me what you think of the game in the comments below, share the game on twitter and facebook, and download this cool desktop wallpaper!
Just looking at it makes you more awesome!
subliminalman.wordpress.com 
Nice job! I don’t know if students can complete the entire game in a week. Will they be coming into the class with an coding experience? What type of examples will you be giving out?
So these kids are fresh with little to no coding experience. The way I usually do it is I help guide them through the code since we only get about 20 hours class time in a single week. This year though the guidance is going to be through the handouts that I am giving them where its going to have the code blocks that they will be using and they just have to put them together in the right order with the correct variable logic. There’s a lot of code but fortunately its less than 1000 lines, probably closer to 500. I’ll be doing a blog post with the documentation so everyone could follow along who wants to either learn Stencyl Works and already knows how to program or for the very beginner who never seen a single line of code in their life.
Nice! Sounds like an awesome experience. Glad there are people doing these types of classes in NM.