Game Development Foundations

Game Development Foundations

• Grades: 6-8
• Number of Students: 30 or 100
• Number of Lessons: 4 Units, 2 Projects
• Hours of Content: 60
• Additional Resources: Flyer, Syllabus

Highlights:

Game Development Foundations leverages the excitement of creating games to teach computer science, mathematics, and problem-solving. Students use custom JavaScript engines and the PixilArt editor to build games while learning computational thinking, 2D graphic design, and game development principles.

Certifications:

Upon completing this course, students will be prepared to earn the following industry-recognized certification:

• ICT Essentials - Gaming Essentials

Curriculum or Lesson Topics:

Course Outline:

JavaScript and Game Development

Students create video game assets using pixel art software. Then they learn the fundamentals of JavaScript and how to utilize object-oriented programming to build a text adventure game.

Game Mechanics and Control Structures

Students utilize game mechanics to build player-oriented gameplay and leverage new data types, logical operators, conditionals, loops, and other coding concepts to build a word-guessing game.

Canvas Coding

Students use JavaScript, HTML Canvas, and the P5.js graphics library to write their own 2D browser games from scratch.

Arcade Project

Students build and theme an arcade game within HTML 5 Canvas. They use tools, math, and creativity to discover the magic of coding.

Projects:

Narrative Text Adventure

A browser-based text adventure game to learn how to build and incorporate a unique game narrative using JavaScript.

Play in Browser

Word Guessing Game

In this project, students build out a word-guessing game where a random word is chosen and the player is given the opportunity to guess letters.

Play in Browser

Technical Requirements:

Operating System

• Chromebook: Chome OS 100.0 or later
• Windows: 7, 8, 8.1, 10 or later
• Mac: OS X El Capitan 10.11 or later
• Linux: 64-bit Ubuntu 18.04+, Debian 10+, openSUSE 15.2+, or Fedora Linux 32+

Software Installed

• Google Chrome