[Yr7-10it] Yr7-10it Digest, Vol 150, Issue 1

Sat Nov 24 05:47:36 UTC 2018

Thanks Andrew, that was super interesting. I would also love to hear what others are up to.

I forgot to mention that the year 8s actually had a choice for their game making.

1/ Most chose Game Maker (hence the original post) and although I can see how great it is (one student really wanted to try GML). I still can’t decide whether to do it again next year. I can’t fit the time to learn it plus coming up with their own game idea into a semester for year 8s. Maybe I’m doing it wrong?

2/ Maybe 1/3 of the class chose AppInventor. I am toying with the idea of ditching a game making unit and swapping in a more generic app unit. Might suit a relatively non-gamer cohort?
Device/ emulator support was a hassle and it took me a while to find the Google Group which is frankly amazing – people regularly post their code snips and ask for help on all manner of random things. I would have to get our Google policy changed to allow students into Google Groups (*controversial*).

3/ code.org CS Discoveries Animation & Games
The two of the most capable students chose this so they could progress their JavaScript. One liked the structure and finished the entire course in like 3 hours but struggled to conceive her own game idea and the other just went straight to the Project and coded a game in JS without seemingly doing any tutorials at all. Gifted students – so random.

Is GameStar Mechanic worth a try?

Cheers, Mel

[cid:image001.jpg at 01D48415.669EF4A0]

A CONSISTENTLY HIGH ACHIEVING INDEPENDENT GIRLS' SCHOOL

Melissa

Yuan

IT Teacher

phone:

+61 3 9830 1388

fax:

+61 3 9888 5682

email:

myuan at fintona.vic.edu.au<mailto:myuan at fintona.vic.edu.au>

79 Balwyn Road

Balwyn VIC  3103

www.fintona.vic.edu.au<http://www.fintona.vic.edu.au>

From: Yr7-10it <yr7-10it-bounces at edulists.com.au> On Behalf Of Andrew Pate
Sent: Monday, 12 November 2018 10:13 PM
To: yr7-10it at edulists.com.au
Subject: Re: [Yr7-10it] Yr7-10it Digest, Vol 150, Issue 1

Hi all,
For what it is worth, we had a go at using GameFroot this year. We run a Term long collaborative Game design and development unit at Year 10.

We chose it for 3 reasons:

1.      Web app – so no installs. We run BYOD so seemed a good option

2.      Scripting interface similar to Scratch – we thought this would simplify the coding element (which was identified as an issue in the past, when we ran a home-grown HTML5 Canvas/JS game engine unit)

3.      Lots of online tutorials, especially step-by-step start-ups.

It was NOT a success!

The GameFroot servers often crashed, causing students to lose work. It was not very collaborative friendly, although students did find ways of working together. Finally, while there are lots of tutorials online, most of my students found the content did not go far enough to help them solve their particular problems. Some did get responses to queries to “GameFroot Dave” which was great. For much of the past month the blog and help pages on the GameFroot site would not load, although that appears to have been fixed now.
There was lots of “copy and paste”-ing  the scripts from built in logic – which typically students could not describe and the organisation of the scripting environment was virtually non-existent – not even a search tool.

I wonder if others would share success, or other, stories of their recent experiences with Game making platforms in schools.

Thanks

Andrew Pate
Mentone Grammar.

From: Yr7-10it <yr7-10it-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:yr7-10it-bounces at edulists.com.au>> On Behalf Of yr7-10it-request at edulists.com.au<mailto:yr7-10it-request at edulists.com.au>
Sent: Monday, 12 November 2018 9:50 PM
To: yr7-10it at edulists.com.au<mailto:yr7-10it at edulists.com.au>
Subject: Yr7-10it Digest, Vol 150, Issue 1

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Today's Topics:

1. Game Maker Studio? (Melissa Yuan)

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Message: 1
Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2018 10:49:04 +0000
From: Melissa Yuan <myuan at fintona.vic.edu.au<mailto:myuan at fintona.vic.edu.au>>
To: Year 7 - 10 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List
<yr7-10it at edulists.com.au<mailto:yr7-10it at edulists.com.au>>
Subject: [Yr7-10it] Game Maker Studio?
Message-ID: <af63c3d832fe4d32863c593a3d697d03 at fintona.vic.edu.au<mailto:af63c3d832fe4d32863c593a3d697d03 at fintona.vic.edu.au>>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Hello all,

I'm interested in where others are at with their Game Maker units.

Last year I used GM Lite 8 with year 8s and it went pretty well. This year we upgraded to GM Studio 2 and the resultant student products have been much poorer.

Maybe my teaching has got worse (!) but some of the challenges with GM Studio have been:

- Difficulty managing the install and login

- No printed tutorials but lots of videos which are slower for the students to consume and keep track of where they're at

- Lots more of the video tutorials are for GML and are less high-school friendly

- More powerful software but much more complex interface

- Rotten Help system

I am thinking of rolling-back to GM Lite 8 which has better teaching materials and simpler interface. GM Studio just does not feel like a product aimed at education any more.

Looking forward to the STEM Videogame challenge, is it worth seriously looking at swapping over to Gamestar Mechanic or Stencyl for year 8s?

(Years 5 & 6 do Scratch, year 7 Alice)

Thanks, Mel

[cid:image001.jpg at 01D47AD1.873E7D40]

A CONSISTENTLY HIGH ACHIEVING INDEPENDENT GIRLS' SCHOOL

Melissa

Yuan

IT Teacher

phone:

+61 3 9830 1388

fax:

+61 3 9888 5682

email:

myuan at fintona.vic.edu.au<mailto:myuan at fintona.vic.edu.au<mailto:myuan at fintona.vic.edu.au%3cmailto:myuan at fintona.vic.edu.au>>

79 Balwyn Road

Balwyn VIC 3103

www.fintona.vic.edu.au<http://www.fintona.vic.edu.au><http://www.fintona.vic.edu.au>

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