Game Maker

space invaders design having struggled with game maker - and worried about enabling students - i decided to rewite the space invadrs v 3 as a design document.

i am thinking about using this as the basis for discussing designing a game.

comments welcome

I am hoping that you were all inspired by the Game Maker software and have returned to your schools and introduced it to your students.  If you have started using it back at school:

• how did you introduce it to the students?
• what did the students think about it?
• have you got a lesson plan, or similar, you would be willing to share with others?

If you have not introduced it yet, how do you plan to do so?

Hi,

Just tried to install Gamemaker on our RM network. The program runs, but when you try to view the game a graphics card error message comes up (we’ve checked our machines and they have all the necessary requirements). Has anyone else come across a similar problem? and more importantly have they solved it?

Thanks

Mark (Blessed William Howard)

Initially, I had planned to offer our Y10 gifted and talented students the first opportunity to go through the Games Club experience. Having looked at the software and how easy it is to setup fairly basic games, I have decided to open up the club to anyone who is interested (from KS3 or KS4 only). Given the potential interest, I will be limiting the group to 20 students; though I will look seriously at using the software to teach the control elements of the KS3 NC syllabus - at least I hope to eliminate Flowol from National Strategy Unit 7.6.

For those with Moodle servers, there is a basic course already setup on our servers which I will be extending of the coming weeks. If anyone would like a copy, let me know and I will email you with the source of the original course and, in due time, I will let you know where you can download my adapted course.

Will set up some groups in Y7 and Y8, mainly running lunch time clubs, look to start in the next couple of weeks (before the end of June 07).

Gamemaker seems to be an absoloute gem. I can see this working for us at KS3, 4 & 5.

We currently do some game design work with 6th formers who have experienced programming in A’Level Computing. They have thoroughly enjoyed creating simple games in Flash but the ActionScript was very tricky. With Gamemaker I can see the process being accelerated greatly.

I know that a GameMaker’s Club will be popular at KS3 since we have a number of hard core ‘Flash Animation’ nuts who spend nearly every lunchtime in our computer rooms. Many of these would love to move from animation into games design.

KS4 is an area where we intend to develop the iMedia Level 2 course & clearly GameMaker will fulfill the needs of unit 7 (2D Game Engines)

Finally, I am going to enjoy teaching Game Design much more than ‘Goal Seek’ or Flowol.

The audio effects for the Space Invaders game can be downloaded by clicking here. If you’re looking for a background track to play, you could try the Space Invaders Song, click here to download.

The sprite objects (32×32) can also be downloaded from this site.

Game maker looks good and can see a lot of the DiDA group wanting to use it after they have completed D202. Will be offering after school club to Yr 10 OCR NC  and to high ability KS3 group. Some year 9’s have already shown an interest.

To start we intend to run a lunchtime club designed to complement our CC4G sessions. But I can see this replacing FLOWOL as our main control software.