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On day 4, we wanted to talk a little about the basics of the way that software thinks about things and introduce a few of the fundamental abstractions of programming. I know it’s a whippersnappers/get off my lawn/uphill both ways in the snow kind of moment, but the computing experience of the 80s really did prepare us beautifully for software engineering careers, and, well, these kids don’t have to type in 6 pages of code if they want their computer to draw a picture of Alfred E. Newman like we did. Anyway, I introduced Eric as someone who writes software for a living, and he talked about variables and collisions and things that the computer would have to keep track of.

On day 5, the topic was the main loop of the game and continuing to build on the distinction between property and state; and the notion of stepping through the loop many times per second; when it updates positions, when it implements input from the players, checking for collisions or scoring, etc. Of course, this may not be the exact way that the engine handles events, but it’s helpful to analyze what would be needed to make a game happen.

On monday, we’re going to talk about the process of making a game, the types of jobs that are involved (including looking through the credits and seeing if I can hint them into guessing what QA means) and a few ideas about game design. We’ll play a few of the minigame modes and they’ll come up some of their own ideas for minigame modes. We’ll see how it goes!

Also, I have to say that we could no longer resist the opportunity to let them play Little Big Planet of Friday… we’ll see if they demand it first thing on monday.

The plan for Day 3 was to talk about the basic ideas of 3D space, coordinate systems, and how the 3D space is represented in a 2D image. I had two personal goals for this day: get the two girls to take some guesses, and say the words “Matrix Transformations” in a meaningful way.

Before the class started, I took a shot at singlehandedly solving one of the biggest issues in modern education: girls and geekiness. Now, the two Sophies in my class are really cool, smart girls; they clearly know what’s going on, they love to play the game, and they seem to be enjoying the class, but they don’t take any guesses during the discussion. There is so much built-in resistance to overcome to get them to participate, from the modern image of what girlhood is and what girls are supposed to be interested in to the ancient imbedded biological maxim that you can’t go wrong making a man feel smart. Regardless, they chose to take this class, and I’d like to try to get them to engage with the content a little. I had noticed that they were quite into the competitive element, cheering on their team and trash talking as required, so I mentioned to them before class that their team had falled behind a little bit yesterday because neither of them took any guesses, and they could help their team out by speaking up a little during the discussion. They nodded enthusiastically, and lo and behold, during the discussion, they actually took some guesses! It didn’t last, though, and I can’t yet try that gambit again; later in the week a Sophie would raise her hand and when called on point to Nemo.

It is clear that these kids by and large understand 3D, even if they’ve never really heard the terminology before. Nemo got a super papa bonus for correctly guessing that the third axis is called the z axis. The funniest thing is because ‘binary’ and ’software’ were answers on the first day of class that I got really excited about, they keep guessing those again just in case. “OK, how does the program know what lines to draw to make the perspective shape of the car?” “Uhhh, binary?” Which is fun, because it’s not exactly wrong!

However, we got through the stuff I wanted to talk about and then moved on to a 2 vs. 2 teams tournament. The kids are starting to get a little better at the game, but it’s still hard to get them to do anything other than blindly charge after the ball. But who could blame them?

Today, I split the group up into 4 teams with the intent of them staying in those teams for the rest of the class. In the open school way, each group covered the age gamut of the class, although I was sorely tempted to make a team out of the 3 Andrews and 2 Patricks and call it Full House. Teams can earn points for good guesses or right answers during the discussion, plus points from their team’s turns in the battle arena. I had put down Physics and math as the topic, but I really started with “What is a videogame made out of?” Which was initially answered with “uh, chips?” and with some prodding and discussion was ultimately getting shouts of “ones and zeroes” and even, to my delight, “information!” We talked about the difference between hardware and software (and even firmware), what the game needs to be able to calculate, and what kinds of forces are in play during the game. We also talked about the difference between properties and state in relation to the ball, which even led to the difference between linear and angular momentum. It was pretty great. Still a lot of answers from the 8 or so geekier guys (and no guesses from either Sophie), but I gave out about 80 points for lots of good guesses over about 30 minutes of talking, leaving 45 minutes to play.

On the first day, there were few goals because even the easy bots get right after the ball and control the match. So today, we tried 4 vs 4 with no bots and all the kids on the same team; I also added the red and the blue scores so they could get it into either goal. This gave them time to look at the ball and their starting places and see if they could make something happen. After the first two rounds of everybody running all over the place and scoring 3 or 4 goals over 5 minutes, they realized that when their positions get reset after a goal, one of them is usually lined up to bop the ball right into the goal, so the game became figuring out which of the 4 players was lined up, and then letting them shoot it as quickly as possible. The high score was 32, which we added to their question points to determine who advanced to 2 final matches: The Marauders ultimately defeated Team X, while The Blazers fell to The Destroyers.

For tomorrow, I’m hoping to talk a little about how the game produces a 2D image of a 3D simulation, talk about wireframes and textures and 3D modeling, and a little about lighting and special effects; and maybe get the girls to take a couple guesses.

Day 1 was off to a great start! We have the use of Mike’s content studio / classroom with a projector and lots of open space. We set up my 2 PS3s (I’m again thankful that a PlayStation Network purchase usually allows you to download the product onto 5 different units) and 2 of my 15″ travel LCDs with 3 controllers each. We projected the game onto the screen and I went through the tutorials so that all the kids could see the basic moves. Nobody has played this game before (except Nemo) and we have a wider spectrum of game familiarity than I had expected; some self-proclaimed videogame experts who were clearly not all talk, and some kids who sheepishly admitted that they aren’t very good at videogames. I have to admit, I’m shocked to see American elementary schoolers who haven’t ever held a videogame controller and are at a loss when confronted with an analog stick; it’s clear who has anti-game parents. I can’t help but see this as a handicap, but it’s one that they very quickly overcome.

The kids correctly identify what ’supersonic’ means (although the answered first said ‘faster than light, er, sound!) and Nemo chips in by adding that it means that the vehicle should cause a sonic boom. I love that answer, because that’s totally not in the game and Nemo knows it; but he’s applying his knowledge of the world to the question and that’s what it’s all about! The kids also go CRAZY when I mention that you can destroy other cars when you’re supersonic. Nothing like mayhem to inspire an elementary schooler. Lots of oohs and ahhs as the cars do backflips and such; and many helpful suggestions to defeat the tutorials and move on.

We then spent the rest of the class taking turns going 3 on 3 vs. the computer so that everyone could get a few chances to play. While they’re at this, I rethink my approach to taking turns the rest of the week; I think I’ll split them up into teams with all ages on each team to make it fair, and there should be enough time for everybody to get to play at least once each time we meet. During the discussion, I’ll award points to the teams for each good guess or correct answer; I want to get them throwing out ideas and see how much of what goes into 3d software they can deduce on their own. We’ll then add the discussion points to points earned in the battle arena and crown a team victorious each time; and the number of daily wins each team accrues will affect their standing in the final tournament.

Tomorrow will be the first big step; talking about the concepts of 3D Physics and Maths (not doing any equations, just talking about what equations need to be done) to see if we can get them thinking about everything that goes into even simple little games like these!

Stay tuned for a report from day 2!

My kid Nemo is lucky to go to a really great school: Ann Arbor Open School @ Mack. One of my very favorite things they do at Open School is called Focus Studies: three times a year, for 2 weeks, a mini-elective is shoehorned into each day. There are usually 25 or so different Focus Studies to choose from, offered by teachers, staff, and parents. Some are creative, like knitting, building a model, poetry, or writing and staging a play; or there’s a Basketball clinic, a Euchre tournament, a Spanish class, all kinds of stuff. Last year I offered a Focus Study called “Pokémon and Probability” for grades 5-8, and it was a blast. Of course, I learned a lot about what worked and what didn’t, how to engage the kids and keep them focused on some content that’s above grade level. I wrote out lesson plans and everything, but I didn’t keep notes on what happened, so much of what we did was lost to the mists of time. Well, not exactly, but I wanted to blog about it and didn’t, so I’m fixing that this time around.

This year, with the assistance of Eric ‘rhymes with toaster’ Klooster, I’m offering Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-powered Battle Cars: The Focus Study. Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle Cars is a wonderful little game from the Playstation Network that essentially boils down to playing soccer using , well, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle Cars. One thing that I found last year when talking about content that the kids had had essentially no exposure to (like, say, the concept of a spreadsheet!?) was that kids were reluctant to throw out guesses to leading questions if they didn’t know the answer. So, to encourage kids to think and guess, I’m going to award tokens for good guesses or right answers (and artificially spread them around, especially to the little guys) and the kid with the most tokens at the end of the discussion advance to play the game… the idea is to use this game as a framework to talk about things to which kids grades 1-6 aren’t usually exposed. Here’s the basic idea of what we’ll talk about, and I’ll post each night about how it’s going.

Day 1: Overview of Game, What We’ll Cover, How to Play.
Everybody gets a turn, 2v2 and 1v1.

Day 2: Physics and Math: Gravity, Velocity, Momentum, Relative Speed.
2v2 playoffs for top token getters

Day 3: Graphics: 2D and 3D, wireframes, textures, lighting, special effects.
2v2 playoffs for top token getters

Day 4 (ejk): Memory: game code vs. variables, what the game needs to track.
2v2 playoffs for top token getters

Day 5 (ejk): Programming: collision, networking, graphics & physics engines.
2v2 playoffs for top token getters

Day 6: Game Design: Who works on a game, Specifications, Designing for Fun.
Mini-game modes, design your own mini-game

Day 7: Full Tournament for 2-player teams

People who weren't kids in the 80s may have heard of Nintendo, but they usually don't fully understand how ubiquitous the NES was, and what a fundamental component of our childhood the system and its software became.  I think that part of the reason that so many of today's thirty-somethings are such avid gamers is that Nintendo showed us as kids how great videogames could be, and its universality cemented gaming as part of our generational identity.

With my kids and Wii, I can see it happening again.  It's quickly becoming a cultural framework for their generation, and once we get to the point where every household that wants a Wii has one (and how long might that still be?) I think Nintendo may again achieve the universality they enjoyed in the 80s, when you didn't play videogames, you played Nintendo.

Case in point: there's a new building in our neighborhood that has a somewhat ostentatious vertical blue stripe that glows at night.  (Geeks already know where this is going).  Ever since the stripe was added, every time we walk by the building at night, 5-year-old Nemo says, "Look papa, that building has an update!"   The other night he added, "or maybe it got a message from one of its friends."

The coolest thing about this is that because the best software franchises of my generation are still here thrilling his generation, that cultural framework is something that I can share with my son, instead of scratching my head at his interests in bewilderment as parents are often stuck doing.  For example, Nemo's preschool is housed in a church that has recently finished a significant organ transplant (isn't that what they call that?).  As I was taking him into school a few weeks ago, we could hear some seriously forté, slightly ominous, slow-paced organ music coming from behind a large double door at the top of some stairs.  This immediately triggered a game memory for both of us, and I said, "Hey Nemo, I wonder if that's Ganondorf playing the organ behind that door."

Now, while some may consider it inadvisable for a parent to intentionally blur that critical fantasy/reality line in a young boy's mind, the fact is that when kids are pretending, they know what they're doing, and they can have very firm ideas about what's real and what's not.  As if to prove my point, Nemo laughed and said, "Naw, it's probably just an old lady." 

Like most homes that house both a Nintendo DS and an (almost) elementary schooler, we are currently in the grip of a fresh wave of Pokémania.  Both Nemo and I had played Pokémon before, although we hadn't really gotten truly hooked.  Nemo had come to several Pokémon tournaments though, where he had made friends with a 12-year old Pokéfreak who gave him a Level 41 Wailord (she was going to give him an extra Lugia, but you have to have finished the game to accept legendary Pokémon in trades). The Wailord quickly became Nemo's first prized digital possession, and he was delighted every time it actually followed his commands (higher level Pokémon won't lower themselves to obey beginning trainers).

I knew we would eventually buy Pokémon Diamond or Pearl, the first true Pokémon titles for DS (Trozei, Mystery Dungeon, and Rangers being mere spinoffs), and I had lingered over them at Meijer last week, but I wasn't really feeling that drop-everything-and-acquire-it-now feeling until we ran into one of my Pokémon regulars and his dad at Dairy Queen.  I asked him if he had Diamond or Pearl yet, and it turned out that he had Diamond, and his Dad has Pearl, and they'd been playing them together.

"I'm actually having a bit of a problem with it," his dad admitted.  "I think I'm more into it than he is.  I've logged 28 hours so far…"  We talked about the upcoming Pokémon Battle Revolution for Wii, and I complimented him on his Pokémon shirt… these guys are hardcore.  After they left, I immediately turned to my wife and said "Can we go get Pokémon Diamond and Pearl RIGHT NOW?"  She frowned, because (as I soon determined) she was planning on getting them for us the next day while Nemo was at school.

So, we've been playing quite a bit the past few days.  Of course, it's awesome.  The developers (Game Freak) really know what they're doing by now, and everything is well tuned, the new Pokémon are great, and every addition is well thought-out.  What's really most remarkable about the entire Pokémon franchise is how relentlessly positive it is, morally, ethically, and er, attitudinally?  Everybody in the Pokéworld, even the bad guys, are so nice, and treat each other and their weird little pets so well.

Also, the recasting of the coming of age story that is central to all Pokémon games, delivered to these hungry little minds without a whiff of subtlety or irony, where they just tell you straight out that you will grow as a trainer, and as a person, as you progress through your quest (especially if you talk to everyone and treat your Pokémon kindly).  Pokémon is a significant component of our youth culture; these kids are learning a lot about how they want to live their lives from these games.  I've seen it in the sportsmanship and easy cameradie that comes from teens at Super Smash Bros. tourneys; these kids were raised on Pokémon, and they didn't forget the lessons they learned in Johto or Hoenn.

Parents may see Pokémon as a strange, addicting obsession that sucks their children in to a vortex of merchandise and obscure terminology, and if they don't understand the Pokéworld themselves, they can be concerned or dismissive.  Leaving aside the bonding that they're missing out on by leaving the fun to their kids, at least it beats the crap out of Power Rangers.

All that said, that's the digression.  Here's the story I actually wanted to tell.  Our 18-month-old, Rocket, has been climbing up onto tables lately, and we've been trying to teach her that it's not allowed.  Nemo climbed up onto the play table and broke out the nana-nana-boo-boo routine.

"Nemo," I said, "don't taunt your sister."

"For what reason?" he asked.  At least we're out of the why phase, sort of.

Without really thinking, I replied, "Because she'll fly into a blind rage and will only be able to use attack moves for the next 2-4 turns."

"Oh." 

You may remember Nemo as the winner of Kotaku's Halloween Costume Contest. Well, as his birthday rolled around, and we started discussing what he wanted for his party, the very first thing he said was that he wanted a King Bob-omb cake. As his party got closer, we kept having fun ideas, and by the time the day arrived, things had gotten a little out of hand, and turned into a full-on Mario Party, complete with koopa-shell invitations. The cake was a bit of a structural challenge: Twinkies, as it turns out, are not intended to be load-bearing.

Of course, Nemo wanted to wear his Luigi costume, sans mustache and Poltergust 3000. Everybody got to try DDR Mario Mix. We only put out 1 pad to halve the occupied floorspace, as well as the mayhem. One of the best things about Mario Mix is that its easy mode only uses right and left, which is a much easier place for a 4-year old to learn to play DDR. Nemo has since moved on to Normal mode, and loves to play real DDR, too. His favorite song is 'Speed Over Beethoven' on DDR Extreme 2.

We wanted to have a pinata, but with 4-year-olds, nobody's got the strength to breach the um, containment unit, so some grown-up usually has to rip it open surreptitiously while pretending to 'examine' the darn thing. Instead, we took a square cardboard box (I can't believe we had a perfectly sized and proportioned one in the basement), cut off the lid, and decorated it with construction paper to look like a classic Mario Question Block. We attached it to a string tied to the bannister, and let the kids jump and bop the bottom of the box.

When they hit the bottom of the box hard enough (or if we yanked the string for a little extra oomph), out popped their treat bag, which contained some turtle stickers (not koopa troopas, but close enough), a dumdum and a fruit leather (we figure they cancelled each other out), a real noise-making noise maker (sorry parents), and a Japanese Mario figure, the kind where you don't know which one you got until you open it, and that includes a tiny packet of 6 tasteless white candies. We got them at Wizzywig, where they also have a tissue cozy shaped like a Famicom. I covet it. Anyway, this worked beautifully, and turned out to be a great alternative to a pinata, with the extra advantage of avoiding the mad scramble, which can be a mess, particularly when kids of several different sizes are involved.

A good time was had by all, especially by Nemo, who got a new Mario Kart DS bundle from my parents. And Nemo's papa, who doesn't have to share his DS anymore.