[p4k] More Scratch
Last week was a Scratch week at P4K. We continued the exercise we began the previous Thursday, modding the Archknight’s Adventure platformer. The exercise progressed to greater specificity and detail over the course of the week. As the class grew more comfortable with Scratch’s interface, we could alter more aspects of the game with more skill.
The sound team went from adding sound effects, to adding background music, to making their own music using multiple samples and loops. The animation team began by simply altering the costumes of the characters, but by the end of Thursday, one student had created a new main character with all the necessary poses to animate him. Background designers created designs for every level, mixing photographs with drawings, and a level designer imported sprites from a website and made a new level that looked like Sonic the Hedgehog. Meanwhile, the programmer altered the main character’s abilities and implemented some of the other students’ changes.
The point of the exercise wasn’t to produce a finished product, but rather to give everyone a chance to explore the different roles in greater detail. Overall, I was really pleased with the results, and the week reinforced a lesson I’ve learned this year. Designers need constraints. People are easily overwhelmed if not given any rules for an assignment.
Students can be more creative and produce better results when they’re given a framework of directions to work with. The first day of the exercise was largely unstructured, and while there’s value to free play, it’s not always the best educational experience. By the last day, roles were very specific and tasks for the day were clearly laid out. By the end of the day, there was tangible progress and the students had a far clearer understanding of the software. Sometimes, creativity flourishes best with limits.
On Saturday, two of our students had the opportunity to participate in the Trendsetters 5th Annual Women's History Month Citywide Conference for Girls on Nontraditional Careers. Monique Fungkhee and Kameisha Thompson joined Tiltfactor Lab director Mary Flanagan and Games 4 Change’s Social Network Designer Ellen Scott on a panel about values and game design. Kameisha and Monique discussed their experiences with Playing 4 Keeps and answered questions by the audience. They did a great job, and with this experience we’re looking forward to having them participate in future public speaking engagements.
