Knowledge and understanding of coding are needed not only in the work of the coder himself, but also in the thousands of current professions. In the future this will include all professions. Therefore, it is extremely important to give children a chance to understand coding as early as possible – preferably in childhood.
In the Junior Computer Academy before teaching our programming languages, we teach unusual, but already in demand courses such as “Game Design.”
The computer games industry is incredibly profitable. Just look at the leaders of Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) games. For example, Dota & League of Legends brings their creators tens of millions of dollars a month.
What is included in this course and how extensively did we prepare for its delivery?
• Hundreds of books on game development and design were read.
• Dozens of professional foreign courses were considered.
• Every instructor authorized to teach is a true gamer and experienced creator.
As a result, we have collected the best of the best, added our own experience and seasoned it all with the maximum creativity from our students of the Junior Academy. Having looked through the main programming languages and descriptions of algorithms, we settled on the most simple and understandable technologies of visual programming – Scratch and Construct2. If any easier, we would be programming with blocks.
Course Outline
Classes begin with an explanation of a particular programming principle. After explaining the basics, we approach the part most beloved by the students – creating the actual games. We develop multi-level Puzzle Games (Angry Birds), Platformers (Mario), Role-Playing Games (World of Warcraft), and even make our own version of Pac-Man.
Rounded eyes, full of excitement, open mouths, and admiration – that’s our reward. Homework includes assignments to create and improve their versions of Tower Defense or Plants & Zombies, and beat all records on the variety of solutions.
Already in the middle of the course, you can see tremendous shifts in the thinking of young coders. What normally takes adults from a week to a month, our game developers seize in a couple of minutes and immediately apply and develop!
After the course, students easily learn programming languages of any complexity. There is also a tendency to increase academic performance in other non-related school subjects. Mathematics, algebra, geometry and even drawing are performed at maximum.
Instructors are happy to teach this subject. After all, in fact, we are all children inside and like to play games.
