Woodbridge High is home to all sorts of creations by the student body through all different kinds of classes. This year, a new project is in the works: a video game development by the computer science and computer graphics classes.
The idea for the project began the previous school year through the collaboration of computer science teacher Gabriel Duthoy and art teacher Matt Takeno. It was always a dream to do game design. However with the lack of art, this had not been fully possible until now, explains Duthoy.
“The idea of doing a video game and setting up kind of a mini studio where students interact with each other and they interact with people who are not necessarily like-minded like our computer science program,” Takeno stated.
A video game is currently in progress of being made through different small groups of students, as explained by computer graphics student Liv Anderson, and is expected to be finished with one level per group by Thanksgiving break.
“We’re taking a game that already exists, a very simple idea of a side-scrolling game and we are going to buy or download a premade game, and then just take those pieces apart, learn how they put them together and then kind of make our own,” explained Takeno. Duthoy explains that through this process students will learn the skills necessary to be able to create a game of their own in the future.
So far, the collaboration between the two classes is progressing well. “The collaboration was fun and we have full creative freedom,” stated Anderson.
As every group is able to come up with their own ideas, each will end up making a level built from the same base, however turning out into a completely different game.
“They get to kind of navigate the waters of trying to communicate and then like find a goal and then try to get there and I think that’s like nothing’s more real than that,” stated Takeno.
However, projects do not end there, as the class may also work on more video game and app development throughout the year.
“We want to do an app building thing but what we’ll do is we’ll have you guys kind of come up with an app that can be used by this school,” explained Takeno, elaborating on future projects of the class.
The class is hopefully one that will continue to be taught in future years, as Duthoy states, and maybe become more formalized and a class dedicated entirely to the creation of games.
While this project will come to an end around Thanksgiving break, the class will be bringing about new apps and games in the future to make sure to look out for!
