Student Project Spotlight: SpaceBears!

What do you get when you ask three Voyagers (students 12+) to design a video game?

SpaceBears!

Voyagers Michael R., Aaron S., and Ryan W. teamed up to create a wave-based shooter game where the player must defeat three waves of enemies.

How did they do it?

Well, they had to work as a team and weave together different coding skills to create the finished project.

Before they got to coding, though, they had a problem: although they had ideas for their game, they didn’t yet have a detailed plan for creating it. Without a detailed roadmap, they couldn’t move forward with their game development.

Enter Game-U instructor Dakota!

When he took over as their teacher 7 months ago, he saw that they were at a pivotal point in their game’s development. And he knew that they were ready for the next step in the design process.

Dakota gave them the Game Design Document template used in our Voyager classes. With this framework, they could organize their ideas and decide exactly how they wanted their game to work from beginning to end.

“A Game Design Document is their game bible,” said Dakota. “The better this document is written, the better the game will come out.”

The students put their heads together to define each detail of their game in their Game Design Document. Soon, the ideas flowed, and they completed their blueprint.

With a solid game design plan in place, the Voyagers got to work:

• Ryan W. coded in C-Sharp using a coding program called Visual Studio (coupled with Unity).
• Michael R. crafted the 2D sprites and textures using Piskel, an online art program. He also created the enemies, as well as their animations.
• Aaron S. created the 3D models with Probuilder, a free plugin for Unity, and worked on the audio.

As you can see, each student was responsible for certain components of the game, but they also joined forces and helped each other throughout the process.

The end result is a game they can all be proud of!

Take a look at the video below to see SpaceBears in action!

The object of the game is to defeat the enemies in each of the three waves. Every following wave’s enemies are tougher to battle than the last, so the game gets more difficult as you go.

At Game-U, our Voyager students use the GameWERX program to create their games. The students form teams and, with the help of their instructor, follow the process of developing the game from start to finish. Along the way, they employ skills learned in their Voyager class.

Congratulations to our GameWERX students on a job well done!