Teaching LÖVE

[D0NM]

This summer I'm going to teach children LUA and LOVE2D at computer Summer School.

I have had 2 LUA workshops for 10+ years olds so far.

In 2007 I had a workshop for children 13+. We had "a robot - mapper" project with C++ & LUA. They had to make a gfx engine with C++ and bots logic with LUA. A bot has a set of commands an sensors. It should walk over an unknown maze and draw its map.

In 2009, I think, we had an ecology simulator project. Like FOREST SIM (plants, worms, birds, some simply eco system).

8 hours a day. 14 days in sum.

We don't just teach children, we make projects, work in a team and defend the project.

PS I have to pick an interesting theme for this year's children project
while I'm writing a new game with LOVE2D ^_^

[Ekamu]

I guess your theme could be summer? or the woods/ great outdoors. It would be cool if you taught them about textures, theres lots of stuff you can sample from outside.

I remember learning love2d and lua by making a PONG game from complete scratch. I learned about AI, Player Control and Objects. I also learned about score keeping and sound and collision detection. Unary operators. DT Delta Time. Testing and debuting. Also I learned lots about flow control and tables, all the basics of Lua and how to think in LOVE.

PONG is like the mother of video games IMO. The rest is just flashy shader effects, animation and more math stuff (mainly trig and matrix math/vectors).

I dunno, summer pong game jam might sound fun and easy to pick up? Not too sure if kids these days will appreciate that. Most kids I know want DOOM or a QUAKE demo at least and lots of gore.

[D0NM]

Well )) the main thing for the children's education
is to make a NON-game project that looks like a game. It is kinda rule.
I used Cocos2D for 2 years as a framework there, too. I try to bring new computer languages every year.

BTW, about LOVE. The PONG sounds classic
Also It is a good exercise to make them code a CALC without any GUI. At first we'll make a BUTTON, etc.

Another tested thing:
When children make a moving sprite that detects collisions
I ask them to add pushable crates - to make something like SOKOBAN.
And the base of the level is a 2D array - to make them understand.

We do have some workshops with "doom like" stuff, but it goes to elder pupils - 14+
And I'm not into 3D, so I pick themes that I like )

It would be cool to get more ideas for simply games (not games) to make with LOVE.

PS In 2015 our workshop made a Zero Player Game - "Summer Camp SIM" with all our teachers, pupils, tasks (get up, have dinner, study stuff, do some teachers quests, etc ). They made it with NodeJS ))) Luckily, we had 1 child, who was better in web design, CSS, etc. Another one was a good pixelart painter (he never did it before).
To, the final project had a map of the camp with all buildings and stuff. With moving NPCs and a front-end to reg new players.
During the presentation we show our WIFI password and the gamae ip address. So all the public connect and register their own players via their phones / notebooks / etc. It was the most successful presentation of my workshop ever )))
gotta look for the screenie or the photo )






during the camp we had some alerts about a wild bear around in the woods... (i'm not kidding! it was in Siberia and the mom-bear was looking for her cub. She was aggressive. We never met her, tho)
So children have added a bear NPC that gets you in a hospital.. instant ))
Wait! IT looks like... er

[tuupakku]

Well )) the main thing for the children's education
is to make a NON-game project that looks like a game. It is kinda rule.
I used Cocos2D for 2 years as a framework there, too. I try to bring new computer languages every year.

BTW, about LOVE. The PONG sounds classic
Also It is a good exercise to make them code a CALC without any GUI. At first we'll make a BUTTON, etc.

Another tested thing:
When children make a moving sprite that detects collisions
I ask them to add pushable crates - to make something like SOKOBAN.
And the base of the level is a 2D array - to make them understand.

We do have some workshops with "doom like" stuff, but it goes to elder pupils - 14+
And I'm not into 3D, so I pick themes that I like )

It would be cool to get more ideas for simply games (not games) to make with LOVE.

PS In 2015 our workshop made a Zero Player Game - "Summer Camp SIM" with all our teachers, pupils, tasks (get up, have dinner, study stuff, do some teachers quests, etc ). They made it with NodeJS ))) Luckily, we had 1 child, who was better in web design, CSS, etc. Another one was a good pixelart painter (he never did it before).
To, the final project had a map of the camp with all buildings and stuff. With moving NPCs and a front-end to reg new players.
During the presentation we show our WIFI password and the gamae ip address. So all the public connect and register their own players via their phones / notebooks / etc. It was the most successful presentation of my workshop ever )))
gotta look for the screenie or the photo )






during the camp we had some alerts about a wild bear around in the woods... (i'm not kidding! it was in Siberia and the mom-bear was looking for her cub. She was aggressive. We never met her, tho)
So children have added a bear NPC that gets you in a hospital.. instant ))
Wait! IT looks like... er

Wait a second, are you the same Don Miguel that translated RPG Maker way back when? Damn, it's good to see you're still working with games, not only that but teaching children to make them! Mad respect for you, I probably never would have gotten into game development if it wasn't for your wonderful work with RPG Maker.

Keep rockin' bro, you're awesome.

[D0NM]

Yep. ) I used to work with games even before RPG Maker stuff )
It is always better to code your own stuff from scratch.
Thank you.