gameplatforms

= Game Design Platforms =

Video game expectations
Define the expectations for the video games to be created, for example: original content, original design, individual or team (up to 4), target audience, game design document & playable game. If students will be creating a game for a specific subject area, these expectations should be set now.

Gamestar Mechanic **@ gamestarmechanic.com**
A game design platform available online. Students play games to learn how to create games. It provides pre-programmed sprites and the ability to layout a game design. Teachers can sign-up for free educational account to keep track of student progress. Teachers will need to provide a link for students to use to create their accounts. No e-mail address is needed by student.
 * Students playing on this ** //beginner-friendly// ** platform will use computational skills, but get less exposure to programming concepts.
 * Gamestar Mechanic Learning Guide

Scratch @ scratch.mit.edu
A game design platform created by MIT. A new online version just launched in May. There is also a free download for PC, Mac or Ubunto. It uses a drag and drop block-based programming interface to program sprites for gameplay and animation.
 * Students can easily dive into this **//beginner-friendly//** platform.
 * First Game
 * Add Levels
 * Add Scoring
 * Jump on Objects
 * The Scratch cards are a great place to start learning about the programming options that are available.
 * See CoderDojo Studio for collection of good projects to learn from and remix.

Stencyl @ stencyl.com
Stencyl has a Scratch-like drag and drop programming interface with more **//intermediate//** features and mobile support. Recent update from Stencyl 2.1 to 3.0 may mean some tutorials are out of date (3.0 on Mac requires 10.8 or later).
 * Crash Course 1
 * Crash Course 1 (instructions); Crash Course 1: part 1 (video); Crash Course 1: part 2 (video)
 * Abigayl's Interactive Tutorials
 * Stencyl TV (video tutorials)
 * Stencypedia
 * From Pixel Art to Stencyl (video tutorial)

Twine
Create a text-based choose your own adventure game with images, sound and videos to supplement (beginner-friendly)

Game Salad @ gamesalad.com
Game design engine for multiple platforms including mobile. This is an intermediate platform similar to Stencyl.
 * Game Salad Cookbook
 * Game Salad Manual

Python is an interactive, object-oriented programming language. It's a great first step in learning a command-based programming language through game making.
 * Python @ python.org **
 * Python resources

**TouchDevelop** @ www.touchdevelop.com
TouchDevelop is a beginner-friendly game design platform to create games for mobile devices.
 * Hour of Code tutorials
 * Microsoft Digital Literacy tutorial

** Other game design platforms **
There are many cool game design platforms out there. Here are a few more that you might want to check out, especially if you are ready to move on to more advanced everything.
 * Alice (open source) ** - ** a 3D programming environment from Carnegie Mellon to create an animation for telling a story or playing an interactive game (intermediate)
 * Codea (iPad) - create games and simulations (intermediate)
 * Corona SDK (PC & Mac) - game design platform for mobile devices (advanced)
 * Craftyy (online) - learn about making games with HTML 5 by remixing games (intermediate)
 * Game Maker Studio (PC & Mac) - game design platform to create casual, social games (advanced)
 * HTML5-based game engines - check out the variety of game engines available (advanced)
 * Processing (open source) - learn programming fundamentals within a visual context (intermediate)
 * Quest (online) - create your own interactive text-based adventure game or interactive fiction (intermediate)
 * Unity (PC & Mac) - 3D game design platform. This advanced platform will require much more time up front learning how to use its features (advanced)
 * How To Start Your Game Development by Unity
 * Unity 3D Training Video Series by Walker Boys Studio
 * Unity Resources from Virtual Game Lab