We just wrapped up our third year running our Video Game Development Course here in the LNPK Community Hub. Started in the summer of 2024 by one of our AmeriCorps VISTA members with partners in Carlton County, this course was made to be a fun and educational course for students interested in exploring computer science and to get them excited about game development.
Our students came into the course with only four days to make a game. With an average age of 10 and little to no prior programming experience, each student was nonetheless off to the races. Using a collection of over fifty modules and a self-guided structure, each of them worked hard and created a game, with several students even adding their own artwork and mechanics not taught to them. On the final day, they all invited friends and family to a release party to show off their projects to their adoring fans.
By the end of the week, the pride and excitement of the students was obvious. Each student published their games to the internet (which you can check out here, alongside games from previous years), and many even requested access to their project files to continue working on their own back home. Nick Heck, our partner at Independent School District 709 who helped recruit participants, summed up the feelings perfectly, saying, “I’ve never seen them so quickly, intrinsically engrossed in a project. It was rewarding to see the amount of pride they had in their work and a high level of commitment that doesn’t always get showcased in more traditional school work.” We’d like to thank our partners, Carlton County and ISD 709, for helping us get this course up and running.
This course is just one of many we plan to hold here at the LNPK Community Hub! Starting this fall, we will be offering AARP Senior Planet classes and activities to help community members of all ages learn new technology skills, save money, stay safe online, improve their health, make new friends, and more! We want to hear from you on what kinds of technology classes you’d like to see offered at the Hub! Click the button below to answer a survey about future Hub classes.