From the Gazette:
http://www.gazette.net/stories/02182009/wheanew200849_32477.shtml
Northwood High School students' video game creation wins global competition
by Amber Parcher | Staff Writer
When the team of four boys from Northwood High School walked into the start of an international video game design competition two weeks ago, they were disheartened by all of the professionals and college students signing up.
"We're going to lose, we're going to lose, we're going to lose," sophomore Alex House said he kept repeating to himself at the event held at the Universities at Shady Grove campus in Rockville.
The group of boys — House, sophomore Casey Minnick, junior Gabriel Vargas and senior Aaron Scott — had 48 hours to design a video game from scratch based around the theme, "As long as we have each other, we will never run out of problems."
Teams of gamers around the world were doing the same thing for the Global Game Jam, each vying for the top spot in their location.
So as the timer started, the boys, each with about three months' experience in creating games, decided to make their game as entertaining and silly as possible, "to entertain the judges," Scott said.
They were going to lose anyway — might as well make it funny, Minnick said.
The group started with two cardboard boxes, named Foxy and Boxy, punk rock music only a teenage boy could love and an evil "boss" of a chimpanzee riding a Segway.
The premise of the game, which Northwood High School gaming teacher Donna Thomas said was unique, was that to get through each level, the characters Foxy and Boxy were dependant on each other. Two players had to work together to win the game.
"I can't think of a game that is similar to this," said Thomas, who has 26 years of high-tech experience but wasn't allowed to help the boys during the competition.
When Northwood team's name was announced as the overall winner at the end of the weekend, everyone — including Thomas — was surprised.
"They were so intimidated. They had the professionals coming in with synthesizers and desktops and all kinds of stuff," she said. "All these guys showed up with were laptops issued by MCPS."
Looking back on the competition, Minnick said it makes sense that they won. Their team was the only one to finish the entire game without any glitches or bugs, he said.
(Well, the chimpanzee boss can't kill Foxy and Boxy, but good thing the judges didn't notice that, he said.)
Thomas said she thinks the boys — the youngest group of participants in the gaming competition — won because they were uninhibited by age.
"Their imagination was what enabled them to win," she said.
Their game was also picked to be displayed at the International Game Development Conference in San Francisco in March.
Thomas said it's a boon to their young resumes and their careers. Scott, who will graduate this spring, plans to study in the Universities at Shady Grove's gamer program.
And the rest of the boys are busy planning their next game — loosely based on the idea of a snowed-in Northwood that forces students to create tribes.
"That might be a good game idea," Minnick said.
Play the game
Want to play the Northwood team's winning Global Game Jam video game and other student-made video games? CDs of the games are being sold for $5, to benefit the school's computer science program. To buy one, call Donna Thomas at 301-639-5037. |
