Nathan Donaldson and Adriel Tusi (Year 7) have been announced as the winners of the Year 7-9: GODOT Engine section of the Australian STEM Video Game Challenge, a national video game development competition for students in years 3 to 12.
Given the theme Stars, Nathan and Adriel created a Space Invaders-like game called Shooting Stars where the player controls a spaceship to shoot at stars in the night sky.
“We first had to come up with an idea, that took a while,” Nathan said.
“Once we came up with an achievable idea, we wrote down all the artworks we needed for the game and then created them using Pixelart.
“And then I started doing the coding and Adriel started creating the music for the game.”
Once everything was complete, the boys put it all together, testing and tweaking the game.
“We are really happy with how it came out,” Nathan said.
“It looks good, the music sounds really nice, it’s fun!”
STEM mentor and Junior School Enrichment Coordinator Mrs Leonie Hampson said she was thrilled by the exciting announcement, given how hard the boys had worked.
“I am so proud of the way Nathan and Adriel have applied and developed their coding and game design skills, to create a fun and engaging game with very cool upgrades and effects,” Mrs Hampson said.
“I'm excited to see them represent the school at PAX this year.”
The Australian STEM Video Game Challenge, provides students with the opportunity to work collaboratively, applying creative and critical thinking skills as they develop their programming and coding skills to design and create a playable game. Part of the process is the completion of a Game Design Document that encourages them to work through the design process as they document their game creation journey.
Shooting Stars will be showcased at PAX Melbourne from 11-13 October and other events including the It Takes a Spark! STEM Conferences held throughout Australia. As well as tickets to PAX and a hoodie with their game printed on it, Adriel and Nathan will present on a panel discussion in front of gamers and international game developers.
“I’m looking forward to it, definitely,” Nathan said.
“It’s going to be the highlight of the holidays!”
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