This guy originally began designing these suits, which he'd previously called MarkI through MarkVI, in order to allow himself to have close-up encounters with bears (driven by an experience from earlier in life). Last time I saw this suit being demonstrated, there was one major problem:
Troy spotted a bear out in the middle of an open field and began moving slowly towards it from his hiding place. So slowly, in fact, that the bear apparently got bored of sitting still and walked away. Troy's mobility was limited to about 1 step per second and a half.
Mind you, seeing a whole army of indestructible soldiers marching along at a snail's pace with cars, bombs, etc bouncing harmlessly away from them is darn cool, but I think that's not wuite what the army wants... Notice for example (assuming the posted links to the gang beating are the same that I've seen) that Troy remains unharmed by baseball bats, but is quite unable to right himself (or prevent others from ripping the suit off, I'll bet). Sure, he can take a log battering ram on the chest no problem, but the real question is whether or not he should have to. (if you've never see the log swinging video, find it--it's hilarious).
I should also add that Computational Media, GaTech's version of a video game design bundled with a couple other design fields, has recently been added to LCC.
I feel as though I advocate Game Maker (gamemaker.nl) to at least 1 new person every day.
LWATCDR is quite thoroughly correct: "I don't think the problem is the languages. The problem is expectations. When I was a kid everyone wanted to learn to program to write games. "
The only problem these days is that it's really quite a daunting task just to put animated pictures up on the screen and move them around. In fact, I (who like many here has been programming since the age of 8) found myself losing interest in programming early in college as the dreary tasks like "make Scrabble as a Java Applett!" began to erode the fun I'd once had making text adventures in GW-BASIC.
I can only imagine that I'm not alone in dreading the amount of "stuff" that goes into what often seems like a simple little game idea (and just to get it to show up on the screen!). I think that's why there are so many Flash games out there--it's a way to get at the graphical side much more quickly. But anyways, my interest in programming was fully restored by this Game Maker software for precisely the right reasons; it's object-oriented, but it sets up the objects for me in a nice point and click interface, there's no "windowing freakin' toolkit," the built-in language provides all the functionality I'd need to make simple 2D and 3D games without requiring me to know all the under-the-hood stuff that practically every other package requires in order to trick the game into working with my hardware. I think things like that are going to be absolutely crucial in the effort to encourage folks to learn programming, and to further the whole homebrew games scene.
Scheme greatly impaired my ability to program--it's logic is counterintuitive to what kids that age are learning. OOP is dang near impossible, and it's rather an advanced task to make anything graphically interesting.
May I suggest Game Maker? It's interpreted, free, and graphically very powerful. Kids can drop pictures into the software and use the drag and drop programming interface to create full-fledged games. You can make a simple game in as little as 5 minutes, yet Game Maker has enough complexity to grow into whatever you wish to teach (even 3D in the $20 registered version). It has a built-in language--GML script--as well, in case you wish to teach more traditional coding. If you want a software package that allows kids access to the entire range of programming logic, yet allows them almost instantaneous feedback (eg, import a picture, set it as an object's sprite, drop it in a "room," and you have a working program), Game Maker is the best I can possibly suggest. There's even a book--The Gamemaker's Apprentice, that was just recently released by the software's author. And there really is no better way to teach concepts like OOP and inheritance. As you can almost certainly deduce, I've been an enthusiastic user of the software for several years now, and I often prefer it to many of the packages I learned in college! http://www.gamemaker.nl/
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This guy originally began designing these suits, which he'd previously called MarkI through MarkVI, in order to allow himself to have close-up encounters with bears (driven by an experience from earlier in life). Last time I saw this suit being demonstrated, there was one major problem:
Troy spotted a bear out in the middle of an open field and began moving slowly towards it from his hiding place. So slowly, in fact, that the bear apparently got bored of sitting still and walked away. Troy's mobility was limited to about 1 step per second and a half.
Mind you, seeing a whole army of indestructible soldiers marching along at a snail's pace with cars, bombs, etc bouncing harmlessly away from them is darn cool, but I think that's not wuite what the army wants... Notice for example (assuming the posted links to the gang beating are the same that I've seen) that Troy remains unharmed by baseball bats, but is quite unable to right himself (or prevent others from ripping the suit off, I'll bet). Sure, he can take a log battering ram on the chest no problem, but the real question is whether or not he should have to. (if you've never see the log swinging video, find it--it's hilarious).
Yay! Thanks for plugging my major!
I should also add that Computational Media, GaTech's version of a video game design bundled with a couple other design fields, has recently been added to LCC.
To Hell With Georgia!!!
I feel as though I advocate Game Maker (gamemaker.nl) to at least 1 new person every day.
LWATCDR is quite thoroughly correct: "I don't think the problem is the languages. The problem is expectations. When I was a kid everyone wanted to learn to program to write games. "
The only problem these days is that it's really quite a daunting task just to put animated pictures up on the screen and move them around. In fact, I (who like many here has been programming since the age of 8) found myself losing interest in programming early in college as the dreary tasks like "make Scrabble as a Java Applett!" began to erode the fun I'd once had making text adventures in GW-BASIC.
I can only imagine that I'm not alone in dreading the amount of "stuff" that goes into what often seems like a simple little game idea (and just to get it to show up on the screen!). I think that's why there are so many Flash games out there--it's a way to get at the graphical side much more quickly. But anyways, my interest in programming was fully restored by this Game Maker software for precisely the right reasons; it's object-oriented, but it sets up the objects for me in a nice point and click interface, there's no "windowing freakin' toolkit," the built-in language provides all the functionality I'd need to make simple 2D and 3D games without requiring me to know all the under-the-hood stuff that practically every other package requires in order to trick the game into working with my hardware. I think things like that are going to be absolutely crucial in the effort to encourage folks to learn programming, and to further the whole homebrew games scene.
Scheme greatly impaired my ability to program--it's logic is counterintuitive to what kids that age are learning. OOP is dang near impossible, and it's rather an advanced task to make anything graphically interesting.
May I suggest Game Maker? It's interpreted, free, and graphically very powerful. Kids can drop pictures into the software and use the drag and drop programming interface to create full-fledged games. You can make a simple game in as little as 5 minutes, yet Game Maker has enough complexity to grow into whatever you wish to teach (even 3D in the $20 registered version). It has a built-in language--GML script--as well, in case you wish to teach more traditional coding. If you want a software package that allows kids access to the entire range of programming logic, yet allows them almost instantaneous feedback (eg, import a picture, set it as an object's sprite, drop it in a "room," and you have a working program), Game Maker is the best I can possibly suggest. There's even a book--The Gamemaker's Apprentice, that was just recently released by the software's author. And there really is no better way to teach concepts like OOP and inheritance. As you can almost certainly deduce, I've been an enthusiastic user of the software for several years now, and I often prefer it to many of the packages I learned in college!
http://www.gamemaker.nl/