tell your story change the conversation
three months ago I thought we were
screwed we had committed ourselves to
creating a virtual reality
aka VR dodgeball game okay okay wait up
for those of you who do not know VR is a
computer-generated three-dimensional
simulated environment users typically
wear a headset such as the one that Ben
here is wearing to interact with the
environment and the objects within it we
were under the false pretenses that this
would be easy or dare I say it fun but
let’s just say that so far it had not
been easy or fun at this point in our
project we had completed our first code
which is supposed to allow us to pick up
a ball we had spent hours working on it
the problem was we cannot pick up the
ball so what were we gonna do we had
tried troubleshooting but that didn’t
work we scavenged the internet looking
for a possible solution trying to save
the thing we had spent so much time
working on but nothing came of our
efforts so like I said before screwed
but let’s go back to the beginning not
just the beginning of this air but the
beginning of our entire project about
four months ago
one day I sent a text to Ben saying I
just bought an HTC vive and I found out
that we can make something with it do
you want to do it and of course I say
I’d love to but then later I think wait
what does Brian know about creating a
virtual reality game I had just tested
out the HTC vive with Brian when he
asked me if I wanted to create a game
with him and Ben I instantly agreed
without thinking about what we were
actually going to do with Max I get a
text from been asking what kind of game
we would make he suggests a VR dodgeball
game and I was immediately attached to
that idea we were all passionate about
going outside and playing games and we
wanted to create something that can
capture the feel of being outside or
being in a gym we just had one tiny
problem I was the only one who had a
computer capable of running VR and we
had no idea how to use the software okay
I just filmed we’d figure it out okay
okay we had a little bit more of a plan
than that I had just gone back from a
three week coding camp so I knew what
programming languages could be used the
coding experience of
accent I had however did not reach
beyond what we had learned at school
which was not much at our school we do
this program called hour of code the
goal of it is to get kids interested in
coding by having them do some sort of
coding related activities for an hour
there are many problems with this
however namely the fact that it is one
hour of code for the whole year also we
feel that it makes things misleadingly
simple yeah this lack of knowledge that
we had from hour of code is part of the
reason why Max and I trusted Brian so
blindly when he said it would be fine
and then we ran into another roadblock
we had no money to actually purchase the
software or got computers that could run
the software so we launched the
Kickstarter campaign and we raised
almost $5,000 and so our project began
we were horribly misguided in our
project we had sold copies of our game
promised to be distributed at a fixed
date we had set a deadline for ourselves
and we were committed and we had no idea
that we were about to be hit by the
metaphorical bus that was actual coding
we had to learn to code really code
somehow one way or another we would have
to master the mountain of code that
faced us mmm at first we were
discouraged early attempts of finding
good online tutorials had only resulted
in us copying lines and lines of code
into a project without actually
understanding what they meant the first
time we really began to understand what
we were doing was what been here messed
everything up so I had just made a
relatively significant breakthrough I
had learned how to add points to a score
to the score when an enemy was hit by a
ball however I also had the genius idea
to rename the code that we were using
for the enemies from interactable item
to interactable item a la Ben we were
really eager to test this out until we
got at least 200 error messages we were
all confused on what was wrong with the
code that was just working and while Max
and Brian were running the code I was
frantically pacing around trying not to
hyperventilate because I just ruined
everything we had worked so hard on but
then I realized that one code was
referring to intractable item not
intractable item Allah Ben and we fixed
it
like a mechanic who can learn about a
car by taking it apart and putting it
back together again we fixed our code
because we broke it so then we managed
to squeeze in work in our game in
between school and same projects
homework and sports we broke her goals
down into fundamental interactions at
first this was creating or destroying a
game object when something happens but
later we learned how to have the enemies
track and follow the player and how to
have the player teleport around the
scene so in the end we we came out of
this incident with much more knowledge
than we had going into it not only that
but we also had a newfound confidence in
ourselves our ability to solve our
problems and our ability to learn from
our mistakes
we finally believed that we would be
able to follow through to our backers
with our commitment of creating a game
and we can pick up the ball but the main
source of this problem comes from the
dissatisfaction of one thing we believe
that the way schools teach coding is
wrong and we think that one of the best
ways I could solve this issue is in
three parts the first part is to have
kids learn on their own children need to
be thrown into the deep end with coding
and adults need to be willing to take a
step back and let the kids learn by
themselves the second part is to have
the adult offer guidance to the kid only
occasionally if the kid is stuck have
them search the internet for possible
solutions and if they really can’t find
the solution then help them yourself the
third and final part would be to connect
with children’s passions if kids are
invested and interested in what they are
learning they will be much more likely
to continue pursuing that interest in
the future this alternative method of
learning how to code would help kids
create something that they can care
about and commit to developing their
coding abilities and while this
interests and entertain some they will
be using actual coding languages and
software that could help them further
along in life
the current teaching philosophy of
coding is flawed and it’s jobs that
involve coding evolve so much the way
that we teach it to students so we’re
asking you parents and teachers to
persuade the kids in your life to try
their hand at code to create something
that inspires and empowers them and that
is truly their own thank you you