They've Got Game

Many of the inner city kids who hang out at the Carver and Southeast branches of the Austin (TX) Public Library view Alan Watts as a teacher and mentor. This summer, Watts, a software and computer game designer who created the Noggimation series of animated cartoons for the Noggin kids' cable channel, presented two four-day workshops, teaching young library users how to create their very own computer games.

"Kids are so used to watching animation, [they] don't realize that they can create something themselves," he says. So Watts showed the participants—10 students at each of the branches—how to organize a game development project. The teams, which included girls as well as boys, brainstormed ideas for games, and then worked together to set up a timeline and job duties for the next sessions. "I was concerned they wouldn't be too into it," Watts says, "but they had a great time and learned how to work as a team."

Next, the kids created rules, graphics, and sounds, and watched as Watts programmed their contributions into the game's code. Watts, whose laptop was hooked to a data projector, created each game using Macromedia Director Shockwave Studio; finished games ran in a Web browser, using the Shockwave plug-in. As he coded, says Michele Gorman, Carver branch's Wired for Youth librarian, kids gave their input and voted on the game developer's suggestions for the rules. Once the game was running, kids acted as beta testers, playing the game and taking note of things that didn't work. At the end of the session, Watts worked on the game files, finished debugging them, put the final version of each game online, burned copies onto CD-ROMs, and gave one to each participant.

In the Southeast branch's group, Librarian Beth Solomon was constantly trying to keep her participants on task, which wasn't easy. "By day three," she says, "it was clear that the social relations within the group were deteriorating. It became kind of like a family who has to spend Thanksgiving together but would rather be elsewhere."

The complex coding, she admits, was beyond some children, but ultimately, all the participants said they'd had a great time, and everything worked. "It was a wonderful time overall, principally because of Alan's knowledge," Solomon says. "We'd love to have him come back next summer, or sooner, and work a bit more in-depth with some of the kids who could handle programming concepts."

Thanks to a $2,500 grant from the Webber Family Foundation, which funds educational programs, Gorman was able to recruit Watts for the workshops. Watts was perfect for the job—he's spearheaded an animation movement for the average Joe by creating www.16color.com, a Shockwave program that turns artwork into animation. He's also created a couple of fun activity Web sites, such as the Tile Machine (www.tilemachine.com), which lets you design your own PC desktop pattern, and the Toonery (www.toonery.com), which lets you turn photos into captioned cartoons.

The two games created by the kids are on the Web for anyone to play. "Aqua Kid," developed by kids at the Carver branch, is at www.datax.com/aquakid. "Zombie High," designed by the kids at the Southeast branch, is at www.datax.com/zombie_high.