Workshop Provider: Code Created

Workshop Themes & Tags: STEM, coding, computing, apps, games

Age Suitability: Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4, Key Stage 5, Higher Education

Can your workshop be delivered to schools online?: Yes

Delivery Locations by Regions: All UK Regions

Workshop Summary: 

Our Coding Games Workshop teaches the basics of coding and game development. We'll teach coding fundamentals with a very practical workshop, giving pupils plenty of hands-on time with code, creating arcade-style games and “snack” games. We will then work on a REAL mobile game with your class, uploading the game to the app stores so the pupils can show off to their family and friends when they get home!

Our Coding Games Workshop is broken down into three sessions and can be run as a full-day or half-day workshop, depending on the depth of content you'd like us to cover.

In the first session, we’ll introduce them to the fundamentals of coding with some coding puzzles! This allows the students to experiment with code, and we’ll gradually introduce them to the concepts they’ll need for when they create their own game. It gets students to really think about how games work, and for them to break down the components of a game before they start creating their own game.

In the second session, the students will begin to create their own game! Using either Microsoft’s MakeCode programming language with Primary School students, or GameMaker Studio with our secondary school students, they’ll get to design their own artwork and characters and, throughout the session, they’ll learn how to move objects, change their size and rotation, and detect collisions (the building blocks of almost every game!), and we learn how to code if and while statements that make games work. They’ll love seeing their ideas come to life! Our Coding Games Workshop is extremely practical – we want pupils to get hands on with code, and experiment!

During the final section of each workshop, we look at a real game on the app-stores which we’ve deliberately broken. Using the skills the pupils have picked up throughout the first two parts of the workshop, they will work together to help us fix the game and adding new code to the game in the form of a new power-up! We always approach this as a group activity. Pupils get to write real code, with suggestions and support from their friends. This gives every pupil confidence and support, and a real sense of achievement and teamwork as they learn real world coding skills.

Additional Information: 

We can run half-day or full-day versions of this workshop. We can run these sessions in-school or online and all sessions are led by professional apps and games developers.

Testimonials: 

“A Code Created Masterclass gave students the chance to grab their laptops and learn all about different types of coding projects and how to code them. Some pupils already had an impressive knowledge of some coding languages, but were keen to learn more. With complex algorithms, the class was challenging but interesting and students left with a more complete knowledge of how coding works.“

—Oxford Royale Academy