Welcome

So glad you are here! We've got a fun packed week of learning about computer science and how to make a game using Scratch.

(Looking for previous year's pages? Go to 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012)

Facebook Group and Class Photo

Anyone involved with this year's mini-course (or any other year) is welcome to join the Computer Science and Games: Just for Girls Facebook group.

The Games!

Here's a list of games made by this year's mini-course students. Awesome job ladies!

• Jump!
• The Amazing Space Race
• ESCAPE
• Just Another Normal Day With Caitlyn!
• Dem
• starting (work in progress)
• Tuxedo: The lost gumballs
• The Nearly Impossible Game
• Super Castle Adventure
• pac man
• Pico's Night Adventure
• ruff cat
• Cat
• Hurxa Escape
• Untitled
• Duck Hunt
• Tuxedo Man
• Mystical Darkness
• Zombie Shoot
• Avoid

Friday

Pizza party!

Our traditional Friday pizza lunch will start at 12:30pm in ME 3269 (that's Mackenzie Building, right beside Canal Building where we've been having our classes). The two computer science and games sections will join up, socialize, and show off their games. Parents are welcome to join us (we'll probably start showing games closer to 1:30-2:00).

Thursday

Usability / Human Computer Interaction

Usability and HCI were our computer science topics today (download the slides). Here are some related links:

• CS Unplugged: Human Interface Design
• The Design of Everyday Things (Book by Donald Norman)

Game Resources

Here are some generally useful resources for game design and development:

• The Art of Game Design (by Jesse Schell)
• openclipart (free images)
• Bfxr (make customized sound effects)

Wednesday

Artificial Intelligence

Today's computer science topic was artificial intelligence (download the slides). Here are some related links:

• CS Unplugged: The Turing Test
• CS Unplugged: Finite State Machines
• Cleverbot
• Eliza
• IBM's Watson on Jeopardy

Tuesday

Computer Graphics

Today we learned about computer graphics (download the slides). Here are some relevant links:

• Example image with both raster and vector pictures
• CS Unplugged: Image Representation
• gimp (free raster image editing software)
• Inkscape
• Blender (free 3D modelling software)
• Blender Projects (including Big Buck Bunny)
• Alice (programming 3D games and stories)

More Scratch Stuff

Here's a list of great tutorials on the Scratch wiki.

Check out these different ways to get jumping to work in Scratch.

Start with one of the platforming bases at the bottom of this page - you can remix one of them to start your game.

Monday

Game Design

If you want, you can download the slides on computer science and game design.

There are the games whose design we will study:

• This Is The Only Level
• i saw her standing there
• The Love Letter
• Auditorium

Scratch

Scratch is free and online - easy peasy!

• Go to scratch.mit.edu
• Click "Join Scratch" at the top right and create an account
• Try Scratch now!

The "Learn to Program with Scratch" slides can be downloaded here.

Contact Me!

To talk to Gail, use this contact form. You are welcome to ask me about anything related to the course, Carleton University, and computer science in general! I'd love to hear from you!