People who play video games often develop a passion for it and tend to find other creative and fun ways for video games instead of simply playing them. Video game art and photography have recently grown a lot amongst the gamer community with most gamers reproducing and capturing visual works of art from images captured from the games.
However, this time video instead of simply playing video games or turning them into works of art, a college student with a passion for vide games has given up his free time in order to teach others how to create their own video games. Tyler Haddad is a college student at Worcester College where he majors in video game development and has decided to give back to his hometown of Lawrence Massachusetts by starting a video game program teaching children how to build video games. Haddad drives from his Worcester to Lawrence every other Saturday to teach children how to build video games as part of a program he calls “GameCraft.”
Haddad teaches the program at Eli’s Place Café which is owned by his parents, the class is taught after hours when the café is closed, “The sessions start at 3 p.m., so a little bit before that, after the restaurant closes, I move the tables around, set all the machines up, I’m so glad that this is a program because now I have the knowledge that is necessary to continue with what I want to do in gaming, I know specific things that most people at my age wouldn’t know.” Haddad has managed to get several computer donated to the café, and teaches his students how to code their games, a basic understanding of math is required for the program but other than that the children don’t need to have an extensive knowledge of computers in order to partake in the program.
Haddad stated that he knows that the area needed a program like this for the kids and even recounts his own experiences growing up where he would constantly have to use the Internet in order to learn whatever he needed. Haddad taught himself about coding earlier in his life and wants to make sure that when the kids leave after creating their video game they have also taken away something of value from their lessons. One boy named Seth Jaquez, 17 stated that he became hooked after partaking in the program. After building the game the students are able to leave with a fully functional personally created game that they can, play themselves, share with others, or build off of. Haddad has chosen a great way to give back to his community as well as a great way to showcase the mechanics behind video games and passing that knowledge on to others. Happy gaming!
Featured Image via Pixabay
