The game development club hosted a hands-on workshop for attendees to learn how to make the classic game ‘Snake,’ where users control a snake head and eat apples that spawn onto the screen in different places on Sept. 18. Club President Victor Smith ‘27 led the session, guiding the attendees step-by-step through the coding process.
Among the steps taken to design the game, participants had to create the snake head, program its movement, create the body and change its colors. Lastly, Smith showed the students gathered how to make the game so that if the snake hits a wall, it dies. He also taught the class how to program the apples that will allow the snake body to grow, and how to actually make the snake eat the apples, though this part required a bit of troubleshooting. Smith mentioned that creating a functioning snake game took about 45 minutes, and admitted he should’ve allotted more time for the workshop.
As participants ran into coding errors, Smith and Jennifer Chen ‘28 guided attendees through correcting the issue themselves rather than outright fixing the problem for them. This created an atmosphere where people weren’t afraid to ask for help.
“This workshop was basically the beginner 101 workshop for anyone who has never made a game before,” Smith said. He described the workshop as a way for people interested in games to dip their toe in the water of game development.
While Thursday's event was focused on the coding side of game development, the club plans to host future workshops that concentrate on the art and music aspects that are equally as important to developing a game.
“A lot of this is a self-journey,” Smith said. However, the club is a place where people interested in game development can come together, share ideas, find people to work on projects together and learn from each other.
