{"id":951739,"date":"2026-11-04T01:46:17","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T01:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/951739\/"},"modified":"2026-11-04T01:46:17","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T01:46:17","slug":"children-use-ai-to-create-video-games-with-hopes-of-building-hub-in-regional-queensland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/951739\/","title":{"rendered":"Children use AI to create video games with hopes of building hub in regional Queensland"},"content":{"rendered":"

It sounds like fun \u2014 the cacophony of dings and pings, revving engines, and other video game effects punctuated by the occasional cheer or groan as children play.<\/p>\n

But this is no arcade. These Bundaberg children, aged eight-13, are taking part in a new gaming development workshop.<\/p>\n

You would be forgiven for thinking they had undergone extensive coding training to create these video games.<\/p>\n

Instead, they talked the games into existence using artificial intelligence (AI).<\/p>\n

The children’s creativity was boundless, producing racing, quest and trivia games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Celebrating the wins was a major part of the workshop. (ABC Wide Bay: Grace Whiteside)<\/p>\n

Bailey Francois, 13, said AI made their ideas come to life.<\/p>\n

“Basically you can either speak to it [the AI language model] and it converts that into text,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Or you can type it out, which I find a bit difficult, if you want to create a long paragraph.”<\/p>\n

Gaming prot\u00e9g\u00e9s<\/p>\n

Bailey was one of about 20 young people who took part in the games development workshops in Bundaberg last month.<\/p>\n

\"Colourful<\/p>\n

The children 3D-printed, decorated and wired their own controllers. (ABC Wide Bay: Grace Whiteside)<\/p>\n

Participants used 3D printing to produce a console and learned how to wire a controller, before brainstorming their game idea and instructing the AI.<\/p>\n

“Game design is game design. Game design isn’t animation or coding or these other things. It’s its own discipline,” organiser Don Meadows said.<\/p>\n

“They’re at that super special age where they don’t know they can’t do this, so they just do it.”<\/p>\n

Mr Meadows grew up in Bundaberg but moved overseas to pursue his passion for game development.<\/p>\n

“There’s not a games industry [in Queensland],” he said.<\/p>\n

“You move overseas and you don’t come back. I’d love to come back and I’d love to start an industry here.”<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Organisers Don, David and Ronnie. (ABC Wide Bay: Grace Whiteside)<\/p>\n

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) senior lecturer Cody Phillips said the Australian industry generated about $600 million in revenue each year.<\/p>\n

“Australia is definitely punching above its weight in terms of global industry presence,” Dr Phillips said.<\/p>\n

“But we’re not really seeing too many titles coming out of regional Australia.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Luke Wogandt rated the workshop 10\/10. (ABC News: Grace Whiteside)<\/p>\n

Dr Phillips said AI was “a new frontier” in creating opportunities.<\/p>\n

“A lot of people are building and creating games without being formally employed within the games industry,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There are virtually no barriers to somebody publishing their own game.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

But he also believed the technology needed stronger safeguards.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of copyright legislation that still needs to be worked out,” Dr Phillips said.<\/p>\n

Imagination comes to life<\/p>\n

Alekai Sprague, 11, said it was incredible to discover what AI could be used for.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Alekai Sprague says it was wonderful seeing his imagination come to life. (ABC Wide Bay: Grace Whiteside)<\/p>\n

“It just shows how much a simple AI can do, instead of having to learn to code and do everything yourself,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s quite a wonderful thing, watching your imagination \u2026 come to life in a game.”<\/p>\n

Chase McGibbon, nine, said he was keen to keep developing games as he grew up.<\/p>\n

“I really want to try to build a game when I’m older,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Chase McGibbon says everyone’s games were fun and different. (ABC Wide Bay: Grace Whiteside)<\/p>\n

The workshops were the brainchild of Mr Meadows and Bundaberg creative David Quarrell.<\/p>\n

Mr Quarrell said with creativity the main driver of game design, AI made it accessible to everyone.<\/p>\n

“It removes all of the inhibitors like understanding code,” he said.<\/p>\n

The idea started with Mr Quarrell’s 16-year-old son, Oscar, who cannot read or write \u2014 but was able to talk to AI.<\/p>\n

“The AI didn’t stop. It didn’t get confused. It took everything that Oscar had said as a prompt and it filtered through all of these ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’ and it got the core substance from it and it created something,” Mr Quarrell said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve removed the need for reading and writing and we’ve just allowed his imagination to be captured.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The organisers are aiming to build a gaming hub in the region to encourage young people to work in the industry without leaving their hometown. (ABC Wide Bay: Grace Whiteside)<\/p>\n

Industry incoming<\/p>\n

The pair dream of creating a games industry in Bundaberg and garnering a community that can take it into the future.<\/p>\n

“It’s not one of those champion activities in our community at the moment [but] there’s no reason why it can’t be,” Mr Quarrell said.<\/p>\n

Dr Phillips said it was positive to know initiatives like this workshop were being established in regional areas.<\/p>\n

“The local games industry needs people participating, and the more people that can participate, the better,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Anything that can help support young people to get a bit of a spark and an idea of what’s possible in this area is extremely worthwhile.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It sounds like fun \u2014 the cacophony of dings and pings, revving engines, and other video game effects…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":951740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[26842,256,195368,113875,254,255,64,63,128969,105,3975],"class_list":["post-951739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-3d-printing","tag-ai","tag-ai-games","tag-ai-gaming","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-queensland-university-of-technology","tag-technology","tag-video-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=951739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}