Middle school students showcased their creativity Friday night by turning Philadelphia’s Cira Centre into a massive playable video game display. “I think it’s going to be really fun to see how the game I made in a studio would be projected up there,” said Jake Lee, a video game designer. Learning coding through skyscraper gamesThe students participated in the “Skyscraper Games” project through the nonprofit Young Futures, where they learned coding and game design by creating games for a virtual model of the Cira Centre. “It was confusing, all the coding and stuff. It was my first time getting used to it,” said Jessie Lee, another video game designer. Student games light up the skylineDrexel University’s Entrepreneurial Game Studio transformed the students’ creations into fully playable games displayed on the 29-story LED wall overlooking Schuylkill Yards. “We get to take the creativity of these wonderful young people and put them up on a gigantic canvas. So today’s really a culmination and a celebration of that. We’ve got four wonderful student games that we’ll be showing tonight, in addition to of course the classic skyscraper Tetris,” said Erin Truesdell, assistant professor of informatics at NJIT. Inspiring future careers in techDozens of people, including city council members, gathered to watch and play the games. “This is part motivation for them to become excited to then pursue, hopefully, a computing-related field in college as well as then move on and go on to a computing-related field as part of their work,” said Frank Lee, professor of digital media at Drexel University. The event celebrated the students’ creativity, which was on full display from Drexel Square for all of Philadelphia to see.
Middle school students showcased their creativity Friday night by turning Philadelphia’s Cira Centre into a massive playable video game display.
“I think it’s going to be really fun to see how the game I made in a studio would be projected up there,” said Jake Lee, a video game designer.
Learning coding through skyscraper games
The students participated in the “Skyscraper Games” project through the nonprofit Young Futures, where they learned coding and game design by creating games for a virtual model of the Cira Centre.
“It was confusing, all the coding and stuff. It was my first time getting used to it,” said Jessie Lee, another video game designer.
Student games light up the skyline
Drexel University’s Entrepreneurial Game Studio transformed the students’ creations into fully playable games displayed on the 29-story LED wall overlooking Schuylkill Yards.
“We get to take the creativity of these wonderful young people and put them up on a gigantic canvas. So today’s really a culmination and a celebration of that. We’ve got four wonderful student games that we’ll be showing tonight, in addition to of course the classic skyscraper Tetris,” said Erin Truesdell, assistant professor of informatics at NJIT.
Inspiring future careers in tech
Dozens of people, including city council members, gathered to watch and play the games.
“This is part motivation for them to become excited to then pursue, hopefully, a computing-related field in college as well as then move on and go on to a computing-related field as part of their work,” said Frank Lee, professor of digital media at Drexel University.
The event celebrated the students’ creativity, which was on full display from Drexel Square for all of Philadelphia to see.