Day 1 (March 12, 2015)

Welcome ladies and gentlemen to our very first day together! Below you will find the instructions for today and a list of the supplies you will need!

Materials for today: Official VGD Notebook, CS-First Passport and a pen

Game Design 101

Read the statement below:

Games are are made to played (duh!) But to make a great game we have to understand the elements of game design - the basics that game designers think about when they are making their game. There are many elements of game design but we will be focusing on five simple ones: rules, goals, space, mechanics, and components.

Answer the question below in your VGD Notebook.

1. What are the five elements of game design? (Complete sentence)

Activity 1
Let’s break down Rock‐Paper‐Scissors using these elements:

• Space: the space of Rock‐Paper‐Scissors is a close, but not intimate, area between two players. 
• Components (the pieces of the game): the hand symbols for rock, paper, and scissors; two players. 
• Mechanics (what you do in the game): a player “throws” a hand symbol into the game space. 
• Rules (the parameters of gameplay): 
• One hand symbol beats another and the player who threw the winning symbol gets a point. 
• Paper beats rock. Rock beats scissors. Scissors beats paper. 
• Players throw the hand symbols at the same time (often after counting to 3). 
• Players cannot change a hand symbol once it’s thrown, and the symbol must be in both player’s lines of sight. 
• Goals: A player wins a round by throwing a winning hand symbol. Another common goal is to win 2 out of 3 rounds. 
• Goals: A player wins a round by throwing a winning hand symbol. Another common goal is to win 2 out of 3 rounds.

Your job....

With a group of 2 or 3 people change one of the elements like the example we completed together. 

1. Pick an element of game design to change in rock, paper, scissors.
2. After you have made a change, play two or three rounds of rock, paper, scissors.
3. Follow the directions below to complete a quick-write in you VGD  Notebook.

In your notebook state which element of game design you changed and how. Then write about how this change affected the game.

Activity 2

Go to CS First using this link: http://www.cs-first.com/user/login

Part 1

1. Sign in using the username and password found in your CS-First Passport.
2. Watch the first video that introduces the survey.
3. Complete the survey.
4. Close the survey tab, and click the green arrow to begin watching the next video.

Part 2 

1. Watch Video 2 to learn about what you will build in this club.
2. Click the Scratch link.
3. Sign in using the same username and password from your passport.
4. Click "Create."
5. Switch back to cs-first.com and watch the next video.

Part 3 

1. Watch Video 3 and create your first Scratch project!
2. Complete Wrap Up when instructed.

In your notebook answer the following the questions:

• What was your favorite part of this activity?
• What "unexpected thing" did you program?