Course: Game Design
5: Let's Play

Teaching Tips:

Introducing the Lesson (2 minutes)
In this lesson, students will create a console that connects all of the games that they have made thus far together. This will not take the whole two hours. We recommend using the remaining time to have students perfect their games and then show them off to each other. 


Introducing the Game (3 minutes)
This game uses the tactile sensors to “scroll” through all the games in that particular project. Explain to students that this is like a playlist of music or a gaming console.


Play the Game! (20 minutes)
Have a student volunteer read through the questions on the Play The Game! page out loud to the class. Discuss the meaning of each question to ensure students understand what they are being asked.

Have students play the game and answer the questions. They should work as a group to do this investigation. Only the Investigation Robot Master should control the robot.
Discuss student answers as a class.

Explain the Game! (10 minutes)
Have students write a full user-side walk through of the game on the Explain The Game! page.

Have a few students volunteer to read their write-ups to the class. It might be wise to pre-select students as they are writing by reading a little over their shoulders and selecting write-ups that will spur discussion.


 

In general, students should be the main contributors to the discussion. As the teacher, you should ask questions to facilitate discussion and guide the discussion in the correct direction. Sample questions are provided below. This program should be pretty quick for the students. They will most likely replicate the example without adding a ton of flourish. This is OK. They can spend the remaining time perfecting their previous games and showing them off to one another. One thing they might struggle with is the syntax they need to use in the text box to list their program names. Here is what you need to know:

• All of the games have to be visible in the project content palette. If the projects are all in different files, have the students copy paste the boxes into a new menu file.
• The names of the programs must be typed identically to how they are typed in the project content palette. (You can right click to rename within the project content palette) 

• What does the Entry in List box do?
• What goes into the scroll box?
• Click on the wrench of the scroll box. What are the parameters?
• What variable type does the scroll box output? What does yellow symbolize?
• Why is the blue string looped back to the onStop port of the Tactile Head box? Why are there two entry in list boxes?
• What did the front/middle/back head sensor do in the program?
• Hover over the input and output ports of the scroll box. What are their names?

Resources:

• Book for students
• Book for teachers
• All the resourses for this course Module3_ChoregrapheFiles
• Download Lesson5_Choregraphe File Menu

Teaching Tips:

Explain the game! (10 minutes)

Students open the game file on their own computers and look through the code while answering questions on the Read The Code! page.

What do these do? (15 minutes)

In each lesson, there is one Black Box, a Choregraphe box that has an unknown function. These boxes are indicated by a "?" icon. Students must identify these boxes and list the inputs, outputs and deduce the function of this box in the What Do These Do? page. This is the central focus of learning in each lesson. Students must reason through the program to figure out what exactly these boxes do. They MUST understand the box before moving on to the next stage.

Discuss functions as a class. 



Leading the Discussion 

In general, students should be the main contributors to the discussion. As the teacher, you should ask questions to facilitate discussion and guide the discussion in the correct direction. Sample questions are provided below. This program should be pretty quick for the students. They will most likely replicate the example without adding a ton of flourish. This is OK. They can spend the remaining time perfecting their previous games and showing them off to one another. One thing they might struggle with is the syntax they need to use in the text box to list their program names. Here is what you need to know:

• All of the games have to be visible in the project content palette. If the projects are all in different files, have the students copy paste the boxes into a new menu file.
• The names of the programs must be typed identically to how they are typed in the project content palette. (You can right click to rename within the project content palette) 

Questions to Prompt Student Learning - Day 1

• What does the Entry in List box do?
• What goes into the scroll box?
• Click on the wrench of the scroll box. What are the parameters?
• What variable type does the scroll box output? What does yellow symbolize?
• Why is the blue string looped back to the onStop port of the Tactile Head box? Why are there two entry in list boxes?
• What did the front/middle/back head sensor do in the program?
• Hover over the input and output ports of the scroll box. What are their names?