Weeks 3, 4, and 5 was the beginning of our youth's time in project teams together. In these weeks, they developed their game concepts, pitched concept presentations to guest "critics", continued to ideate and design, and presented their first prototype of the game. We also had a handful of amazing guest speakers come in to talk about their journeys in using art for social justice, and the radical traditions found within storytelling and art-making.
The youth split up into two game teams:
Team Cooking Game: Chinh, Faria, Hanan, William
Team Farmer's Market: Destiny, Mo, Kiran
As a group, we took some time on Thursday, August 6th, to reflect on the highlights of our journeys so far, as well as looking ahead to the final two weeks of the program.
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Chinh (Team Cooking Game)
Some highlights: When me and my group got into hands on work because it shows our individual skills. I enjoy seeing what my groupmates presented and presenting my own work. I also liked getting through talking with my team and seeing what we all want in the game because it felt great to get over a milestone with my groupmates.
Destiny (Team Farmer's Market)
I liked working with my group a lot. They have been very helpful and supportive through all the stuff going on with my surgeries. I can’t wait to finish the game!!!!!
Faria (Team Cooking Game)
A highlight would be being able to actually start game design and seeing our game prototype, makes me excited for the full release. It was soooo fun drawing for our game too, and even though I’ve never done pixel art before, it was really easy to get used to. Brainstorming for what narrative pieces and game mechanics we want was fun too, and I’m excited to implement them!!
Hanan (Team Cooking Game)
A few of my highlights from the earlier weeks have been joining my game group and coming up with ideas for the game we have begun creating these last few weeks. I have had a great time getting to know everyone which has been super fun. I also love the games and activities that we played as a group. I think those group bonding times really made this program fun for me. I am looking forward to see how far we can get in creating our games. Can’t wait to see the final products.
Mo (Team Farmer's Market)
Some of the highlights from the last couple weeks would be making the games with my group and designing the characters. I really enjoyed making all the characters. I really enjoy how different each one is from another. I also enjoy the look of the game and the feel. I feel like this game teaches you about cultures and people coming together with opposite ideas and somewhat happily coexisting, which could be a good example for other people in other communities. Some things I look forward to I will be the polishing up for a game and making it a real life experience and getting in some of the negative aspects.
Kiran (Team Farmer's Market)
I’m a little confused… how is it already week 6? I think the system glitchedddd... It feels like every day is full of highlights that compressing them into a singular paragraph feels like I’m not doing each moment we spend together justice. I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable in construct- which I never thought would happen- and have been able to enjoy the work we do there. Writing the narrative has also been really fun- it has pushed me to write while considering the distinct thoughts, personalities, and backstories of 8+ characters. Seeing everyone’s art is unreal (not to be cheesy but it gives me hope for the future). I’ve also loved getting to listen to the two incredible speakers; seeing the rad things they’re each doing through sharing their art with the world has given me the representation that I didn’t realize I’ve been looking for for a while.
William (Team Cooking Game)
My highlights of week 3,4,5 were mostly concepting and working on the game in groups.It was really cool seeing the first demo of our game, even if it was last minute. Also in week 5 I was able to start being at morning meetings. I look forward to working on the game more, as I think our group is making really good progress. I want to start help code the game more, as well as make more art assets and lead the narrative.
Ishika (Team Cooking Game—Staff)
Seeing the games develop from the ideation stage to the prototype stage has been incredible. It has been so great to witness the collaboration / teamwork, compromises, and adaptability of the youth to produce what they have so far. I hope that the work continues over the next two weeks and that both teams are able to produce a final product that they are happy with and have fully enjoyed the process. I’ve also really enjoyed the amount of community bonding that has taken place over the last few weeks from youth-led facilitation, check-in questions, and just off-topic conversations in general. Excited to keep learning about everybody and see how the games progress!
Kiara (Team Cooking Game—Staff)
My hope for future weeks is to really see both teams pull off finishing their projects (or getting really close). Looking back on the last week, I realized how much goes into making a game. It is really impressive seeing the youth work together, problem solve, and overcome different obstacles. I hope that the youth walk away from this project feeling ready to take on their next project, even if it may not be creating a video game.
I look forward to learning more about everyone through our youth led sessions, check in questions, and other programming.
Sandra (Team Farmer's Market—Staff)
It’s been super cool working with the youth! Everyone is so creative and smart. It’s insane how much I’m also learning and growing with everyone. I look forward to all of the other creative events that are going to happen. Extremely excited to play everyone’s final projects and share important messages to the world!
Zarya (Team Farmer's Market—Staff)
In general, my highlights from the past few weeks have been observing the beauty that comes from collaborative work. Seeing the aggregate of all the students ideas, passions, and experiences has been such an enriching and educational experience from a facilitators standpoint and it has been so exciting seeing it all come together. I hope moving forward that I can just continue to learn from these brilliant minds and aid in making their ideas come to life in some way or another.
Husain (Coordinator)
It is so unbelievable how quickly time has gone by, and the fact that we’ve passed the halfway point hasn’t even hit me yet! I also can’t believe that we’re ending in two weeks and going to have our final celebrations :).
I think what I’m learning is our program has a big capacity as a group to have fun with each other and be comfortable together. I’ve loved all of our moments where unexpectedly the youth will make a jeopardy game focused on “exposing the staff,” or even just seeing the group cheer each other on after prototype presentations.
Seeing how far they’ve come in their art, music, code, and integration of all their design work has been amazing. I’m incredibly proud of what they’ve done, and every day I feel more and more blessed because this beautiful group never fails to amaze me.