By “Man”

The students of the second Playing for Keeps session walked in and sat down quietly. Most of them did not know each other, but all it took was one question – “So, what games do you all play?” – for them to break out into animated chatter.

After the great success of the first Playing for Keeps session, we were excited to welcome the students of the second session – and they did not disappoint. The students came in with new ideas, genuine curiosity, and infectious enthusiasm. Using MIT’s game design platform Scratch, the students were able to create some truly creative and entertaining games based on important issues that affect us today. 

Of course, to design a game, we had to start at the basics. Like Session 1, we began by challenging the students to creating a representation of a movie out of Legos pieces. This activity helped them start thinking creatively about the characters, story, space, and how to deal with limited resources (in this case, Legos pieces and time). They were able to create some amazing things with just Legos pieces – including a surprisingly realistic clownfish from Finding Nemo, and a whole scene from Monsters, Inc., complete with multiple characters. ​