Check the class schedule at Playful Digital Learning. If you have special needs or want a custom group lesson, please check our class descriptions and contact us to request a class, date, and time. Then we will open classes for your homeschooling groups. Note that we generally require at least 2 students for each class but we can make exceptions. 

Playful Digital Learning (PDL)

Students will learn to use GameMaker, a real game engine used by professionals in the industry! They will be introduced to event-based programming with the drag and drop features of GameMaker. Students will learn many important game development and programming skills, including variables, coordinates, conditionals, and more. These skills will be transferable to other popular programming languages, including Java and C++. Using these new skills, students will create a fully functioning side-scrolling action game that they can take home and let their friends and family play.

Students are required to have basic computer skills, including switching between windows and saving or downloading files. It’s recommended you have some familiarity with programming, such as with our PDL Coding classes. However, no experience is actually necessary! We will introduce complete beginners to coding and GameMaker and give thorough instructions.

In addition to the basics of programming, students in this course will:

  - Use technology to accomplish goals

  - Learn to work in group settings

  - Accomplish goals using programming concepts

  - Problem-solve when bugs arise and learn to handle challenges graciously

  - Practice their math and logic skills

  - Develop an engineering mindset

Learning Goals

Day 1. Introduction and creating the gamespace

Day 2. Events, variables, and character movement

Day 3. Game manager and randomness

Day 4. Conditionals and collision

Day 5. Polishing and extracting your game!

PDL is an AZ ESA vendor, and you can pay through ClassWallet.