by Ross Coyle
A school project by a pair of Kentwood High students earned them a surprise invitation to Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in July.
Zachary Nawar, 18, and Evan Brossard, 17, and their teacher, Shannon Henderson were invited to participate in the conference which is a networking platform for Microsoft’s global business partners and draws more than 14,000 people.
Nawar and Brossard’s game took center stage at the Public Sector display, which showcases the software giant’s contributions to nonprofits, education and other public sector entities. The game, Defend Your City, was developed using Microsoft’s XNA development tools which the company provided for Kentwood’s computer science program.
Defend Your City plays similar to Missile Command of the 1980s. Gamers play cooperatively to defend three cities from falling meteors with modernized graphics and upgrades available for destroying certain asteroids. It pinged on Microsoft’s radar after winning the Best in Show award at Kent School District’s VisFest.
Originally game design wasn’t even in Nawar’s future and he considered joining the Marine Corps out of high school.
“Every kid wants to grow up to make video games and this is just some closet fantasy that I had,” Nawar said.
Nawar, who graduated in June, plans to attend Digipen Institute of Technology in Redmond to focus on game design. Nawar is looking forward to attending the small, private institution because it should connect him with like-minded individuals.
“I’m looking forward to meeting people who are like me, who like video games and like creating them, who have a passion for them and motivation and enthusiasm,” Nawar said.
Nawar got his start in programming when he worked on custom scenario maps for the strategy game Warcraft 3. The game’s editor program allows players to create their own scenarios with custom maps, units and executable scripts. He gradually moved from programing in the game editors to coding and said that the best way to learn is to simply jump in and see what you can do.
“When someone asks me to teach them how to program I say ‘No, I can’t teach you, you have to teach yourself,’” Nawar said. “It’s not something you can learn and take a test for, you have to want to learn how to program.”
Brossard started by reading up on java coding from University of Washington lecture notes. He was awarded a scholarship to attend a summer workshop at Digipen. He hopes to go to the school in the future. He feels he would do better with Digipen’s smaller class size.
“I feel like the environment is better there,” Brossard said. “(Students are) more like a family there instead of UW, where it’s so large and you’re not as close to everybody.”
Henderson took up teaching computer science seven years ago. She believes that computer and technology literacy are essential skills students can learn to prepare them for the future—whether it’s updating Facebook, Twitter, or WordPress or programming games to be played on XBox’s arcade or uploaded to the popular digital distribution service Steam.
Henderson currently teaches three different computer science classes at Kentwood — the first is an introduction to programming. The following semester students can take a class to learn game programming using XNA and Visual Studio. Following this, Henderson offers an advanced class for students to work on their own projects, putting the skills they have to the test.
“It’s around kids on a daily basis,” she said. “Every part of their life right now is affected by technology.”
Reach Ross Coyle at rcoyle@kentreporter.com.
