Wednesday, April 27, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Sisters
students
win design
honors
WAR: Event is set at
House on Metolius in
Camp Sherman
Continued from page 3
By Erin Borla
Correspondent
PHOTO BY JENNIFER KING
Sisters’ winning game design team.
Sisters students brought
home the “Best Design”
award — middle-school level
— from the Oregon Games
Project Challenge (OGPC)
last weekend.
Six students from Sisters
Middle School and one from
Sisters Elementary School
worked since November to
develop their own video game
to showcase at the 9th annual
Challenge, held in Keiser on
Saturday, April 23.
The OGPC is the only
statewide game-programming
competition in Oregon. This
platform uses video-game
development as a means of
engaging students in vari-
ous Science, Technology,
Engineering, Arts, and
Mathematics (S.T.E.A.M.)
disciplines while having fun.
Teams must design gameplay
rules and goals, write a story
and develop characters, cre-
ate art for the visuals, record
sounds and music as well as
write computer code to make
it all work together.
The theme of this year’s
OGPC was “Hidden World.”
At the contest, students were
required to present their work
to a panel of judges and “sell”
their product. Games were
up for prizes in a variety of
categories including Game
Design, Art and Assets, Theme
and Style, Professionalism,
Programming and other focus
areas – all at both the middle
and high school levels.
Ashton King (6th grade),
Grey Louvar (5th grade),
Taine Martin (5th grade), Ilya
Goheen (5th grade), Conrad
Irlan (4th grade), and Clayten
Heurberger (5th grade) devel-
oped their game “World
Traveler” over the last six
months so they could partici-
pate in the contest.
World Traveler used the
popular game Minecraft as a
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platform.
“We took Minecraft and
rewrote it in Java,” says
Ashton King, the oldest of the
participants. “Players imag-
ine they are a man who has
the power to travel through
dimensions.”
...as a team they brought it all
together in their own game.
—Jennifer King
Players advance through
different dimensions includ-
ing air, fire, plant, arctic and
steel — and collect “heart-
stones” to become more pow-
erful and defeat the villain,
Chaos.
“This took a lot of team-
work,” said Jennifer King,
Ashton’s mother. “Each
player took on their own
dimension, and then as a team
they brought it all together in
their own game.”
Clayten Heurberger wrote
original music that was
included in the game.
The team also took on the
task of configuring a router at
the new Sisters Tech Space on
the corner of Elm and Hood.
This router allowed for any-
one, all over the world, to
access and play the game.
The group had a version
of World Traveler available
at the Sisters Science Fair
in February. They used this
opportunity to “beta-test” the
game and gain feedback from
participants.
“I loved building and mak-
ing the game — that was my
favorite part,” said Ashton.
The S.T.E.A.M. compo-
nents of the challenge allowed
many of the participating
teams to use the Challenge
as a school or class project.
Aspects of the game design
were written into different
curricula so students could
relate their love of gaming
to skills learned in the class-
room. Of the 52 teams com-
peting at the OGPC this past
weekend, the Sisters team was
the only team not officially
sponsored by their school.
The Sisters students met at
City Hall and worked with
Tricia Louvar as their coach
and Stephen King as their
technical advisor.
“Anyone can join this
group,” said Jennifer. “There
are a few academic-focused
co-curriculars in Sisters for
students, but we would love
there to be more.”
powder weapons, cook over
open fires and sleep in canvas
tents.
The beautiful mountain
meadow setting offers over
five acres of living history.
Campsites, stores, medical-
practice demonstrations, fash-
ion and other activities of the
era are displayed as well as
Civil War artillery, infantry
and cavalry.
Mock battles, firing real
black powder, are scheduled
for 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. each
day.
The event is open to the
public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
on Saturday and 9 a.m. to 4
29
p.m. on Sunday.
General admission, $8.
Seniors, active military and
students, $5. Family maxi-
mum is $25 for the carload.
Children under six, free.
Parking, $5 per vehicle and
supports the Boy Scouts.
House on Metolius www.
metolius.com/content/
main/events/) is off Oregon
Highway 126/US-20, two
miles north of Forest Camp
Sherman, off road 1420.
The Northwest Civil War
Council (http://nwcwc.org)
is a nonprofit, living-history
organization dedicated to
educating the public and
members about the American
Civil War. Through educa-
tional drama at reenactments,
participants discover and
learn about history and the
people who lived in the year
1863.