Curriculum Archive, XNA in Education, White Papers Needed

As I get ready to head out on my annual trek to the Burning Man Festival (www.burningman.com) , I wanted to take some time to fill you in on some the exciting developments on the educational side of GarageGames. Over the course of the last year over 70 new schools have added Torque to their programs. These schools come from a full spectrum of game and computer science related backgrounds: High Schools, Community Colleges, Technical Colleges, Art and Design Schools, Game Schools, 4-year, 6-year and Post Graduate work. Also in the past year we have released 2 great books: "The Game Programmer's Guide to Torque" by Ed Maurina, and "Advanced 3d Game Programming All In One" by Ken Finney. I do, however, need some help from our educators in compiling a central curriculum archive. If you are teacher using Torque, please e-mail me a copy of your course outline, syllabus, curriculum and/ or any course materials you use during your class. If you could also tell me about other courses you would like to teach with Torque, and list other books or resources you have found helpful for teaching with. My goal is to make these available in single place, either on our site, or on TDN, that all Torque educators can access.

Other Exciting Stuff: XNA, Microsoft Cruise and SuperQuest.

As you may have read online GarageGames recently announced a partnership with Microsoft to bring Torque to MS's new managed code framework, XNA. Here is what I know about Microsoft's plans for XNA, and how your school can get involved:

On August 30, "XNA Game Studio Express" will be available for free in beta form to anyone interested in developing on XNA. Schools interested in teaching game development on XNA will then be able to start working with XNA Game Studio Express on the PC. Later this year Microsoft will launch it's "Creator's Club," at which point anyone subscribed to the club (independents, schools, students etc.) will be able to test and play their XNA games on the Xbox 360. GarageGames will launch Torque X concurrently with the Creator's Club.

The schools that were listed for teaching game development on XNA at Gamefest are (+/-1) :

USC
University of Western Ontario
Digi Pen
University of Waterloo
University of Hull
SMU Guildhall
Georgia Tech
University of North Texas
University of Karlsburg
Rochester institute of Technology
New Hampshire Technical Institute

Note: I know there 11 schools listed here. This list is a compilation of what the Microsoft Director of XNA told me, what I was able to copy off the keynote screen, and what individual instructors told me.

To my knowledge these schools will have the same XNA access as that available to your school and the general public, starting August 30.

I am not currently aware of any curriculum resources for XNA. However, Microsoft has traditionally made documentation and academic resources a priority for its technologies. GarageGames is looking for volunteers to help us develop course materials and curriculum for our C++ and managed code engines. If you are interested in getting involved in our educational initiatives, or adopting Torque at your school please contact me directly.

In February Microsoft will be hosting its second annual 'Academic Days on Game Development' conference aboard one of Disney's cruise ships. Last year was the first year for this conference which featured a quality list of industry representatives and game educators including: Cory Ondrejika from Second Life; Jon Schwartz from Kids Programming Language; Dave Luehmann from MS Game Studio; Mike Zyda from USC's GamePipe Lab; Ian Parberry from UNT; and R. Michael Young from North Carolina State University. ( A DVD of the presentations along with a copy MS's "Gaming Resource Kit" can be obtained though Microsoft Research or your MSDN rep.) This year Microsoft wants to increase the participation by academics and is currently seeking white paper submissions from educators using Torque. If you have a paper, or an idea for a paper, and would like to go on a cruise, please send me a write-up and I will submit it on your behalf.

Finally, I had the please pleasure of recently attending the Software Association of Oregon's (www.sao.org/About_SAO/) SuperQuest Teacher Training Institute (www.sao.org/sao_foundation/superquest.php). This event featured high energy k-12 computer science educators from across the state of Oregon. This year's focus was on using gaming to enhance computer science instruction. In addition to instruction on game design software it was also the first chance for Oregon teachers to play with the new LEGO NTX robotics kit ( a much welcomed upgrade from the legendary RXC robotics program) I had great time presenting on "Indie" games and Torque. Plus, I got 40+ teachers to Rock Out on Guitar Hero!

I welcome forum discussion and e-mails on any of the items listed here. Please keep in mind I will be out of the office from Monday the 28th until Tuesday the 5th. However, I will get back in touch with you particularly if it regarding curriculum or white paper submission.