Video Games: Design and Code Your Own Adventure With 17 Projects

Catch a glimpse inside a school bus and you’ll see lots of kids looking down. What are they doing? They’re deciding on strategy, building cities, setting traps for monsters, sharing resources, and nurturing critical relationships.

Over 90 percent of kids ages 2–17 play video games. In Video Games: Design and Code Your Own Adventure, young readers learn why games are so compelling and what ancient games such as mancala have in common with modern games like Minecraft. Kids will even create their very own video games using software such as MIT's Scratch!

Using a familiar, high-interest subject, Video Games introduces foundation subjects such as geometry, physics, probability, and psychology in a practical framework. Building Tetris pieces out of Rice Crispie Treats and designing board games are some of the hands-on projects that engage readers’ building skills, while writing actual game code opens digital doors readers may not have known existed.

Kathy Ceceri is the author of five books from Nomad Press, including Robotics: Discover the Science and Technology of the Future. She is also the author of several beginner-friendly tech titles for all ages, including Making Simple Robots: Exploring Cutting-Edge Robotics With Everyday Stuff and Geek Mom: Projects, Tips, and Adventures for Moms and Their 21st-Century Families. The Homeschooling Expert on About.com, Kathy teaches hands-on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) workshops at schools, museums, and libraries around the Northeast. She is the proud mother of a video game designer and a filmmaker and lives in Upstate New York. You can find her at craftsforlearning.com.

Mike Crosier holds an MFA from the Center for Cartoon Studies. He illustrated Entrepreneurship: Create Your Own Business for Nomad Press. Mike lives in White River Junction, Vermont.