THE Journal

A unique high school program teaches students how to create their favorite entertainment.

Many schools can boast having introduced gaming into their curricula, but how many can also boast integrating gaming creation?

Led by instructional program developer Martin Nikirk, students at Washington County Technical High School in Hagerstown, MD, are game-building for credits. The school is in its third year of pilot-testing a program in which students think up, design, develop, and market a computer game over the course of one year.

“At the beginning of the program, in the students’ junior year,” says Nikirk, a teacher in Washington County Technical’s advanced computer applications completer program, “they go through the 16 components of game design,” which include concept development, interactive storytelling, writing documentation, developing characters, designing user interfaces, programming, recording audio and video, marketing, and publishing. By their senior year, the students work in teams to cover the 16 components, and by May of that year they have a living, working game to demonstrate.

To enter the two-year program at the high school, which also offers traditional coursework, students must go through a “hiring process,” including visiting the campus in their sophomore year and signing up for a half-day visit. Students who are still interested after the tour speak with a guidance counselor to determine which program is most appropriate for them.

“We have positions to fill each year, including two hardware people, one LAN [local area network] person, three programmers, three or four artists, and one or two musicians,” Nikirk says. “Each person has a role to fill, and they work as part of a team.”

At the beginning of the school year, before the students decide on what types of games to create, they look at the current best-sellers, based on data from the Entertainment Software Association, which serves companies that publish video and computer games. “We build things that sell,” Nikirk says, “so we look at what’s selling.”

In addition, rather than use a textbook, Nikirk culls his teaching material from current, industry-based journals and articles. And what he can’t find or teach himself, he invites college professors and industry professionals to teach. The innovative nature of the program has earned it the Maryland State Department of Education 2006 Outstanding Secondary Career Technology Program Award of Excellence, as well as the attention of major corporations, including Microsoft, Dell, and Gateway.

“It has been a great program so far, and colleges really love the experience the students are gaining,” he says. “The students are having a great time, also.”