Our first 6-week session

[cameronmcefee]

It sounds like our current plan is to try to sort some of this stuff out here, then meet up for dinner on May 11th to finalize details and kick off working on the lessons.

Suggested by the kids:

• Encryption
• Computer viruses
• Minecraft
• Gaming in python
• Objective C
• Games and Networks
• Virtual machines
• Gary's Mod (half life engine)
• Cojure

What we discussed as our next session:

• Top down 2d world ala Legend of Zelda.
• Session one, kids set up the environment, get a prebuilt game with a one room world, character that moves, and a collision object. Goal is to customize the game. Add graphics, baddies, weapons, physics, etc.
• Possibly have two tracks, the second one being kids setting up a backend that allows games to connect.
• Session three or four connects the student games so that a character can move to the edge of their world, and transition into the world of a student next to them. This will lend itself to amusing theme contrasts like a character with a sword stuck floating in space.
• Possible in-game chat support.
• Session 5 will be open study to customize the games.
• Final session will be show and tell/career mentor talk/open study.

We'll also need to tackle having a beginner lesson/teacher each week for people that just show up. Most likely this will be one person teaching a modified Code Academy lesson, with a mentor or two helping out, depending on how many beginners actually show up.

@mikefowler also mentioned having some game industry friends that might be interested in coming in to be our career mentor on the last session.

Anything I missed?

[KartikTalwar]

@cameronmcefee so the dinner is in June instead of May 11?

[cameronmcefee]

Ah no you're right. I was on the wrong calendar page.

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On Apr 29, 2013, at 12:57 PM, Kartik Talwar [email protected] wrote:

@cameronmcefee so the dinner is in June instead of May 11?

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[KartikTalwar]

@cameronmcefee cool! Modifying original post

[mikefowler]

Hey guys, what time are we thinking of meeting up on Saturday? Would an early dinner work? 4:30 or 5ish?

[KartikTalwar]

I should be fine for that slot. Let's wait for others. Also, do we already have a place in mind?

[donjo]

I don't have anything going on Saturday evening yet so as of right now I'm
available whenever.

On Mon, May 6, 2013 at 11:49 AM, Kartik Talwar [email protected]:

I should be fine for that slot. Lets wait for others. Also do we already
have a place in mind?

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[brntbeer]

unfortunately i'll be in berlin =(

[cameronmcefee]

Early dinner works good for me. Let's go somewhere close-ish to the GitHub office in case we want to meet up/reconvene there to hack on stuff. How about Town Hall at 5pm. Dinner is on GitHub.

[KartikTalwar]

That works for me as long as I don't have to present an ID to dine 😛

[cameronmcefee]

Hah, no you'll be fine, it's a sit-down kind of place.

[KartikTalwar]

👍

[artxu]

Ah, sadly I will be on a flight back from NY and won't arrive in time. This
is awesome so please let me know how to help after. Btw, my little brother
is excited by the idea of multi-week projects for GitHub.

On May 6, 2013, at 2:46 PM, Mike Fowler [email protected] wrote:

Hey guys, what time are we thinking of meeting up on Saturday? Would an
early dinner work? 4:30 or 5ish?

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[cameronmcefee]

Alright, If you want to show up for dinner and haven't already chimed in here, give me a shout by wednesday. I want to get our reservation in early since we may be a bigger group.

cc @kristjan not sure if you're on this thread.

[cameronmcefee]

Also cc @broccolini @jonmagic @kevinclark @nrrrdcore

[jonmagic]

I can't make it to the dinner.

[nrrrdcore]

I can do dinner on Saturday!

[broccolini]

I can do dinner on Saturday too!

[kevinclark]

I'm in Berlin, but stoked this is happening. Keep us updated here?

[cameronmcefee]

I counted 7 interested people so I made a reservation for 8. If anyone else decides to come, I'm sure we can make it work.

Re the goals of dinner, here's what I'm hoping to accomplish:

1. Eat, drink, be merry.
2. @kneath is looking into some javascript libraries and will probably show a proof of concept of some sort.
3. Anyone else that has messed with stuff can pitch/show off.
4. I looked into online pixel generators a bit. Let's talk about how we can incorporate that to get the creative kids interested.
5. Let's pick a game theme. The kids will probably go off on their own tangents, but we at least need a theme for our demos.
6. Divvy up who is going to work on what when.
7. Agree on details and a ship date so I can send send out info for tickets, as well as recruit more mentors.

@jonmagic How's the app coming? Is it close enough that it's worth taking it into consideration for the launch date of this first session? We're already putting things off for a long time, so adding a week or two seems fine if it's plausible.

[jonmagic]

The app is getting close, but this week work has taken precedence. I'm basically at the "time to test on staging" stage to work out any bugs/weirdness and I need to sync up with my designer buddy. Our schedules haven't been quite matching up for the last two weeks but hopefully he'll be able to come visit me this weekend. I can push to have V1 working this weekend.

On Thursday, May 9, 2013 at 10:36 AM, Cameron McEfee wrote:

I counted 7 interested people so I made a reservation for 8. If anyone else decides to come, I'm sure we can make it work.
Re the goals of dinner, here's what I'm hoping to accomplish:
Eat, drink, be merry.
@kneath (https://github.com/kneath) is looking into some javascript libraries and will probably show a proof of concept of some sort.
Anyone else that has messed with stuff can pitch/show off.
I looked into online pixel generators a bit. Let's talk about how we can incorporate that to get the creative kids interested.
Let's pick a game theme. The kids will probably go off on their own tangents, but we at least need a theme for our demos.
Divvy up who is going to work on what when.
Agree on details and a ship date so I can send send out info for tickets, as well as recruit more mentors.

@jonmagic (https://github.com/jonmagic) How's the app coming? Is it close enough that it's worth taking it into consideration for the launch date of this first session? We're already putting things off for a long time, so adding a week or two seems fine if it's plausible.

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[cameronmcefee]

My guess is that we're still at least 4 weeks out from our session, fwiw. No need to rush the app if it's not on target to be ready by then. I'd just be cool to have that up and running for the session if the timelines happen to line up.

[cameronmcefee]

That is, the only part I'd really care about having ready is the url for the kids to go to for the lesson. The email notification stuff is nice, but wouldn't be critical for this session.

[jonmagic]

Excellent. It will be ready, and sooner rather than later.

On Thursday, May 9, 2013 at 10:46 AM, Cameron McEfee wrote:

My guess is that we're still at least 4 weeks out from our session, fwiw. No need to rush the app if it's not on target to be ready by then. I'd just be cool to have that up and running for the session if the timelines happen to line up.

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[cameronmcefee]

Sorry guys, I forgot to mention the earliest spot they had open was 5:30pm.

[donjo]

Sounds good, see you all tomorrow!

[kneath]

Good having dinner with ya'll. Just wanted to share the stuff that I was playing around with:

• kneath/foli my prototype game I'm playing around with. As of kneath/foli@9d88158 it's a simple little character that changes directions and can move around a hit-tested map (with a hidden entrance to the castle)
• enchant.js is the library I'm playing around with.
• Guide / course on enchant.js at Cal Poly

🤘 can't wait to dive into this

[kristjan]

Blast, wasn't paying enough attention! Hope you guys had much deliciousness.

[cameronmcefee]

The current plan is to meet up at the GitHub office on Sunday, May 19th at noon. GitHub will provide lunch. The general goal will be to go over the homework we volunteered for at dinner and officially pick stuff like the library/date/theme for our lesson game, etc.

There was a number of things we talked about at dinner that I'm sure I've already forgotten, but one of the best was that our first session should be focused on setup, socializing and creativity.

• Set up the environments with apps, including a text editor, pixel editor, and browser.
• Give the kids a working game that's approximately what is pictured above that they can mess with.
• Have the kids brain storm their character name, theme, and game world concept. This will be negotiated with a mentor.
• Possibly a pixel art demo/writing section to get the kids all planned for their next session.

If you have other bits from the dinner meeting that you think should be included please leave them here.

[cameronmcefee]

Also, everyone on this thread is invited to Sunday's lunch meetup.

[broccolini]

Did you guys realize it's bay to breakers on Sunday?

[broccolini]

Looked at some pixel art tools, made a gist if ya want comment or add to it https://gist.github.com/broccolini/5617151

[kneath]

Alright I've added issues for all of the lessons I'm planning at https://github.com/CoderDojoSF/build-your-adventure and I'll try and build these out this week. As an example, I have my https://github.com/kneath/foli & http://warpspire.com/foli/ examples of the game I'm starting to build to extract these lessons.

[cameronmcefee]

I've posted notes about the lesson from our meeting here: CoderDojoGitHub/build-your-adventure#6

@donjo, you signed up to work on our "Intro and basics" stuff. I left that out of the list since that could really apply to any of our lessons. Once you have a feel for whether that's it's own lesson or it's just a collection of links to stuff, we can decide where that stuff should live.

[cameronmcefee]

Oh, we also talked briefly after most people had left about when we should meet next. It seems like weekdays worked best for people. How does May 28th sound? Fwiw, it's the day after Memorial Day. It sounds like the plan would be to go over any lessons that @kneath has for us by then, and potentially just be some hack time to build our own customizations of the game.

[donjo]

The day after memorial day works for me.

[brntbeer]

I'll be gone but i'm more than happy to catch up afterwards :D

On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 10:29 AM, John Donmoyer [email protected]:

The day after memorial day works for me.

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[KartikTalwar]

Next Tuesday works for me.

[broccolini]

works for me.

On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 10:34 AM, Kartik Talwar [email protected]:

Next Tuesday works for me.

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Diana Mounter
http://broccolini.net

[kneath]

I'll be gone too, but happy to email where I'm at

On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 10:36 AM, Diana [email protected] wrote:

works for me.

On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 10:34 AM, Kartik Talwar [email protected]:

Next Tuesday works for me.

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Diana Mounter
http://broccolini.net

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Kyle Neath
[email protected]
http://warpspire.com

[mikefowler]

Tuesday is cool with me.

[kristjan]

Good by me

On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 7:16 PM, Mike Fowler [email protected]:

Tuesday is cool with me.

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[cameronmcefee]

Alright, sounds good. Let's call it Tuesday at 7pm

[artxu]

Sounds great see you then!

On Wed, May 22, 2013 at 9:18 AM, Cameron McEfee [email protected]:

Alright, sounds good. Let's call it Tuesday at 7pm

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[mikefowler]

Hey all, in the interest of time tonight (getting from work in Hayes Valley down to Github and then back to NOPA afterwards) I'm going to opt to just hack on my game project at home since it's not a full-on planning meeting.

[cameronmcefee]

Cool, we've had a couple people have to bail too. So far @kristjan, @broccolini, @donjo, and @KartikTalwar are the last people that might show. I'm not entirely sure we have a good reason to meet other than just hack time, so if you guys feel like just working on our/your own, that works for me.

[hunterbridges]

I can show if need be. Currently at Snapguide office with @broccolini which is a couple blocks away from Github. Let me know

On Tuesday, May 28, 2013 at 5:36 PM, Cameron McEfee wrote:

Cool, we've had a couple people have to bail too. So far @kristjan (https://github.com/kristjan), @broccolini (https://github.com/broccolini), @donjo (https://github.com/donjo), and @KartikTalwar (https://github.com/KartikTalwar) are the last people that might show. I'm not entirely sure we have a good reason to meet other than just hack time, so if you guys feel like just working on our/your own, that works for me.

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[KartikTalwar]

I'm still set for showing up at 7..

[cameronmcefee]

Alright, I'll plan to stick around, but I've got no specific plan for this evening. We can poke around with @kneath's first lesson and work on whatever that's related. There's an epic amount of GitHubbers in town right now so stuff will probably be pretty crowded.

[hunterbridges]

Sounds like tonight may not be the most opportune night. I dug into the material earlier today. If we have no real plans, I'll probably sit this one out

On Tuesday, May 28, 2013 at 5:54 PM, Cameron McEfee wrote:

Alright, I'll plan to stick around, but I've got no specific plan for this evening. We can poke around with @kneath's first lesson (CoderDojoGitHub/build-your-adventure#1) and work on whatever that's related. There's an epic amount of GitHubbers in town right now so stuff will probably be pretty crowded.

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[broccolini]

Ditto. I started collecting a bunch of sprite sheets, some usable as is,
many need a bit of formatting so the grid is clean. I think the best thing
I can do next is try building a game and checking the sprite sheets work. I
actually have a big chunk of work to get through by Friday so wouldn't mind
missing this and going hard on the weekend instead.

On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 6:21 PM, Hunter Bridges [email protected]:

Sounds like tonight may not be the most opportune night. I dug into the
material earlier today. If we have no real plans, I'll probably sit this
one out

On Tuesday, May 28, 2013 at 5:54 PM, Cameron McEfee wrote:

Alright, I'll plan to stick around, but I've got no specific plan for
this evening. We can poke around with @kneath's first lesson (
CoderDojoGitHub/build-your-adventure#1) and work on
whatever that's related. There's an epic amount of GitHubbers in town right
now so stuff will probably be pretty crowded.

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Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub (
#11 (comment)).

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Diana Mounter
http://broccolini.net

[cameronmcefee]

Lol alright. I'll hang out here in case people show up. If no one shows up by 7:15ish I'll head out.

[KartikTalwar]

Seems like we're waiting on @donjo and @kristjan's reply. Because otherwise, it's just me who'll be arriving. But if that's the case, I don't wanna hold @cameronmcefee back.

[donjo]

Haha well I'm just walking around SoMA and had planned on showing up at 7
so I'll be there to hack on things unless we bail.
On May 28, 2013 6:33 PM, "Kartik Talwar" [email protected] wrote:

Seems like we're waiting on @donjo https://github.com/donjo and
@kristjan https://github.com/kristjan reply. Because otherwise, it's
just me who'll be arriving. But if that's the case, I don't wanna hold
@cameronmcefee https://github.com/cameronmcefee back.

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[KartikTalwar]

Cool. I'm on my way as well

[kristjan]

Just heading over from a groove at work, but since nothing particular is
happening, I'm gonna go have dinner with my lady instead. Happy hacking!
On May 28, 2013 6:38 PM, "Kartik Talwar" [email protected] wrote:

Cool. I'm on my way as well

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[KartikTalwar]

Are we meeting sometime this week?

[cameronmcefee]

I've been under the weather this week. As far as I know we don't have any plans to meet up currently.

[KartikTalwar]

Thats fine, just checking.

[cameronmcefee]

@spacekat Are you in for this one? If you are I'll add you to the team.