Dell Technologies Advancing Sustainability Game Design Challenge

Our Goal is to Empower Students through a Virtual Game Design Challenge with support from Game Development Professionals

With many schools adopting a virtual or hybrid plan this school year, students are missing out on the opportunity to engage in hands-on STEM experiences with their friends and classmates. To help fill this void, and encourage learning, computational thinking, and fellowship, Legends of Learning and International Game Developers Association (IGDA) are hosting a month-long Dell Technologies Advancing Sustainability Game Design Challenge. This virtual experience will enable K-12 students to learn more about game development and practice critical thinking while expanding their portfolios.

About the Competition

We are excited to provide all learners with an opportunity to design a game, no matter their device-access, age, or previous experience. Depending on the grade level and experience of the participating students, there will be two different tracks they can participate in:

Fully build out a video game, using their choice of platform (Examples: CORE, Unity, Game Maker, Scratch, RPG Maker)
Create a paper prototype and game design document

To assist teachers with integrating this experience into their classroom, lesson plans with templates and handouts for each portion of the Dell Technologies Advancing Sustainability Game Design Challenge are provided below. For students participating without a teacher, a YouTube Series following the weeks’ lessons is provided below.

Thanks to our amazing partners, there will be weekly presentations throughout the month of March from Game Development Professionals that correspond to the week’s lesson.

To encourage fellowship and collaboration, students can work independently or in teams of up to 5 people. In order to participate, all students must have their teacher or parent register their team, using the “Sign Up Now!” button below. Teachers and parents are welcome to register multiple teams. Students must be in kindergarten through 12th grade to participate. The deadline to register is April 15th at 11:59 pm PST.

Any questions regarding the competition can be submitted by email to events@legendsoflearning.com. We look forward to your submissions!

Timeline

February 1st, 2021: The Dell Technologies Advancing Sustainability Game Design Challenge will formally open with the posting of the lesson plans for teachers, a parent handout for parents, and a YouTube series for students and teachers.
Week of March 1st: Opening ceremony, with Dell Technologies, as well as the start of mentor availability. This week will focus on Lesson 1: Concept, Planning, and Tools Determination.
- Game Development Professionals are available to answer student questions by email through April 15th at events@legendsoflearning.com.
- March 1st, 7 pm EST: Opening Ceremony with Keynote, Dell Technologies
  - Access the Presentation Recording Here
Week of March 8th: This week will explore Lesson 2: Prototyping, accompanied by a presentation from Roblox.
- March 10th, 7 pm EST: Start Small, Dream Big – Prototyping with Roblox
  - Access the Presentation Recording Here
Week of March 15th: This week will dive into Lesson 3: Production, coinciding with a talk from Legends of Learning’s Head of Game Design.
- March 16th, 4 pm EST: Execution is Everything
  - Access the Presentation Recording Here
Week of March 22nd: This week will detail Lesson 4: Finalizing and Polish, supplemented by a panel from Code in the Schools.
- March 24th, 5 pm EST: Shipping Your Game! Tips for Students from Industry Insiders
  - Access the Presentation Recording Here

April 15th: All submissions will be due by 11:59 pm PST. Submissions must be submitted through this Google Form, following the instructions in this document. The closing discussion of the Challenge will be presented by the ESA Foundation.
- April 13th, 6 pm EST: Creating a Career in the Gaming Industry
  - Access the Presentation Recording Here
May 13th: The winners of the Dell Technologies Advancing Sustainability Game Design Challenge will be announced at our Closing Ceremony and via email.
- May 13th, 6 pm EST: Closing Ceremony, featuring IGDA, Legends of Learning, and the winning games!
  - Access the Presentation Recording Here

Winners

Theme: Advancing Sustainability

The winning teams will be selected by May 13th, 2021. Each submission timely received and not otherwise disqualified will be scored on the following criteria out of a total of 1000 points:

Creativity and Theme Integration of Game Design Concept: 0 to 350 points
Completeness and Detail of Submission: 0 to 350 points
Originality of Game Mechanics and Gameplay: 0 to 300 points

The two (2) winning teams will each receive their choice of a $1,000 console store gift card (Xbox, Nintendo, or PlayStation) or Amazon and a premium swag bag with merchandise from our sponsors. Ten (10) runner ups will each receive their choice of a $200 console store gift card of your choice (Xbox, Nintendo, or PlayStation) or Amazon and a swag bag with select merchandise from our sponsors.

Honorable mentions will receive a unique Sponsor Swag Bag!

Grand Prize Winners:

The Super Long Math Game of Rolling Dice and Involves Earth (Bermudian Springs School District, PA)
Cephion (Dwi Emas International School, Malaysia)

Runner Up Winners:

Beach Busters (Cobb County School District, GA)
Tree Games (Ulm School District 85, MT)
<RECYCL3R> (Hunterdon County, NJ)
Heroes of the Future (Sacred Heart School – Ateneo de Cebu, Philippines)
East Haven (Wolf Creek School Division, Canada)
Game of Nature (Harmony Public Schools, TX)
Recycling War (San Bernardino City Unified School District, CA)
Space Sniper (School District of Manatee County, FL)
Plant Pong (Charleston County School District, SC)
EcoIsland (Cobb County School District, GA)

A Huge Thank You to our Amazing Sponsors!

About Legends of Learning

American children need new education heroes: teachers dedicated to using modern and engaging methods for delivering their curriculum. Legends of Learning helps teachers make classrooms fun and productive learning environments through research-driven curriculum-based games. We use ongoing original research to create a marketplace filled with an epic range of curriculum-based games for stronger subject mastery and classroom engagement.

Currently, over two million US-based students actively use Legends of Learning. 100,000+ teachers in all 50 states use the platform to engage their students in math and science, creating an equitable learning environment where students can use multiple representations to solve problems and progress at their own rate, allowing for differentiation based on student needs. 30,000+ school buildings and 10,000+ unique school districts use our innovative approach to game-based learning as a primary vehicle for instruction to promote problem-solving, reasoning, and discourse in mathematics and science.

About the International Game Developers Association

The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is the world’s largest nonprofit membership organization serving all individuals who create games.

The IGDA is a U.S.-based 501(c)6 non-profit professional association and a global network of collaborative projects and communities of individuals from all fields of game development. The IGDA’s diverse membership encompasses programmers and producers, designers and artists, writers, business people, QA team members, localization experts, and anyone else who participates in the game development process.

The mission of the IGDA is to support and empower game developers around the world in achieving fulfilling and sustainable careers.

For more info, please visit www.igda.org.

Contact

Questions, comments, or concerns?

Please contact: events@legendsoflearning.com.