While sitting at a computer and hitting buttons furiously in order to beat the newest version of a popular video game, many may not think about how that computer game is actually created.

Throughout the school year, Wayland High School’s AP Computer Science students are given the information and instructions they need to make their own games and are asked to put their knowledge to the test by designing their own computer game at the end of the year. Not only do students have to marshal all their newly acquired skills, but they also have to work with other team members to divide up the work, write programs, design graphics, etc.

Some students choose to design a game based on a completely original idea, while some choose to take inspiration from other computer games and design something similar.

This year’s students created the games Tanks, Bubble Trouble, and Super Awesome Magical Adventure Time.

Tanks and Bubble Trouble are based off the pre-existing games of Tanks and Bubble Trouble.

Tanks was made by Dylan Sullivan, Tim Caradonna and Zach Baxter. The object of this game is to enter in the appropriate angle and power in order to defeat tanks on the opposing side.

Bubble Trouble was made by Samantha Kolovson, June Kim, June Pan, and Debbie Ng. The object of this game is to pop all the bubbles by pushing the “J”, “L” and space buttons.

Super Awesome Magical Adventure Time, previously called The Shizzle, is the creation of Charlie Kelman, Chad Tyra, Jonathan Chen, Sasha Parfenov, and Shensi Ding. This game consists of multiple levels where one’s character must reach the red flag by moving around, jumping over, and shooting obstacles.

“My favorite part about the project is probably how excited the students are about the result.,” said Michael Hopps, the AP Computer Science teacher for the last eight years. “There’s lots of frustrations and things that happen in the process, but in the end, the products are something that they’re usually excited about. It’s just great. It’s a lot of fun to see students taking what we’ve been teaching them all year and then doing something with it and having them be excited about it.”

Hopps has a preference for role playing computer games and is currently playing Fallout and Dragon Age II.

“I thought it was really fun,” said Kelman. “We learned a lot but also had a good time. Mr. Hopps knew when to let us have fun and also knew when to make us do our work.”

Kelman’s favorite computer game is Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Through the AP Computer Science course, students have been able to learn how to program computer games with hands on experience. So the next time any one of them plays a computer game, they will know exactly what measures go into making them.

More games from past AP Computer Science classes can be found at https://sites.google.com/site/mhopps/ap-computer-science/games.