“What do I need? I need more time.”

• Teacher from South Dakota

This was an answer from a teacher during a study we did on educator needs to increase achievement in STEM. She did not add, “Can you give me more time, researcher lady from California who is taking up my time with your dumb questions?” but it was implied.

Actually. Yes, I can give you more time.

When we’ve been telling people you can make an educational game in just one hour it’s both true and not true at the same time. How is that possible? Because we have eliminated the coding requirement, you can make a game in an hour or less by typing in responses to simple questions like, “What is the title of your game?” and clicking to select images, like for the background, 

IF

you have the images already available, for a farm scene, chickens to catch in the game and any other artwork you need (yes, my friends, that is a big IF).

If you did not have that artwork, it could take you several more hours to make it – until now.

Check out the game, Sam Hates Farms – https://www.7generationgames.com/sam_hates_farms/

You know what is amazing about this game? Well, in addition to that Sam learns about probability and has a good time on the farm, all of the artwork used comes from the 7 Gen Blocks Game Builder farm pack! (Not AI, by the way. Totally random fact – after his stints as a world judo team member and before he became a professional MMA coach, Justin Flores earned his BFA and did artwork for several successful games.)

Our first pack available was the farm pack and that little button on the top right is going to give you hours of time back. The default collection is “User”. That is the assets you have uploaded. Click the button and select another collection. Two other collections available are “Winter” and “City”.

What happens when you select a new collection?

You now can select your artwork, including background images and obstacles (to jump over in the runner game). Everything in the Sam Hates Farms game was created using this collection. The only thing that isn’t just a click to add to your game is the video, which was created by downloading the images here, then uploading the images to Gemini and giving a prompt like “Create a video of the farmer in this image talking to his dog.”  If you don’t need a video in your game, you can make the entire game without creating any new artwork.

Can I still upload artwork?

Absolutely. You can select any artwork from a collection and it will be copied into your game. You can also use existing artwork that is in your User collection or upload new artwork, all in the same game.

What About the Audio?

The Farm Collection also includes some audio files. Our first, very early version of the game builder (thank you for using it!) had a default sound of water splashing for the splash screen (that’s the title page also known as the start page). We thought we were being funny but really that doesn’t work. You can now change that audio too.  

What’s Up Next?

Three in progress and almost done are “Beach”, “Office” and “Kitchen”. Let us know what you’d like to see next.