Oregon Game Project Challenge

For a few years now Forest Grove High School students have been participating in the Oregon Game Project Challenge (OGPC). Oregon Game Project Challenge is a statewide competition where teams of middle schoolers and high schoolers build video games. The games they build are judged based upon achievements they attempt to get. OGPC has been going for over a decade now, and each year they have a new theme.

 This year’s theme is: drum roll please, Scarcity. The idea is that there are millions who lack resources that help them to survive, and you get to create a game based upon resources running out. The goal would be to create a game where resources are low, and thus the game’s goal would be to find a way to get more resources or to collect resources. The resources can range from jobs, housing, money, water or any other resources mankind needs to survive. With a broad topic where many things can fall under this theme, teams are coming up with many creative and interesting ideas.

 Before exploring our own Forest Grove High School teams, what makes up a team? An OGPC team consists of a manager, programmers, a writer, and people responsible for sound, game design, and art. An OGPC team can consist of up to 7 members. Anyone from 6th to 12th grade is able to participate, and if you participate one year, you can participate till you are too old to sign up. Despite the initial thought of not being able to do this due to lack of experience in coding, that shouldn’t stop you. There are various tutorials and game programs that make it easy to code and make a game.

 Forest Grove High School has a few teams participating in this year’s challenge. We have teams participating to try and win, those teams are more experienced and more serious. Then we have teams competing for the first time, so they are more just treading the waters.

CYBEAR-GAMES:

  Cybear-Games is entering its third year of OGPC. Members of Cybear-Games are Sam Broggi, Cody Phipps, and Ryan Hetzler. Other members are Jacob Peters Weem and James Magruder. Sam works on art, Cody works on programming, and Ryan develops the story. Their game for this year is called Power Outage and is about a robot in a post-apocalyptic world where energy is scarce. You would get through puzzles using planned movements and clever use of batteries. Cybear-Games is creating this game using RPG Maker MV. Being that this is their third year participating in OGPC, they have made two other games. One was a platform shooter, and the other was a top-down dungeon crawler. Cybear-Games considers creating a game that people enjoyed for more than a couple minutes as their biggest achievements. To follow the development of Cybear Games’ Power Outage on twitter follow @CyBearGames.

Cosmic Toast:

  Cosmic Toast is heading to OGPC as this is their first year participating. Cosmic Toast has six members; Kaleb Baynes, Mitchell Gilpin, Melanie Catalan, Bryce Talbot, Isaiah Gale, and Micaela Gaither. Kaleb is responsible for the story and game design, Mitchell and Isaiah are the programmers, Melanie works on sound, Bryce works on the game art, and Micaela is the team manager. Though this is their first year, they have a good grasp of how to get their game going. Their game is called Planetia. Planetia is about a rover that is sent to Mars that mines for resources in an attempt to make a settlement on Mars. Cosmic Toast is using YoYo Games-Game Maker to create Planetia. For their first year of participating OGPC, Cosmic Toast is striving to make a working game while having fun. To follow the development of Cosmic Toast’s Planetia on twitter follow @toast_cosmic, and on Instagram follow @cosmic_toast_2019.

Multi-Colored Pigeons (Unified OGPC Team):

 The Multi-Colored Pigeons have just begun working on their game just a couple of weeks ago, so they are still progressing on their story and game ideas. Multi-Colored Pigeons have six members, who are Michael Housley, Greg Jarrett, Sean Fisk, Joaquin Cavolo, Jordan Lester, and Matt Pickelsimer. Michael works with music, Matt is one of the programmers, Sean is the manager and head programmer, Greg, Joaquin, and Jordan are responsible for art and design.  However, they hope to create a fun game. The Unified Team is working hard to create their game while being unified and having fun.

Double Typhoide:

 Double Typhoide is just starting their first year of OGPC. The team consists of Tre Campbell, Nick “Gimp” Christensen, Nick Rodriguez, Ethan Jones, Dion Strolin-Partch, and Riley Schmidt. Dion is the manager, lead developer, and works on game design. Tre is responsible for bookkeeping, music, and level design, Nick “Gimp” works on art, Nick is a programmer, Ethan works on music, sound effects, and programming, and Riley is an artist and works on music. Double Typhoide is working on their first game, and it is called White Out. The idea of White Out is you must survive in a nuclear winter. White Out is being made in Construct 2. Double Typhoide is hoping to gain experience and gain achievements that are offered by OGPC. This the first time the team or any of the members have ever participated in OGPC, so they are also striving to create a working game and have fun. To follow the progress of White Out, follow them @DoubleTyphoid on Twitter and @doubletyphoid on Instagram.

A Light Mental Breakfast:

 A Light Mental Breakfast consists of people mostly just starting out in OGPC. The team has six members; Waylon Jackson, Cameron French, Matt Fisk, Zach Jensen, Logan Duncan and  Tessa Hanson. Waylon and Cameron are the game designers and developers, and Mathew is another Developer. Zach and Logan are 3D modelists, with Zach also working as a map designer. Their game is called It’s Not Galaga. It’s Not Galaga is about you, a spaceship, fighting off waves of enemies. You collect scrap, which is later used to upgrade your special abilities, buy health and ammo. The goal of the game is to reach the boss level at the end of the game, and they may throw in easter eggs. A Light Mental Breakfast is using the unity 3D game engine in C Sharp. They are also using Blender for modeling. As states priorly, most of the team is new to OGPC, but Waylon has been apart of other OGPC teams in past years. A Light Mental Breakfast wishes to create a game that wins an award at the OGPC competition, and some hope that by the end of the summer to have the game on mobile devices.