Newlands Intermediate students learn and create with Gamefroot.

According to Google, “Gamefroot is an online cloud-based platform for making 2D games.” For the students at Newlands Intermediate School, however, it’s much more than that. It’s a way to connect with others over the thing we in Gamefroot enjoy: coding. Florence, our Gamefroot Developer, finds the Newlands Intermediate coding community a joy to teach. She has commented that the students are really engaged with the content. ‘They’re really enthusiastic and she enjoys seeing returning students continuing with Gamefroot each term. According to Flo, ‘Coding teaches us general problem-solving skills. It teaches us to think really methodically and logically. The ability to experiment with code is so much fun, and it can help you to experiment with other areas as well.’ Ryce from Room 13 agrees, and says that ‘Gamefroot teaches us creativity as well as a knowledge of code.’

The Gamefroot members all agree Gamefroot is easy to use and say their coding has improved since they started. Lily from Room 6 has said that before she started using Gamefroot, she knew nothing about coding but since the beginning of the year, she has coded a playable game! Rashid from Room 11 thinks that Gamefroot is teaching us how to take our prior knowledge from other coding platforms, like Scratch, and expand on them, and I agree. Before I started Gamefroot as a Year 7, in 2021, the most coding I had done was making a cat dance on Scratch. Since then, I have coded four games with the help of Flo and Gamefroot and I’ve remixed some others at home.

‘There is something for everyone in Gamefroot. Our students create new worlds through storytelling, artistry, creativity and logic. In each game, students wrestle with competition, elegance, skill, action and fairness to create games their peers will enjoy. Wellington is a very creative community and we are very lucky to have access to the talented people at Gamefroot.’ Says Mr McAtamney, who organised the Gamefroot club at Newlands Intermediate.

In Term 2, we will be making an RPG Top Down game, with the help of Florence. The first session in Term 2 is on Monday 9 May and will run for eight weeks.

To register for term 2, email Mr McAtamney at simon.m@newlandsint.school.nz .

If you are wanting to try out Gamefroot for free, click this link: https://make.gamefroot.com/ and simply sign up with your school account.

Have fun and stay creative.