Each school and team are hard at work preparing their Electronic Arcade Game for the Playoffs Event this May 14th. Mark the date on your calendar and join the fun!
Have you scheduled your game preview with our Judges?
We had a great preview of the game the K-IST Coders, JEPI, and SVS teams are creating. Enthusiasm, hard work, and teamwork were on full display here. Elements of programming, physical computing and modelling were all present. We are looking forward to playing your games on May 14th!
K-IST Coders – Here’s a teaser photo. We don’t want to give away too much before the day of the playoffs, but we can say it involves a character named Banana Bully.
Team JEPI – Lights are blinking, code is in progress and buttons are being cut as Team JEPI sprints to the arcade finish line.
Team SVS – Waves are beckoning you to try this Hawaiian themed game, but beware the shark infested waters!
Overall, we are impressed by the teams’ enthusiasm and thought put into bringing you the most creative, challenging, and fun games you’ve played in a long time. We expect there will be plenty of “play testing” between now and the playoff event to find the right mix of challenge versus playability for all our guests at Tokyo Sandbox. Support your school and fellow students by buying your tickets and stopping in to play their games and many others on May 14th at Akiba Square in Akihabara.
At Maker Toolset’s Pilot Spring Camp 2017 students will build 21st Century skills through design challenges using digital fabrication, physical computing, coding and robotics.
This 2-day camp is open to Jr. and Sr. High School students in the Tokyo area with the desire to learn in a primarily English environment at a fraction of the cost of an overseas design or engineering camp.
Friday, March 24th: Rescue Robot and Design Challenge – 4 hours (12pm to 4pm) Use tools like 3D pen, crafting tools, and a design cutter to construct an environment and robot shell to perform a rescue in your presented disaster scenario.
Saturday, March 25th: 3D Game Design and Fabrication Challenge – 4 hours (2pm to 6pm) Use Autodesk 360 to design a game and fabricate it on a CNC machine. Advanced options include electronics, sensors or robotics, for added game interactivity.
Details:
2 day spring program
8 hours of instruction and build time
students will supply their own laptops and pre-install free software for designing, coding and fabrication
¥22,500 per student (price includes tax)
5-6 students per mentor
Dates and time: Friday, March 24th 12pm – 4pm and Saturday March 25th 2pm – 6pm
Location: SunLife Nerima in Nakamurabashi
We love making things using technology and teaching the next generation how to use these tools. http://makertoolset.com/
GAETANO “GUY” TOTARO
Originally from Los Angeles, Guy is a Variety Entertainer and “Multi-Talent” who has been featured in many advertising campaigns. He works as a Creative Consultant and is the Social / Creative Director at Lowp. Guy will also have some enjoyable surprises to share at the event.
Thanks to the generosity of everyone’s support for the Tokyo Rocks for Tohoku/ Ladies Rock for Tohoku events held by a collective of Tokyo-based indie musicians and local venues keeping Tohoku in their hearts and on their minds.
We enjoyed running this creativity and technology workshop with a group of underprivileged children in Fukushima last weekend. Their unbridled enthusiasm to take on the challenge and stretch beyond what they thought possible was an eye-opener. What a great chance to spark the idea to leverage physical computing for solving problems while having fun with technology.
The students put the design cycle into action while using easy to understand electronic building blocks by littleBits, some Makedo, cardboard, elastics, marbles, and other construction tools to prototype their team’s Electronic Arcade Game. Next, members from other teams playtested the games and gave feedback on enjoyment and suggested improvements.
Buckle your safety belts and start saving your cardboard!
We are excited to announce the opening of registrations for the first annual “Electronic Arcade Game Playoffs.” Inspired by Cain’s Arcade, and as part of the Coding for Life event alongside the Tokyo Indie Game Festival held on May 14th 2017, the playoffs will choose a winning arcade game from multiple teams across Tokyo.
Applying schools will enter up to 5 games from teams of 3 to 5 students. A 10 session workshop series is also available where students will follow the design cycle to prototype and iterate upon their games. The best games from each category will be entered into the final playoffs event as a highlight of the Coding for Life event.
Previous workshops with students have produced some incredible learning opportunities and even more collaboration with their communities. Once such example is the Scoreboard Counter Invention as documented by our team.
Students strengthen the skills of problem solving, design iteration, and entrepreneurship through the collaborative project of building an Electronic Arcade. When tasked to use simple materials such as cardboard combined with advanced electronics modules, students prototype fairly advanced concepts present in everyday technology like your car to your washing machine.
Witness students challenging the design process with technology first hand bysigning up.
Maker Toolset
GAETANO “GUY” TOTARO
