Two students from Green Brook, NJ have been named winners of the National STEM Video Game Challenge. Calvin Khiddee-Wu and Jagdeep Bhatia were among 24 middle school and high school winners recognized at an award ceremony held at National Geographic in Washington, DC, on November 14, 2016, with top original video games and game design concepts selected in 18 categories from nearly 3,000 entries.
Presented by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and E-Line Media, with founding sponsor the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the STEM Challenge aims to motivate interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) among youth by transforming their natural passions for playing video games into designing and creating their own video games.
The STEM Challenge conducted nearly 60 game design workshops and events across the country in 2016. The Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has sponsored more than 20 workshops at libraries and museums nationwide for students and mentors.
Each winner receives a cash prize of $1,000, as well as a subscription to Gamestar Mechanic from E-Line Media and Curiosity Boxes from Vsauce. STEM Challenge winners can also designate $2,000 to a school or non-profit organization as an institutional award recipient.
“The National STEM Video Game Challenge promotes vital new skills like coding and systems design that all young people will need to compete and collaborate in a digital and global world,” said Michael H. Levine, Executive Director, The Joan Ganz Cooney Center. “We are thrilled to honor these students and their outstanding games.”
Teammates Calvin Khiddee-Wu, 14, and Jagdeep Bhatia, 14, of Green Brook, New Jersey knew from the start that they wanted to design a video game with an apocalyptic setting, and ultimately decided to use their game to tell a story of survival in the wake of nuclear fallout. Their original video game design, Reconstruct, won the Middle School Team Open Platform category of the 2016 National STEM Video Game Challenge after they were encourage to enter the competition by their middle school computer teacher. In Reconstruct, players fight off enemies while attempting to rebuild society after a nuclear apocalypse.
A major source of inspiration for Calvin is his mother, who grew up in rural Thailand before moving to the United States. “She inspires me because she is persistent, bold, and never gives up,” says Calvin. When he’s not developing new games, Calvin enjoys drawing, playing piano, playing video games, and browsing on the internet. In the future, he hopes to study electrical or computer engineering.
“When I get older I hope to become a computer scientist,” says Jagdeep, whose additional hobbies include running cross country and playing the tabla. Jagdeep’s interest in making video games goes all the way back to elementary school, when he was introduced to programs like Kodu Game Lab and Scratch before teaching himself JavaScript this past summer.
“The most valuable lesson I learned was to keep the end goal in mind,” says Calvin. “Though many problems and obstacles may delay or block production, the end product is worth the struggle.” Jagdeep also encourages aspiring designers to think carefully about their plan for production from the beginning. “Planning helps your game be more unified,” he explains. “It helps you to have a clear theme so that you do not waste time adding aspects to your game that do not make sense, and creates a clear timeline of everything that needs to be done.”
(above) Calvin Khiddee-Wu and Jagdeep Bhatia.
