At #HackCarey, 35 high school students built games with their own touch

At the end of a long Saturday, Marlo Michel still had lots of energy.
The Coppin Academy student enjoys playing video games. And at #HackCarey, he got to make one for the first time.
“I’m pretty proud of it,” he said, flashing a smile.
Michel was one of 35 Baltimore city high school students who gathered at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School campus in the Legg Mason Tower for the event. It was the third edition.
With the instruction and help of mentors from Mindgrub, Capital One and the Carey School, the students learned the code to build a version of Flappy Bird.
As organizer Brad Waters put it, the philosophy behind the event is, “You only learn by doing.”
In building the game, the students learned HTML5 and Javascript. They also found that if you don’t know how to do something, it’s okay to Google it.
“This is a very important skill,” Dan Givol of Capital One told the students. “If you want to keep building games, you have to be able to find what you’re looking for,”
The students also live-tweeted their work:
https://twitter.com/CacheHarris_/status/807693688356880385
https://twitter.com/itsonlytaylor__/status/807683652918382592
The students were tasked with constructing the parameters and elements of a game where the “bird” has to fly between pipes. At the end, they were able to get creative with the design of the bird and background — Rhianna and Ray Lewis made appearances.
Kelis Young was looking to put in a star, with a galaxy, for the background. An ambitious project, perhaps, but the Western High School student can keep working toward it — all students have access to the games and tools even after the conclusion of the event.