GILFORD — By the end of this trimester, 18 students at Gilford High School will have completed the Video Game Development class, where they are learning to program and design a working game. While most games will be fairly simple, or unfinished, students will have learned what it takes to make a game from scratch.

The class was available for a few years before it stopped being offered in 2019 due to personnel changes. But when Aaron Witham came to high school full-time in the 2022 school year, he was asked to bring it back. Before coming to GHS, Witham taught at Gilford Middle School for 19 years.

Witham attended Rochester Institute of Technology and studied industrial design, then Plymouth State for a master’s degree in education. During his time at GMS, Witham also taught part-time in the high school, instructing students in photography and graphic design. Now, in addition to both of those, he teaches video game design, webpage design and digital connections.

The class uses a free game engine called GameMaker Studio to design the games. Witham had no formal experience in video game design when he was asked to teach the class, so he decided to teach himself with the tutorials available in the program.

“I had to learn a lot myself. I’ve gone through a lot of these tutorials, and I’ve learned through the program. The design skills that I’ve used for all my different things over the years kind of applied directly to it. But then I added in the coding aspect.”

Witham likes to play video games, and his interest helped him in his approach and understanding of how to teach the class. Witham believes this love for video games that he shares with his students is what drives their passion and creativity in this class. Senior Noah Bolduc, 18, said he got a taste of what it really takes to make a game.

“I kind of took the things in games for granted, like the levels, just the programming aspect alone. I thought making games would be a lot faster than what I now think it is,” he said. “I see the artistry that goes into them now. I see the work and effort that it takes to make them and maybe that would dissuade others, but that just makes me want to make games more.”

This isn’t Noah’s first time taking the class. He took it last trimester, when he started the game he’s working on now. In Noah’s game, the player goes around as a tank, destroying monsters that are attacking the tank. The player must navigate the environment, finding a key to unlock the next level, all while collecting coins, which a player can use to purchase upgrades to make the tank stronger. While the concept and design are fairly simple, this game has taken months to get to the point it’s at now, and is still unfinished. This everlasting development of the game sparks Noah with more ideas as he goes. He is starting to add his own music to the game as well.

“I don’t think there’s any other medium that has that collapsing of all those different elements and that’s why I like video games so much,” he said. “There are just so many different aspects of art and creation that all come together to make something that other people can interact with.”

During his second time taking the class, Noah’s game and his understanding of game design is at a higher level than most other students in the class. Because of this, Noah goes around helping other students. He has become Witham’s unofficial technical support for the class. Noah is hoping to continue his learning in video game development in college.

Unlike Noah who has a keen interest in video games as a whole, some students enjoy one particular aspect of the game-making process. Senior Quincy Sullivan, 18, is fascinated by the coding aspect of games. At the current moment, there is no coding class at the high school, and Quincy took Video Game Development to continue learning after taking a coding class at a different high school before moving to Gilford. Quincy enjoys this video game class as it has allowed him to try new things in coding. He is also a little more advanced than other students, so he provides whatever support he can in that regard.

“This school is small enough that there isn’t an intro to programming class. The problem with coding is it has to be perfect down to the character. Like, if you have one letter wrong, it will totally mess up the entire thing,” he said. “It helps to just understand good habits of coding, so now I’m able to teach a lot of the people in this class the good habits of coding.”

Quincy will be attending University of Central Florida to study computer science, with a concentration in video game design.

Junior Caz Waterfield, 17, is the opposite of Quincy in that a lot of her previous experience comes from artistic design. Caz’s game is a silly maze featuring a boy who is trying to get a girlfriend after being shut inside his home for a long time. He comes out and finds that all girls are evil. The boy then must defeat the girl as she starts to shoot lipstick at him in a final-boss style battle.

During a visit to the class, it became evident that no two students were making the exact same game. Every student was creating a unique and creative product. Witham believes this is the best part about video games. It becomes a medium that allows the students to be learn useful skills like coding and graphic design, while fulfilling their own creative needs.

“All the kids’ games are different. And so for me that’s exciting because then I can go in and support their ideas through questioning and suggestions. We can try to elevate their product and creativity.”

Ultimately, Witham wants to see his students succeed. GameMaker Studio has allowed students to learn the basics of game design, then use their newfound skills to continue their learning past that. But famous games like Undertale, Hotline Miami and Nuclear Throne were made on GameMaker Studio as well. He believes this is a testament to his students’ opportunity to make incredible games, and to find success in video game design.

“These are all different games that have been designed in this exact program that we’re using,” he said, pointing to games on the program’s showcase tab. “You can use the same program and create something completely different. I always hope that maybe someday one of my students will have a game on here. ... They love video games so much, and they play them all the time. To actually create something of your own in that genre, it just makes them feel, you know, creative and successful.”

These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.