From Playing to Building: Game Design with Roblox Studio, Minecraft Education and Unity
Many kids already spend hours playing games. Game design flips that time around: instead of following someone else's rules, they create their own. In the RunTheCode Game Design Lab, students move from playing to building.
Why game design teaches so much
A small game combines storytelling, art, level design, logic and testing. Students have to think about the player: is it too hard, too easy, is it clear what to do? That kind of empathy-driven design is a real-world skill.
Minecraft Education
Minecraft Education is a version of Minecraft built for learning, with coding tools that let students automate building and create interactive worlds. It's a comfortable starting point because most kids already know how the world works.
Roblox Studio
Roblox Studio is the free tool used to create Roblox experiences. Students design maps and write scripts in Luau to control game behavior, which makes it a strong bridge into typed programming.
Unity
Unity is a professional game engine used for many commercial games. It uses C# for scripting and suits older students ready for a more advanced challenge, including 3D scenes and physics.
Healthy screen time
Game design is screen time, but it's active and creative. Students plan on paper, build, test with peers and revise — a very different experience from passive play.
- Plan a game idea and rules
- Build levels and assets
- Script behavior
- Playtest and improve
Ready to start building?
After-school, homeschool and summer programs for ages 6–15 in Davenport, FL.
