Catalyst Games - Game Development Workshop

Students aged 12-17 are invited to join us this term break for a very special Game Development Workshop with the team from Catalyst Games, Bob’s Adventure!

Bob’s Adventure is a 2-day bootcamp style workshop that teaches participants how to use the Unity3D engine and the 3D modelling tool Blender. Participants are taught the fundamentals of game development including Programming, Art and Design. Help guide “Bob the Blob” through 3 environments complete with their own problem-solving challenges tailored to a guided learning experience that allows participants to use their creativity and deep dive into their interests whether it’s art, level design, programming or UI/UX.

📆 Tuesday 22 & Wednesday 23 April 2025 (must attend both days)
⏱️ Arrive by 9:45am each day for a 10:00am start. 2:45pm finish both days.
📍Purruna Learning Studios
🥪 Students must provide their own lunch and snacks
💻 Students must bring their laptop (if you do not own a laptop, a limited number of loan devices will be available)
🎟️ $120 per student

This workshop is strictly limited to 20 places.

Catalyst Games is an independent games studio focused on challenging the status quo and breaking down barriers to industry, creating small cozy game titles, facilitating game development workshops and making educational content for online platforms.

The workshop is broken down into 2-hour segments across the 2 days with a lunch break in the middle of each day. It is expected that the first level and most of the 2nd level is completed on the first day, giving the participants more time to work on their own levels on the second day with a brief refresher and the skills they’ve just learnt. Participants will receive a copy of their game onto a USB at the end of the two-day workshop, a certificate of participation, and a pdf of images they can take home, print out and use as stickers or badges.

Workshop Details:

Level 1 - The Foam Pit: Participants learn the basics of navigating Unity including how to visualise and understand the X,Y and Z directions in 3D space. They also learn how to open and access the movement script for the player controller. Once these problems are solved, participants are encouraged to create their own bridge to move their character across the foam pit and collect as many coins as they can.

Level 2 - Blob Town: After the participants have learnt the fundamentals of moving their character around a scene and the basics of Unity and programming, the facilitators will direct them to move through to the 2nd level: Blob town. In this area, participants are encouraged to interact with the different NPCs which will explain that in order to open the portal to progress they will need to get into the “cool hat club”. A facilitator will then direct the participants over to blender to teach them how to model a hat for their character. Using the template provided and their creativity, participants are encouraged to create their own hat however they like and are then taught how to export, import and attach the hat to the player character to unlock the next area.

Level 3 – Playground: The final segment of the workshop is a free play area that lets the participants use the skills they’ve just learnt to create their own video game level. Incorporating level design, art and programming skills they are encouraged to express their creativity however they want, share their ideas with other participants and test each others' game levels. This is the level that is compiled and exported into a .exe file that is added to their USB they can then take home with them.

Further enquiries: contact Dr Nick Jackson via njackson@scotch.sa.edu.au