Last Friday, June 20th, and Monday, June 23rd, our team had the pleasure of leading two exciting workshops as part of the CTYI Game Development and the CAT Computer Science classes, hosted at Dublin City University.

Our team members, Ben, Sara and Augustina, held workshops focused on game development in Python using our platform, Pytch. These workshops introduced around 40 of Ireland’s most talented young coders to the world of Python programming, building on their existing experience with Scratch and Unity.

Students began by following guided tutorials to create two classic Pytch games: Catch The Apple and Blue Invaders. From there, their creativity took flight. With impressive speed and ingenuity, many went on to adapt and enhance these games or even develop entirely original games from scratch in Pytch.

Some standout projects from these sessions were:

• 🃟 Blackjack by a CAT Student – an interactive card game, including dealing randomisation and great visuals. Future development plans included win and lose conditions.
• 🎸 Rhythm by a CAT Student – a rhythm-based game inspired by Guitar Hero with custom animations. Future development plans included music sync.
• ⚽ 2D Football by a CAT Student – a single-player football game featuring keyboard controls, shooting and dribbling logic. Future development plans included scorekeeping, and time limitations.
• 🛸 Aliens by a CTYI Student – a fun remix of Blue Invaders with added illustrations, and enemy types. This game starts after a 4 sec countdown!
• 🐈 Chaos Cats by a CTYI Student– an adorable version of Blue Invaders with impressive cat and park illustrations; the player needs to catch cats falling from a tree.

Check out the games below!

Blackjack

Press space to deal cards.

Rhythm

Click D F J K to hit the beat.

Football

Move using WASD, score goals with the spacebar.

Aliens

Shoot the aliens with E, move using W S.

Chaos Cats

Catch the cats using AD.

It was incredibly rewarding to see the students bring their ideas to life so confidently, and to see how Pytch can not only be used as a tool to learn coding, but for creativity and fun.

Huge thanks to CTYI, CAT, and DCU for hosting us and to all the students for their passion, inspiring work, and great feedback that helps us improve Pytch. We can’t wait to see what you build next!