Youn? !nnovators Malawi Competition

Are you a young Secondary or College student in Malawi? Are you interested in Computer programming? Here is your chance to learn easy computer programming, design your first ever video game and win a prize for your effort. Youn? !nnovators Malawi is running a competition for students which will officially start in September but registration is in progress. You just need to fill their online application form

The competition is based on an easy to use computer programming language called Scratch and the worlds smallest computer, Raspberry PI which will be provided by the organisers.

The Challenge

Using the Raspberry PI, develop a video game of any format. The game must run without crashing and must have clear rules, objectives. Ideally it should have increasing difficulty levels as the player proceeds.

Examples could include:

(a) 2-d 'platform' games - moving around the screen avoiding 'baddies' and winning rewards
(b) 3-d maze game - moving through a maze to find the way out
(c) text adventure - an interactive story where the player chooses which actions to take
(d) 'physics' based games (like angry birds or tetris)
(e) quiz-based games (like trivial pursuit)
(f) board game simulation (e.g. chess)
(g) multi-player (multi-pi) games encouraged
(h) linking Pis to e.g. mobile devices for gaming too.
(i) completely novel format! - this would steal the show!!


The rules

1. The competition is open to teams of between 2 and 5 students.
2. All students in a team must be studying in the same school/college and must be over 15 and under 23 years old on 1st September 2013.
3. Each team must be supported by a member of staff from their school/college.
4. Each team must fill in an application form which must be submitted by the school/college.
5. There is no limit to the number of teams entering from any school/college.
6. A student may only join one team.
7. A teacher may support any number of teams from their school/college.
8. youn? !nnovators Malawi will provide a development kit, including a Raspberry Pi computer, power supply, operating system and necessary cables
9. The team is required to provide its own keyboard, mouse and TV/computer screen to use the development kit.
10. All teams must be represented at the September Raspberry Jam event and must exhibit their work at the final exhibition in December in Lilongwe
11. youn? !nnovators Malawi will recruit and assign a professional to work with the team as a mentor.
12. The mentor will spend half a day each month helping the teams to progress their project
13. ach team must also submit a report detailing their final work
14. The judges will make their decision at the final exhibition and prizes will be announced and awarded.
15. The judges decision will be final.

The prizes

Prizes will be announced at the September Raspberry Jam event.

There will be three prizes awarded in two categories; schools and colleges

There will be great prizes for the top three teams, as chosen by the judges.

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