Students from SPGE “John Atanasov” created their first video game

We continue our series of interviews, in which we introduce you to the school club “Video Game development”. We present you Engr. Veselina Marinova, who is the tutor of the club in 10th grade in SPGE “John Atanasov” in Sofia. Her students are successfully taking their first steps in game development, and below you can see some of their completed projects.
Introduce yourself in a few sentences – how long have you worked as a teacher, what class do you teach, in which school. Share some of your achievements (awards, qualifications, etc.) that you are proud of.

Hello, I am Engr. Veselina Marinova. I have a master’s degree from the Technical University in Sofia, majoring in “Electronic technology and microelectronics”, as well as I have another master’s degree from VTU “St. St. Kiril I Metodi” in Veliko Tarnovo, with a major in “Informatics – Computer Multimedia”. I have worked as a teacher for more than 25 years and I have 4 PKS. I teach mainly classes related to programming. I work at SPGE “John Atanasov” in Sofia.
Along with my students, we have taken part in different competitions and forums, and one of the last achievements I am proud of is that we won first place in the National Programming Competition for professional high schools in 2020.
Why did you decide to become a tutor in the interested club?
The idea came up spontaneously after my students and I visited ARC Academy during the Open Doors days last year and we met all the lecturers and students of the Academy. The students were so impressed and curious to try out something in the game industry. That is how we decided to start the club, and when the Academy started the project with the high schools, we were convinced that we wanted to participate. I decided to take part in the initiative during the summer webinars of the Academy, so I can gain some experience and knowledge about the techniques and the technology they use.
What are your impressions of the club activities at the moment? What do students think of the club, how are they doing, do you have any difficulties?
“Up to now our club is doing great and students are very enthusiastic to give life to their ideas in the sphere of video games. The students find the guest lectures of the Academy are very engaging and inspirational. They assimilate the topics easily and as their teacher, I decided to broaden their knowledge with school materials for using/creating and editing graphics and programming. We checked out GIMP, Blender, and Unity. We used free resources from the web to dive into the world or our characters and 3D reality. That is how our great projects on different topics were born.”
Tell us more about the projects that you and your students managed to do thanks to the club. How did you come up with the ideas, what programs did you use to turn them into a reality?
We started with Unity, and because they are young and ambitious programmers as well as those who want to create games, write code, we decided to make 2D games. That was how some of the best games such as Angry Birds (Dimitar Dukov and Martin Mihailov), Flappy Bird (Dimitar Dukov), Flaying box (Viktor Vladanov), and Autumn Bird (Martin Uzunov) were created.
Check out the playlist for videos from the games:
Потапяйки се в света на Unity, се запознахме с реализиране на 3D терени и всеки създаде своята представа за 3D реалност. Така сред всички се отличи проектът на Петър Митов.



Преди Коледните празници създавахме анимации на различни изображения и така предпразнично Мартин Узунов ни изненада с пресъздаване на Коледната версия Winter Blade. Всички ученици от клуба обичат да експериментират и да създават нещо ново от наученият материал, а аз като техен учител им дадох посока, идеи, теми, учебни материали, върху които да творят.
А Мартин Узунов се включи и в предложения курс по програмиране на С# в ARC Academy, от който е много доволен. Така, благодарение на това обучение, разшири своите познания по програмиране и успешно ги прилага в създаваните игри.
Мартин Узунов : „Винаги съм искал да направя игра. Клубът по разработка на видео игри ти представя целия процес за направата на една игра. По време на клуба г-жа Маринова ни дава и допълнителни материали, които ми помогнаха да направя играта Winter Blade и ранната ѝ версия Autumn Blade. Сега разработвам и по нова версия – Spring Blade. Идеята дойде от моите съученици, които предлагаха идеи за развитието на играта.“
Сред учениците имаме и млад художник – Явор Джапанов, който рисува скици на своите идеи.



Какво бихте казали на учители, които се чудят дали да се включат в клуб по интереси „Разработка на игри“ догодина?
Колеги, аз горещо ви препоръчвам да се включите в клуб по интереси „ Разработка на игри“ през следващата година, защото учениците имат огромен талант, който чака да бъде разкрит и насочен от учителя. ARC Academy ни потопи в един прекрасен свят на игрите и нашите ученици са очаровани от лекторите им и новите знания, които усвояват.
Ако искате да научите повече за това как се създават видеоигри, запишете се за нашия онлайн курс “Как се става Game Developer?”, който започва на 8 февруари. Повече за него научете тук!