Algorithmic Thinking Through Game Development

What you’ll do

Games are a great source of entertainment and motivation. This workshop enables you to learn rapid iterative software development by participating in a tournament — teams research and develop their own strategies and bring them to compete with others. The competitive aspect is what makes the workshop engaging and produces a real, satisfying outcome.

With modern AI coding tools, you’ll learn to accelerate iterative execution and explore deeper. The course is workshop-style: only 1–2 hours of material each day, taught with concepts interspersed with games and activities. You’ll get a quick primer on the tools and techniques, then apply them in teams using Agile methodology — rapid iterative development through sprints, culminating in a tournament that can be broadcast.

What you’ll make

A working game-playing strategy that you and your team develop, integrate with other teams’ systems, and bring to the final-day tournament. Plus the artefacts of Agile planning and execution: demonstrable outcomes at each milestone, and your collective agreement on tournament approach, integration methods, programming language, and constructs.

What you’ll learn

• Game-based thinking that maps back to algorithmic thinking, strategies, and profiling
• Iterating on outcomes using Agile methodology in groups — cooperation, teamwork, short sprints
• Test-driven development and integration testing in API-driven software development
• Software development using industry-leading open-source AI coding, including hosting open-source LLMs locally (a path to development freedom for students for whom AI tools are expensive)
• Translating an idea — using Design Thinking and product ideation frameworks — into a real, demonstrable working version of software

Your six days

Each sprint follows full Agile rituals: sprint planning, daily standup, sprint demo, sprint retrospective, knowledge sharing.

How you’ll be assessed

Participation in (and ideally winning) the tournament is the biggest incentive — the depth of your thinking and execution will show. Sprint demos give you the chance to show what you completed each sprint vs. what was planned, including the blockers you hit and how you overcame them. Testing and algorithmic profiling are also assessed.