Penguin Girl

programming competition

October 21, 2005 - י"ט תשרי תשס"ו • Category: misc • Tags: tech

Sorry boys, you are not invited. (and I’m not sure it really counts as a “real” programming competition by my book)

Win $1000 in Games for Girls Programming Competition
ChicTech, an outreach program of the University of Illinois’ Department of Computer Science, extends an open invitation for college women to participate in the second annual Games for Girls Programming Competition (G4G). Applications must be submitted by December 23, 2005 and completed projects are due by March 13, 2006.
G4G was conceived in response to research indicating that boys enjoy a relatively greater degree of confidence with computers because they spend more time as children playing computer games. The research suggests that this difference in confidence contributes to the gender imbalance seen in the field of Computer Science.
Designed to encourage the development of computer games that appeal to middle- and high-school aged girls while fostering the development of communities of college women majoring in computer-related disciplines, G4G is a contest that invites teams of college women to design and implement a computer game for younger girls.
The competition is sponsored by Microsoft Corporation. G4G will award each member of the winning team $1000. Other prizes will be presented to second and third place teams.
The winning entry will be a collaborative effort involving approximately four college women. It will be created using GameMaker, a game design platform that supplies design flexibility and requires minimal programming. Projects will be evaluated on technical merit, entertainment value, and creativity.
The competition is open to all college women currently residing in the United States. Each student team must submit an on-line application by December 23, 2004. Visit the web site to complete an application:
http://g4g.cs.uiuc.edu

Ok, I do have one big issues with this: GameMaker? Come on people. That’s just watering it down.. It disgusts me. Either you can program or you can’t.. don’t water it down to make it “easier so they’ll like it”. I could see GameMaker for a high school competition, but not for college. No wonder Americans, especially women are not succeeding in engineering and the sciences.