IN JAMAICA (CONGRATS): 10 y-o Jo-Nathan Smith and 11 y-o Daniel Campbell of Allman Town Primary boys design video game

BY ALDANE WALTERS Observer writer editorial@jamaicaobserver.com  Sunday, June 07, 2015    

BOYS, in general, love video games, and left to their own devices, will sit and play them for hours upon hours. But while most boys merely play these games, Jo-Nathan Smith and Daniel Campbell have taken it a step further; they've designed their own.

Grade Five students at Allman Town Primary in Kingston,
 Jo-Nathan Smith (left) and Daniel Campbell, display the
medals they won for topping the Visual Arts category of
 the LASCO Releaf Environment Awareness Programme
 on Wednesday. The boys entered a video game they
designed called Apple Eaters. (PHOTO: KARL MCLARTY)

The ten and eleven year olds, respectively, are grade five students at Allman Town Primary School in Kingston. On Wednesday, they copped the top prize in the Visual Arts category of the Lasco Releaf Environment Awareness Programme (REAP) for their video game, Apple Eaters. The game, developed on the Microsoft Kodu platform, sees the player competing against flying disks to eat the most apples, while avoiding flame-like obstacles.

In presenting it to guests at the award ceremony at the Jamaica Pegasus on Wednesday, the boys explained that the game represented the inside of the human body, and the 'obstacles' were represented bad bacteria in the body. The idead, they said, was based on the fact that LASCO promotes healthy eating.

"It's like you're moving through your own body," Jo-Nathan explained.

In an interview with the Jamaica Observer at their school on Thursday, the boys expressed how happy they, their families and their friends were about the win.

Jo-Nathan (left) and Daniel interact with their tech coach
Kacey Crooks

"I can't describe the feeling," said an excited Daniel, expressing how proud his mother is and talking about her never-ending hugs when he told her about it.

He said that it was Jo-Nathan, the younger of the two who introduced him and his other classmates to the world of video game designing.

"He just said, 'hey guys, let's try this,' and we said; 'sure why not' Everybody loves video games," Daniel said.

Principal of the school Khandi-lee Crooks-Smith said the project started with four boys, from grade four with the initial intention of getting students to understand the application of mathematics. They are now in grade five. more