Nebula Noodles: A Game Theory / Creation Workshop Sponsored by the Space Center
Nebula Noodles: Stirring Up Stellar Game Ideas is a Space Center StageWorks initiative to create a set of minigames steeped in Space Center lore that the Space Center will be hosting on a website by Summer 2025. The first workshop was held yesterday, October 26. It ran from 10am to 12:30pm. Program skill wasn't needed, nor any other set of skills except for an interest in game design or writing stories or music or improving coding or artistic abilities. In yesterday's workshop, Dave Stevens and his son Damon covering basic game design concepts, and let the participants team up and work together to come up with Space Center related minigame concepts
In the past year the Space Center has been teaching Unity and Blender workshops. The overall goal is to help Voyager club members gain job-related skills and experience, which will help the Space Center by improve its programs. Over the summer Dave and Damon held a Unity Summer Camp, which showed that with good training, youth with no experience could create great things. The camps are all project based, which means you are learning and immediately applying skills, an essential way to ensure those skills stick and that you can use them outside of workshops. Dave Stevens has been the driving force behind these programs. He is an employee of Meta and a dedicated Space Center volunteer. Dave worked on the Xbox team for nearly 10 years, helped ship the avatars used on Xbox, worked on Minecraft, and currently works at Meta in their VR organization. He has been developing indie games on the side for decades, and loves teaching young people about technology and content creation. What's up next for Project Nebula? Yesterday's workshop projects will be built out throughout the rest of the school year, with the aim to release them by Summer 2025. In December the Space Center will have a workshop focused on coding, and will have later workshops built around giving/receiving feedback and presentation for the projects. The Space Center will also participate in the January Global Game Jam for a second year running. The Classic Space Center Mission "The Children of Perikoi" Has a Sequel
" I do my Space Center outreach work on Saturdays. I set up shop in the staff room. I like it there. The Staff Room is where the volunteers come and go as they stow their personal belongings in the lockers, eat their meals, and access the costume closet. It gives me a chance to talk to them, answer questions, and keep up on Space Center gossip. It's as close as I can get to where my desk was located when I directed the Space Center. My desk from 1990 - 2012 sat in the Briefing Room with the Voyager to my right, the Odyssey directly in front of me, and the Phoenix to my left. The staff walked by my desk multiple times during every mission and camp.
Anyway........ while working I learned that the Falcon was running a test mission of the new Space Center field trip mission titled "Exiled from Perikoi". 
The mission is a continuation of the original Children of Perikoi mission told at the Space Center for many many years both for field trips and private missions in all the simulators. Space Center Director James Porter was the flight director assisted by Rylan Hansen at 2nd chair. The crew was made up of Voyager Club volunteers.
"They're using proper calming techniques!" James Porter said when I stopped in the Falcon Control Room to see how the mission was going. "The Perikoi are being evacuated from the planet and they're panicking. Nolan (a member of the crew and Mr. Porter's son) suggested the Starfleet officers, who are trying to move the people into the rescue ships, ask the Perikoi about their favorite games. That is an effective calming technique," Mr. Porter explained. "One mission objective achieved!"
I'm excited to see this mission for myself. The story of the Perikoi lives on. Will there be a third installment? Why not; it just needs to be written. Imaginarium Theater.
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AuthorMy name is Victor Williamson. I founded the Christa McAuliffe Space Center in 1990. I current teach 6th grade at Renaissance Academy and am the Space Center Outreach Coordinator (I take care of the volunteers). You can reach me by email: [email protected] Archives
October 2024
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