The first inaugural GWJ youth gaming scholarship, COMPLETE!

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About a month ago, I told this community about my sister and her three boys. My sister is a single mom, and is an absolute superhero, raising three bright, healthy boys on a special ed teacher's salary. Her oldest son, Liam, just got accepted to the local gifted program, and is passionate about reading, chess, and video games. He's fascinated with gaming and is interested in learning to make games of his own.

IMAGE(http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k225/petrie55/205271_1014296457544_6219035_n1.jpg)

When the community found out about Owen, Liam, Aden, and Nico, and the fact that they didn't have a good PC for Liam and his brothers to learn and play on, they rose to the occasion magnificently. Some Goodjers rummaged through their piles of parts, finding pieces they could spare for an excellent rig. Others wanted to contribute, and donated money to a PayPal account, an account that passed $450 in total donations. Many more loved the idea of providing the boys inspiration, and I set up a Steam account for Liam. In a few short weeks, over $500 worth of games had been gifted to this family. Finally, our resident innkeeper Teneman contacted me and offered my sister and the boys an invaluable gift: a vacation. He's putting them up for a weekend in a cottage, so that these three boys will get to spend a weekend exploring a castle, hiking through caves, and playing games in an amazing setting.

I've been part of this community for nearly five years now, and I should be used to the generosity and enthusiasm that has become a hallmark of Gamers with Jobs. But it's quite different when people you love are on the receiving end of such goodwill. Below are the names of the extraordinary people who contributed to this cause. Each and every one of you has my thanks. In a few days, Liam and his brothers will find out just how amazing the kindness of strangers can be. I'm proud as hell to call myself a Goodjer.

- Edit -

Okay, so it's been suggested that I add two things: a list of needed components so we can check them off when they're donated, and a PayPal account if people want to donate money to the cause.

The PayPal account for this is under the email [email protected].

I've created a Google Map for contributors and well-wishers to tag their locations, along with their avatar and screen name. If you want to attach a little note, that's more than fine!

Case: APEXIA X-Plorer case purchased with PayPal donations (Delivered!)
Power Supply: ThermalTake 700W donated by SaintFaucet (Delivered!)
Processor: i5-750 donated by LilCodger (Delivered!)
Motherboard: Gigabyte P55A-UD3 donated by LilCodger (Delivered!)
Video Card: Radeon HD 5770 donated by Kazooka (Delivered!)
RAM: 8 GB purchased with PayPal donations (Delivered!)
Hard Drive: 500 GB donated by Eezy_Bordone (Delivered!)
Monitor: Asus VW2464H donated by PSKebben
Keyboard and Mouse: Vengeance K60 (Delivered!) and M90 (Delivered!) donated by TheWanderer
Gaming Mat: Razer Goliath Speed Edition donated by Groan (Delivered!)
Software: Windows 7, Microsoft Office and Visual Basic donated by Edwin
More software: GameMaker for Windows and book donated by DanB (Delivered!)

Liam now has a Steam account. His ID is liamdavis735 (linked here).

Sparhawk donated Civ V GOTY edition.
MeatMan donated Orcs Must Die GOTY edition.
FuzzyB donated Torchlight, Plants Vs. Zombies, and Oddworld: Abe's Exodus.
Fredrik_S donated Hoard, Terraria and Binding of Isaac.
Mimble donated Sims 3 plus the Showtime expansion.
Quintin_Stone donated Tropico 4 full bundle.
Momgamer donated Portal 2.
IHateDRM donated Bastion, Cthulhu Saves The World, and Breath of Death VII.
St Hillary donated Quantum Conundrum.
Plastefuchs donated the last Humble Indie Bundle.
TuffaloBuffalo donated KOTOR, Shogun 2, and Dear Esther.
Dejanzie donated Frozen Synapse, Secret of the Magic Crystals, and Bookworm Adventures.
ClockworkHouse donated Cave Story+.
Growat donated Vessel.
Shoptroll donated Defense Grid.
Garion donated Trine.
Grenn donated Super Meat Boy.
Shoptroll donated Jamestown and the Amanita Collection.
DanB donated Peggle.
RedWing donated Prince of Persia.
Kaybeen donated World of Goo.

The following people have chipped in on PayPal (I don't want to put actual names here, so if your screen name wasn't included with the donation, I've listed you as anonymous.)

M0nk3yboy
Growat
KilanAsh
Anonymous Hero 1
Anonymous Hero 2
Tigerbill
HedgeWizard
TuffaloBuffalo
Krev
Duoae
Dejanzie
Krazytaco
Anonymous Hero 3
Anonymous Hero 4
Anonymous Hero 5
MomGamer
Dejanzie

I sadly do not have any spare components that I can throw your way, but when he does have that PC someday, I would be more than happy to get him a game!

This post makes me happy (ok, I may have shed a tear or two reading it). You are an awesome uncle, and I am sure a great male role model for your nephew, and it is awesome that you want to do this for him.

Does your nephew have a Steam account? With the summer sale it is my understanding that you can get games super super cheap...maybe some people could gift him age appropriate games on Steam as well?

I think it's awesome you want to help Liam out so he can pursue his dreams - you're a good uncle.

I haven't got any spare parts I can send, but I would be happy to chip in with a donation for the PC, or a game of his choice - just let me know how/what/where!

I have a SATA 500GB drive you can have. I don't have any other spare components that are younger 8 years old, however I can send you 50$ to help for the cause.

EDIT: Just went looking for stuff in the garage:
1 Gainward GeForce 5700 128MB
2x 2GB 10600 RAM
1x 2GB 8500 RAM
4x 512MB 5300 RAM
2x 512MB 4200 RAM
2x 128MB PC133 RAM

If you want any of it PM your address and I'll send it out. I'm still looking for my USB->SATA connector to BCWipe the drive.

I'll cover all the software
.
Windows 7
Office Professional Plus 2010
Visual Studio 2010 since he wants to learn how to make games.

I have no working parts he can have, but would be more than willing to throw some $$$ or Steam games his way.

I have a PNY GeForce 8600 GT 512MB to donate, which should be able to run Civ V. Just PM me your address if you want it, and I'll take care of the shipping.

[edit]

Like others have said, if your nephew doesn't already have a Steam account, you should create one for him. Then the two of you could put some games on his wishlist, so that we can gift him those games.

It might be over his head, but one option would be to start a donation to purchase a membership to XNA to encourage him to make and submit games.

Thank you all! I really appreciate the support. Once I get a machine set up for him, I'm definitely going to start a Steam account for him.

I know nothing whatsoever about programming, so whatever tools we can provide for him that he can start to play with would be great.

mudbunny wrote:

I have no working parts he can have, but would be more than willing to throw some $$$ or Steam games his way.

This

Our house looks like a computer museum blew up; but I have no idea what's what and what would be useful; but I'm totally in for buying him some Steam games or chipping in for memberships at other game dev sites aimed at kids. Check out this thread at Metafilter for some ideas on those sites: http://ask.metafilter.com/216858/The...

Trichy, what time frame you are looking at? I have a first gen i5 (Clarkdale) and 8 gigs of RAM I'm not using; you would just need a mobo. The reason I ask about time is, it is in Ohio but, I'm in Texas I won't be back there until first week of August. Also I have a mid tower case and some case fans laying around.

I can help with Steam.

Let's get him setup with the Portal 2 education initiative as well. When I get to work tomorrow, I'll see if we have anything that I can scrounge up too.

Tigerbill wrote:

Trichy, what time frame you are looking at? I have a first gen i5 (Clarkdale) and 8 gigs of RAM I'm not using; you would just need a mobo. The reason I ask about time is, it is in Ohio but, I'm in Texas I won't be back there until first week of August. Also I have a mid tower case and some case fans laying around.

That would be awesome, and there's not really a time frame. I would like to get him set up by the end of August, so anything before then is ideal.

For those who wish to donate money to the cause, would a Paypal account be the best route for that?

Before you think my offer is great, you might want to price mobo's for the Clarkdale or see if someone around here has one.

I got some Dell 1850 servers you/he can have

PAR

Might a copy of the O'Reilly Getting started with Dwarf Fortress be appreciated?
I can't think of a better way to learn about interlocking systems of design and the power of a driven individual in game design.

PayPal would be great. That way, we can not only chip for the memberships, etc, but those that are donating components, maybe we can cover the cost of shipping those parts?

Maybe start a master list in the OP, stating part, and shipping cost. That way we'll see the holes that need plugging, or a component that can be bested, and also assign 'shipping buddies' to those items for the PayPal donation.

Jeez. Everything I have laying PC-wise around is old crap waiting to be donated to FreeGeek Chicago whenever I manage to lug it all over there. And I have no money I can spare at the moment. : \

But Trichy, what you're doing here is wonderful, and all you fine people helping out kick ass. Keep up the good work, all of you.

trichy wrote:

Thank you all! I really appreciate the support. Once I get a machine set up for him, I'm definitely going to start a Steam account for him.

I know nothing whatsoever about programming, so whatever tools we can provide for him that he can start to play with would be great.

Got no components whatsoever, but once that Steam account is active, provide us with a list of wanted games.
Am happy to donate something there.

I've got nothing useful parts-wise, but +1 to getting that steam account up.

(And once he's set up, let us know. There are quite a few people around here that can help him get started.)

Got a spare video card lying around:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...

I honestly don't know if it's still any good, but it's only a little over a year old.

Also have an aftermarket CPU cooler that I just replaced. Still works pretty well, but I wanted to get in on the liquid cooled wagon.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...

trichy wrote:

Thank you all! I really appreciate the support. Once I get a machine set up for him, I'm definitely going to start a Steam account for him.

I know nothing whatsoever about programming, so whatever tools we can provide for him that he can start to play with would be great.

Also, just between you, me and the rest of the Internet, this is my old computer science professor's website for C++:

Those word documents are as good of a textbook on C++ as you're likely to find as far as plain english goes. Though C++ might be a bit much for a 12 year old. Maybe after he's mastered Visual Basic or RPG Maker or something.

And if he's interested in 3D modeling:

http://www.andrewklein.net/ai.php

Andrew is one of my better instructors and I'm sure he'd be happy to pass that on.

Love to see these posts when they happen - so glad to hear about kindness like this

I would recommend, as an intro for programming (may help to see if that's something he wants to do or not), kidsruby.com. This should be up his alley, and is something simple to setup and works on any OS.

Unity3d works in Javascript as well, which is pretty easy to pick up. There's a lot of cool stuff around, and finding something that clicks with you helps enormously. (I tried learning C++ first, and it was a nonstarter, but I was able to get into Python, and with that as introduction was able to pick up other languages, for instance.)

Do you know what part of game design he wants to get into? Programming? Gameplay mechanics? Audio? Graphics? Networking? Other?

Get him going on Khan Academy. Even though I linked to the CS stuff, make sure he gets plenty of time in on the math parts too. MIT also has a lot of their courses for free but I don't know if these would be appropriate for a 12 year old.

+1 on setting up a Paypal account. I'm a bit too far away to ship components, but would like to contribute.

Same here with the shipping components from Europe. Definitely happy to contribute to a Steam library though.

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