All things are first apprehended in the senses.
- Maria Montessori

Game Maker Academy began in the mid-2000s as series of workshops developed to nurture STEM thinking, foundational programming concepts and digital literacy skills within a computer game design context. The initial workshops were hosted at the Wilmette (IL) Public Library and the Park Ridge Public Library.

These programs were organized as informal, learner-centered workshops within the constructionist tradition, and were inspired in part by the example of seminal hacker spaces such as the People's Computer Center, the Homebrew Computer Club, and by the Computer Clubhouse Network established by The Computer Museum (now part of the Museum of Science, Boston) and the MIT Media Lab. The earliest programs focused upon the Game Maker platform created by Mark Overmars of Utrecht University. Additional programs were soon offered, using platforms such as Scratch, Alice, Robocode, Greenfoot, Starlogo, and a variety of open source media editing tools. Soon, workshops were being offered at youth centers and libraries through north Chicago and its suburbs.

The Origins of the Game Design Club

Seeking to sustain the creative atmosphere and hacker spirit of our earliest workshops and open labs, a group of participants proposed the creation of an informal club that would take responsibility for organizing and hosting monthly meetings, as well as additional workshops, competitions and design jams. Entirely self-funded, the group established the Game Maker Academy website, and commenced hosting a cycle of retro gaming tournaments and design workshops focusing alternatively on game design, animation, and digital storytelling, as well as the ever-popular Robocode melee tournaments.

The club's monthly meetings were initially held at the Wilmette (Ill) Public Library, then moved to the Warming House Youth Center in Wilmette, and eventually settled at the Intel Computer Clubhouse on Morse Avenue in Chicago. As of June 2011, the Game Design Club is an affiliate of the Young Makers program (www.youngmakers.org). Today, Game Design Club members continue to embody the hacker spirit by offering workshops and drop-in lab sessions, hosting Robocode and retro gaming tournaments, and organizing design competitions at locations throughout Chicago's north shore.

Watch Steven Levy interviewed about his book Hackers:

Play an emulation of Spacewar!