Project IT Girl
Project IT Girl Program
Project IT Girl is a Girlstart after-school program in Austin, Texas. The program consists of 45 high school girls (16 - 17 years old) who are learning how to use technology to make a difference in the world. The focus of the program in the 2007 - 2008 school year is educational games for One Laptop Per Child. During the Fall 2007 semester, IT Girls learned basic programming concepts, Python, and Pygame. Over 90% of the girls had no programming experience before this semester. Throughout the semester, the girls worked on a game based on litter prevention to practice using Python and Pygame (download the sample code). Each girl also designed a unique educational game (see the current game designs).
During the Spring 2008 semester, IT Girls are implementing their game designs using Python, Pygame, and the Game_templates. At the end of the semester, the games will be made available to the OLPC community.
Watch their progress!
- Main project page: http://www.girlstart.org/itgirl/year-two.html
- Wiki for game designs and project management: http://itgirl.wikispot.org/
- SVN repository of games, templates, and code recipes: http://itgirl.dreamhosters.com/itgirlgames/
Art Needs
The IT Girls have 30 games in development that are in need of graphic art. They have been frustrated by the lack of attractive, professional art that is released under an open license.
Volunteer your time and skills
If you are interested in helping out, please let us know you intend to contribute art to our project: Either add your name to the table below, or email clare@girlstart.org to have yourself added.
When you are ready to contribute your art, follow the instructions on the Wikimedia_upload_tutorial to create a gallery on the Wikimedia Commons and to upload your images. Add a link to your Wikimedia Commons gallery in the table below, or email the link to clare@girlstart.org.
Don't have artistic skills? Your searching abilities may be better than the IT Girls. Try finding free art under an open license for the needs below.
All art must be submitted to the project by March 31.
General Needs
In general, the girls are in need of character images (boys, girls, men, women), buttons, and speech bubbles.
Specific Needs
Each game also has specific needs related to the game concept and subject matter:
| Girl | Artists Involved | Character Needs | Object Needs | Background Needs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AlexC | Girl in workout clothes, boy in workout clothes, various men and women | Gym equipment (bench press, weights, pool), variety of foods and drinks, weight scale, plate, table | Living room, cafeteria, gym, judges’ room | |
| AlexiR | Cars in different colors, wheatgrass, carrot, sugar cane, corn, gas station, biofuel station | Cities and rural areas (all along a highway) | ||
| AlyssaW | Natural sceneries, including trees, ponds, etc. | |||
| AveryB and MeganS | Cadaver (preferably both male and female images), individual organ images: heart, lungs, brain, liver, kidney | |||
| CarolineS | Tammy | Different types of whales in different positions for moving | Boat | Ocean |
| CeciliaP | Boy in school clothes, boy in graduation robe, security guard | Spray paint can | Plain concrete wall (for the back of a school) | |
| DevanG | Boys and girls in various clothing | Paper, aluminum, plastic bottle, soda bottle, recycling bin, florescent light bulbs, regular light bulbs. | Landfill, bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, living room, backyard | |
| ElizabethA and MariselaR | Baseball player | Scoreboard | Baseball field | |
| FrancesD | "bad guy" | Hospital building | ||
| GiselleF | Sad puppy, happy puppy, apple, cloud | Outdoors in a park with one large tree | ||
| GretchenP | Teacher, grocery store cashier, clothing store cashier | Loaf of Bread, Gallon of Milk, vegetables, Carton of Juice, Apple, Orange, Banana, Meat, Book, Desk, Blackboard, Pencil, Pen, Backpack, Notebook, Shirt, Pants, Shoes, Jacket, Couch, Table, Bed, Chair | A house, a school, a clothing store, and a grocery store on a road. Inside of the house, inside of the clothing store, inside of the school, inside of the grocery store | |
| HannahL | Sink, cavities, soap, shampoo, coke bottle, symbol for strong bones (after drinking milk) | |||
| JessicaD | Frowns, smiles, rainbows, stormy clouds | |||
| JinAC | Classroom | |||
| JordanA | United States map with state outlines and dots for state capitals | |||
| KatyM | Dog, Boy, Goldfish, Cat, Parrot, Squirrel (all characters should have multiple images to simulate movement: mouth open, mouth closed, etc) | |||
| KatieL | Tammy | dog, cat, whale, car, school bus | ||
| KaylaR | Patient, paramedic | Ambulance | Town with a road and a hospital, inside an ambulance | |
| KelleyS | Musical Notation Objects: staff, bass clef, treble clef, whole note, half note, quarter note, eighth note, eighth rest, quarter rest, half rest, whole rest (all plain black); Other objects: music box, music box motor, music box lock | Music box factory, inside of musix box, music motor assembly room, box assembly room, storeroom, employee lounge, loading dock with a truck with back doors open | ||
| KortniL and SaraS | Boy detective, girl detective | Mansion | ||
| LeanaG | bee, monkey, frog, cat, rabbit, penguin, backpack, apple, stick, pole, tree | Jungle with a river | ||
| LindseyC | Alarm clock, radio, opening doors, purse, food items, clothes | |||
| MegumiT | Pre-teen girl standing with a "happy face", "sad face", "thinking face/pose" , "talking face"; standing business man with a "worried face", "talking face"; standing factory worker man | Inside of factory, office | ||
| PatriciaH | General science lab and experiment equipment | Alien worlds | ||
| SanjoliS | World map | |||
| SaraDS | Young farm girl and boy, elderly man | Trees, trash/paper, corn and stalks of corn | ||
| SohiniB | Enzymes, bacteria | Different body systems (cardiovascular, digestive, muscular, etc) | ||
| TandraH and VanessaW | Chocolate mousse, Brownies, Cupcakes, Blueberry Muffins, Cake, Cookies, Doughnuts, Cheese Cake, Crème Brulee, Pies, Souffle, Ice-cream Cake | |||
| ValerieC and BrittanyM | Grocery store cashier, librarian, teacher | Fruit, vegetables, desks, books | Town with grocery store, library, and school; insides of grocery store, Library, and School | |
| ZoeG and VictoriaV | Tammy | Boy wizard, girl wizard, princess, prince | Vegetables | Outside of castle, castle hall, castle kitchen, castle bedroom |
Art Guidelines
Style:
- The girls are looking for 2D, cartoon-like images (not too realistic).
Image Size:
- Background images: minimum: 800x600 pixels, maximum: 1024x768 pixels
- Object and character images: minimum 300 pixels on one side
File format:
- The following formats are acceptable by the One Laptop per Child program and Wikimedia Commons: JPEG, PNG, SVG, and GIF (for animations only).
Licensing:
- Work must be released under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License: http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/. This is easily done by storing your work on the Wikimedia Commons (see submission instructions under Project_IT_Girl#Volunteer_your_time_and_skills).