‘They got really competitive’: Realms HS students compete in Shark Tank-style fashion with their video game designs

(Update: adding video, comments from students)

Bend, ORE. (KTVZ) -- Students at Realms High School have been working on creating their own video game concepts in their math and English classes. On Thursday, they faced quite the test: presenting their concepts to video game developers with Bend Studio, in 'Shark Tank' style.

"We started with 12 groups. And then we are presented to the class, and they voted who should go on to the 'Shark Tank.'" said Greta Morgan, a Realms student competing in the competition.

In math, they've been learning how to code video games with the software Scratch.

Realms student Chad Marlinghaus said, "Coding was probably like the hardest part, just 'cause it was all of our first times using Scratch. So just learning how to do all that, like making the health bar was complicated."

Math teacher Lauren McAllister says there were around 45 students doing the video game project.

"Students were able to relate those concepts of coding to the concepts we learned in math, such as functions and inputs and outputs, as well as systems of equations and domain and range, and just relating the screen of a video game to a graph, an X by plane." McAllister said.

In English class, students would come together in a group to develop the narratives of their games.

"They're working through the hero's journey in that class, and developed a storyline and characters and a story arc from that." McAllister said.

Students came up with a variety of different storylines, including space exploration and horror.

Student Chad Marlinghaus and his team decided to do a space exploration game for his project.

Marlinghaus explained the plot: "You get stuck on a planet that have to fight aliens and bosses to survive and make it back to Earth."

McAllister said, "They had a lot of freedom with it, and just kind of ran with it. They've been really great. Some really awesome work we've seen."

The winners of the Shark Tank-style competition will get to tour Bend Studio and go to lunch with the game developers.

"Having Bend Studio really helped them," McAllister said. "They got really competitive at the end, trying to make sure their presentations were really good so that they can make it to the Shark Tank."